83 
aimost all clear profit, as I reckon that the costs of 
sorting and bagging and of freight to Calcutta are 
covered in large part by the profit made on the thou- 
sands of undersized shells confiscated from the divers 
without payment which it has been the custom to 
give to the buyer at the nominal rate of Rs. 6 per 1,000. 
It is probable that the best of these were always sorted 
out and added to the assortment sold at full prices in the 
wholesale market at Calcutta. We may certainly take 
the enhancement of price of Tuticorin shells upen the 
first wholesale change of hands at not less than 4o per 
cent. ; it is probable that a similar percentage of profit 
is made by the first ring of middlemen upon the sale of 
shells from other localities. 
The second buyers may be firms actually engaged in 
shell cutting ; more frequently they are a second series 
of middlemen. If the latter the shells may either be 
sold to cutters working in a small way, or the middle- 
men may slice the shells into sections of recognized 
gauge breadth and dispose of these either through 
agents or through a third series of middlemen to the 
bangle makers in country villages where the men have 
not the skill to saw the sheil into sections although they 
are experts in carving, graving and polishing the rough 
circles supplied to them. This second series of middle- 
men have been buying Tuticorin shells during the past 
few years at about Rs. 14 per 100; they pay Re. 1 to 
Re. 1-8-o per 100 rings for the work of slicing the shell 
into sections, and the sections so cut are sold to country 
bracelet makers at rates ranging from Rs. 17 to 22 per 
100. Anestimation of the profits made must necessarily 
be based upon the average number of sections suitable 
for bracelet making into which shells are capable of being 
cut. The workers themselves have assured me that 
three broad sections suitable for massive éaZa bracelets 
is the average they reckon upon per shell and provided 
the average size of the shells is good. As this is the 
case with Tuticorin shells there should be no difficulty 
in maintaining the average named. Shells of 2} and to 
2% inch gauge cut into two sections only, but the bulk of 
Tuticorin shells range from 23 to 31 and these are three 
ring shells while the number of 4 and 5 ring shells 
(above 34 inch gauge) is sufficient to balance those 
6-A 
