THE PEARL FISH KEY OF 1904. 11 



were rendered futile by unfavourable weather. Before leaving for inspection this 

 year, Mr. HORNELL pressed upon the attention of Government the importance and 

 urgency of another effort being made to place the beacon in position. Accordingly it 

 was sent up once more under the care of Mr. LINDSAY, the general foreman of tin- 

 Harbour Works Department, who, after very great difficulties due to the heavy 

 ground swell always present on the shoal, eventually completed the erection 

 successfully. One great safeguard has thus been created against the loss, by oversight, 

 of oyster patches in the Cheval region, and valuable time will also be saved at 

 inspections. " This Karativo shoal beacon consists of four iron piles driven 6 feet 

 into the sand, braced together securely and bearing an iron telegraph pole secured by 

 four wire stays. The apex of the pole bears two circular metal discs set vertically at 

 right angles, the top being 43 feet 6 inches above sea-level, and therefore visible 

 at a distance of 11^ miles to an observer whose eye is 12 feet above sea-level. The 

 depth of water where and when it was erected was 25 feet 6 inches at low tide. The 

 position of the sunken tanks is latitude 8 39' 15'' N., longitude 79 45' 0" E. ; and 

 the new beacon is distant therefrom 233 feet N., 3 W." 



Mr. HORNELL states : " My experience during the last two years, and especially 

 during the last inspection, makes clear to me that a beacon in the Aripu district, 

 together with an improvement by heightening of the present Kudiramalai beacon, is 

 essential to efficient inspections. With respect to the cost of these, I would point out 

 that whatever it might be, the amount would be as nothing compared with the loss 

 of revenue entailed by the loss of a bank of fishable oysters through lack of proper 

 beacon marks a mischance which has occurred in the past probably oftener than we 

 imagine. At a later date the scheme of land-marks might be completed and perfected 

 by the erection of a beacon at the Doric and by the raising of Kallar Tower another 

 20 feet. For the present, however, urgency centres in the raising of Kudiramalai 

 Tower and the erection of a beacon on Aripu Reef." 



PARTICULARS OF THE FISHING OPERATIONS. 



The news that a pearl fishery is advertised to take place in the Gulf of Manaar is 

 conveyed throughout India and other parts of the coast of the East with amazing 

 rapidity, and at the appointed time a heterogeneous population of from 20,000 to 

 perhaps 40,000 natives gathers in a few days on what is usually an uninhabited 

 desert a bare sandy coast with jungle extending for miles inland. A temporary 

 town, covering a site of about one square mile, and having streets (Main Street, Old 

 and New Moor Street, Tank Street, Divers' Street, Chetty Street, Muttu Bazaar, and 

 the like) of houses and shops, Government buildings, such as court house, prison, 

 hospitals, markets, and offices of various kinds, is rapidly run up. ' Camp Town ' is 

 erected under the supervision of the Adigar of Musali, largely of bamboos and palm 

 leaves (fig. 4), and is a prosperous and very busy centre of industry and trade during 



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