14 



56. From daybreak to 8 a. m. (standard time) great numbers of bonito 

 were observed jumping in every direction as far as the eye could see. Their 

 number must have been enormous. Gulls were numerous distributed generally. 

 The sea at this time was olive green and fairly clear, the distance from land 

 from three to four miles. Only a single fishing boat was in sight. At 9 a. m. 

 (standard time) the bonito had ceased jumping. 



67. A couple of hours later we entered the mouth of Khudi creek. The 

 northern bank is slightly above high tide level and is fringed with low sand 

 hills. On opposite sides of the estuary about three miles in, a group of fisher- 

 men's huts was seen, a few boats moored along the shore. The end of .October 

 marks the beginning of the prawning season, which lasts till the end of the cold 

 weather in the early part of March. Most of the men occupying the huts were 

 engaged in this fishing. Opposite the encampment on the left bank we saw a 

 long range of prawn stake-nets, a sleeve net-trap fastened between each two 

 stakes ; further up the creek we encountered another set. The night previous 

 to our arrival, two maunds of prawns were taken by one set alone. 



58. All the men we questioned declared that no live oysters now exist in 

 this creek or its branches ; one man whom we met in the narrow canal connect- 

 ing Khudi and Khai creeks said he knew a side creek three miles back where 

 there are three beds or patches of oysters all dead, covered more or less with 

 mud. Mr. Judd believes the cause of death to be silt, but I cannot hazard any 

 definite opinion. Commander Shopland in 1897 recorded 5 beds of oysters to 

 exist in Khudi creek ; these are certainly now all dead. Possibly the oysters 

 died from silting ; more probably, judging from what I saw elsewhere, overfish- 

 ing and the omission to put back on the bed any of the old shell cultch removed 

 along with the li'ving oysters, caused a lowering or degradation of the sur- 

 face of the bed to such an extent that the cultch left eventually became lower 

 than the surrounding mud surface, when the tendency would be for mud to drift 

 into the hollow so formed, fouling and covering the cultch remaining. It may be, 

 too, that the wholesale destruction of mangrove jungle along the banks of these 

 creeks has led to increased erosion of the mud flats in some places. .Formerly 

 these great muddy plains, usually just overflowed at high spring tides, were 

 densely covered with mangroves thousands of dead 1'oots are yet to be seen ; 

 firewood cutters destroyed this jungle and no efforts have been made to plant up 

 these denuded areas. To-day they are naked mud flats readily eroded along the 

 margin now that the protective silt-arresting mangrove scrub is destroyed. As 

 a land-reclaiming agency, as a source of firewood, and as a grazing for camels, 

 the re-planting of these mud flats appears to me extremely desirable. 



59. Before passing through to Khai, we paid a visit to Faetor or Firti 

 creek, a branch channel opening through the right bank, to inspect some beds of 

 window-pane oysters (Placuna). Two separate beds were seen, the first con- 

 sisting of the remains of a bed of full grown oysters fished this year; the other, 

 much more extensive and a little higher up the creek, of immature individuals. 

 These latter were exceedingly numerous. Our men brought up the oysters in 

 handsful ; they described them as lying thick one over the other, so abundant 

 that one could walk over the bed without sinking into the mud. The shells 

 formed a veritable pavement. Earlier in the year the bed of mature oysters had 

 been fished by the lessee of the Placuna fishery and when this was exhausted 

 he was permitted to thin out the immature bed as it was considered that this by 

 lessening the overcrowding would contribute to the more rapid growth of the 

 remainder. I measured '20 of these immature individuals ; the largest was 5^X 

 5 inches, the smallest 4 by 4 inches, the average being 4^ by 4 inches. Asso- 

 ciated with these Placunae in Firti creek were huge colonies of a papyraceous 

 and foliaceous Polygon, apparently akin to Lepralia. One cluster measured 

 a foot in length by 8 inches in width. Anomia, the bastard oyster, some quite 

 young, was frequent, attached to valves of Placuna. Small crabs and a colour- 

 less Alpheus sought shelter in the folds of the Lepralia clusters. Some fine 

 bydrozoa were also present but no algae were seen. 



60. Birds were numerous. Several pelicans and spoonbills marched along 

 the shallows and several wild duck were shot. Gulls and snippets abounded. 

 Khudi creek was full of fish ; mullet of fine size were seen in quantity together 



