19 



this patch was 'wonderfully prolific and it is no figure of speech to describe the 

 oysters as existing three layers deep. Mr. Judd set his men to collect, and 

 within 15 minutes a sackful of living oysters was obtained. This, however, 

 virtually wiped the bed out. In obtaining these oysters the men brought the 

 oyster clumps indiscriminately to the bank of the creek where they culled the 

 living from the dead, and where they would have left the latter had I not made 

 them return this valuable shell-cultch to the creek bed. It was an unrehearsed 

 and enlightening demonstration of the reckless methods of spoliation whereby 

 these creek beds have been brought to a state of utter ruin. 



74. The patch is a difficult one to locate and this, taken together with its 

 small extent, had doubtless protected it previously. Our local guide told us of 

 another patch in a neighbouring creek, but no really large bed appears to be 

 now existent in the branches of Dubba creek, the little patch examined being 

 the "large" bed of our guide's description the day preceding. 



75. As in the previous bed of oysters examined, this Dubba one rose from 

 the soft muddy bottom of the creek ; the only cultch was dead shell ; a runnel 

 occupied the centre of the creek, and the mud was so soft that our men sank 

 to midcalf at every step ; the surrounding low flat land was covered with salt- 

 plant vegetation not more than 18 inches high. 



76. The organisms associated with the oysters here were somewhat 

 different from those we had met with previously ; besides the usual Anomia and 

 Balanus, we found a small species of anemone in some abundance, the column' 

 marked vertically with narrow stripes of a dark bronze green tint alternately 

 with equisized stripes almost colourless. A small Alpheus was fairly common. 

 Of polyzoa, a crusting species mantled large surfaces. No sponges were seen. 

 Brood oysters were few and of a stunted appearance, measuring from \ to 1 inch 

 in diameter. Subsequent dissection of some of the oysters from this creek 

 showed the condition of the larger oysters to be distinctly inferior to that of the 

 smaller as well as to that of those from Mall and Dumbri. The integuments of 

 these older individuals were dark, pale brown in tint and not at all of an 

 appetizing appearance. For their size they were distinctly thin, a condition due 

 probably to their food supply being partly intercepted by the younger oysters 

 perched on their edges. The gouads appeared to be spent. 



77. At the mouth of Dubba creek, where we found the water extremely 

 muddy, the brown spherical floating algae already noted were extremely 

 abundant. The fishermen correlated the presence of these spheres with the 

 abundance of prawns, saying that when the spheres attain L inch or more in 

 diameter prawn fishing attains its zenith. At the time of my visit the spheres 

 were small and prawns were reported as still comparatively poor fishing. 



78. In the evening we set out for Hajamro creek where a bed of dead 

 oysters was to be shown me, killed off, it was believed, by the recent diversion 

 of Indus water into this channel. We sailed through the connecting creeks 

 during the night and the next morning, 30th October, we entered the Hajamro 

 from Gabri creek at 9-30 a.m. Small groups of huts were to be seen on both 

 banks, with the signs of extensive paddy cultivation. Harvesting operations 

 were in full swing and mat-covered bee-hive shaped stores of padriy were rising 

 round the hamlots. The land here is almost as low as along the creeks we had 

 visited just above the high water of ordinary spring tides. 



79. By noon we arrived off a small hamlet situated on the right bank of 

 the Hajamro mouth where we learned that our errand was in vain the fisher- 

 men informed us that all the oyster beds in this channel have wholly disappeared, 

 every sign of them being obliterated by deposits of silt caused by changes in 

 the channels since the Hajamro became an active discharge mouth of Indus 

 water. The head fisherman stated that silt to a depth of two to three feet now 

 overlies the oysters whereof he knew of 4 patches before this silting occurred, 

 viz., two in Kochi creek off which we were anchored and one each in Tuppan 

 creek and in that at Pir Mohammad Makhau both opening from the opposite or 

 left bank. He described these beds as having been originally (when alive) in 

 the centre of the beds of deep creeks, in similar environment to that typical of 

 the beds we had seen previously. This news caused a change in our programme 

 and decided us to proceed direct to Keti Bandar, the only town adjacent to 

 the mouths of the Indus. During the last two years the Kediwari branch of the 

 Indus has encroached greatly upon the northern end of this important paddy 

 entrepot, destroying a large area of gardens and entailing heavy loss and 



