210 Pearls. 



of the Indian peninsula. The oyster-banks are 

 situated off the coast of Tinnevelly, especially 

 opposite to Tuticorin, but the improvement of the 

 Paumben Channel has of late years created currents, 

 which are inimical to the development of the 

 Pearl-oyster. 



Mr. Clements Markham inspected the Tinnevelly 

 fishing grounds in 1866, and in the spring of 

 the following year, read an interesting paper on 

 the subject before the Society of Arts. After 

 discussing the position of the localities where this 

 industry was formerly carried on, as described by 

 Ptolemy, and afterwards by various mediaeval writers, 

 Mr. Markham concludes that ^' the true locality 

 which was the head-quarters of the Indian Pearl- 

 fishery from time immemorial, is to be found at, 

 or near, the modern salt station of Coilnapatam, 

 on the coast between Tuticorin and Trichendoor." 



Friar Jordanus, a missionary bishop who visited 

 India about the year 1330, tells us that as many 

 as 8,000 boats were then engaged in the Pearl- 

 fisheries of Tinnevelly and Ceylon ; the value of these 

 fisheries in the middle ages is also attested by several 

 other travellers, such as Friar Odoric, Ludovico de 

 Varthema and the Portuguese Duarte Barbosa. For 

 the last two centuries the head-quarters of the fishery. 



