INTRODUCTION 



and develop these and other marine industries. "With regard to the first-named, 

 it is to be noted that within a year from the inception of the enquiry the 

 attention drawn in my first report to the Government of Baroda on the fishery 

 potentiahties of this outlying portion of His Highness's dominions, resulted in a com- 

 mencement being made in the exploitation of the large beds of window-pane 

 oysters {Placuna placenta) which were found during my visit of enquiry lying to 

 the east of Beyt Island and Poshetra peninsula. The beds first exploited were 

 largely great deposits of many generations of the shells of this species which had 

 hved and died successively in shallow water in this locahty. The pearls that had 

 formed during the life of these shells were still in situ between the valves and 

 could be obtained with ease by washing the shells and sieving the muddy sediment. 

 The pearls thus found, although duller in lustre than those obtained from five 

 shells, readily found a remunerative market, and large profits, I am pleased to 

 learn, have accrued to the Baroda Government. The method of working these deposits, 

 employed to date, has been to lease the right to collect the shells and extract the pearls 

 for an annual rental. 



The amounts so obtained are as follows for the years named, viz : — 



From what I know of the local conditions, I am strongly of opinion that the beds 

 of dead Placuna are of very great extent and that the portion exploited to the present 

 is an insignificant proportion of the whole. "What is wanted is to devise means for the 

 efficient working of beds lying in deeper water, where the collectors at present find it 

 impossible to work. Largely on this account, I understand that of late the lessees 

 have turned their attention to the beds of hving Placuna, from which they are getting 

 a good outturn of pearls. 



The Baroda Government are very much alive to the importance of developing 

 and safeguarding this industry. To this end they have appointed a promising young 

 man to the charge of the local pearl-fishing industry, and he, after receiving instruction 

 in general methods at my hands, is now stationed in Okhamandal to carry on experi- 

 mental pearl-oyster culture and general fishery investigation. He is now engaged 



