49 



V. 



COMPARISON OF THE CHARACTERISTICS AND RELATIVE 

 IMPORTANCE OF THE VARIOUS PEARL BANKS. 



In the present section an attempt is made to sieze upon the essentially charac- 

 teristic features of the chief pars — historical, topographical, physical aad biological — and 

 therefrom by comparison with one another and with typical banks on the Ceylon side 

 to evolve a knowledge of their relative economic importance in regard to the prospect 

 they respectively hold out of successfully maturing such oyster spat as may from time 

 to time settle thereon: Such a comparative survey will also go some distance towards 

 enabling us to say what direction any measures of cultivation should take, if it be 

 found advisable or possible to assist nature by artificial means. 



The configuration of the Indian coast of the Gulf of Mannar is simpler than that 

 on the Ceylon side. On the former there is no great shoal like that of the Ceylon 

 Karativu, which stretches northwards into the sea for a distance of nine miles giving 

 a certain amount of shelter to a great area of varied bottom, rock and sand, lying in 

 the Bay of Kondachehi. On the contrary the Indian Pearl Banks lie open to the full 

 force of the south-west monsoon which on this coast sweeps up in great violence from 

 south to north. Again lying as they do on the west side of the Gulf, they also 

 experience much rough weather during the north-east monsoon, a time when the 

 Ceylon banks, lying under the lee of the land, enjoy comparative quietude. The 

 period of immunity from storm disturbance on the [ndian coast is accordingly greatly 

 curtailed and is restricted under normal conditions to the months of February, March 

 and April. Occasionally fairly quiet conditions prevail during the greater part of 

 May— the onset of the south-west monsoon in full force being experienced somewhat 

 more tardily there than on the Ceylon side. 



This geographical disability of the Indian Banks is linked with and intensified 

 by the mechanical disadvantage entailed by the inferior character of the sand on that 

 side, its finer grain and the admixture with it of mud — characteristics which contribute 

 to increase greatly the turbidity of the water whenever heavy seas sweep the Pearl 

 Bank region. As already noted these are conditions which have probably become 

 intensified concurrently with the erosion of the southern extremity of India and which 

 tend, though with extreme slowness, in the historic sense, to reduce the pearl oyster 

 productiveness of this locality — deductions from which we infer greater prosperity in 

 times past. That there was such anterior prosperity we have indications in the 

 existence of remains of ancient oyster-shell heaps close to Cape Comorin, in the 

 frequent allusions of classical writers to the wealth of the Pearl Fisheries of Eolkoi, 

 which town we have seen was situated on the river Tambraparni, in the statement of 

 Friar Jordanus that as many as 8,000 boats were engaged about the year 1330 in the 

 Indian and Ceylon fisheries and in the fact that Eayal or Cail near Pinnacoil is spoken 

 of by Marco Polo, Ludovico de Vathema, Barbosa and other mediaeval travellers as 

 the head-quarters of the Pearl Fishery — a '* greatand noble city inhabited by jewellers 

 who trade in pearls." 



Dealing with the] conditions as they 'are at present, we find that so far as our 

 available modern records permit us to judge, all the known oyster-productive banks are 

 comprised in the division which I have termed the Central, lying between Vaipar and 

 Manapad point, a distance roughly of 40 miles. 



A list of these banks and of the groups into which I propose to classify them has 

 been given above on pages 25 and 26. 



It now remains to describe the varying characteristics of each group aDd to 

 institute comparisons as detailed as the material at our command will allow. 



1. Tolayieam Group. 



This group possesses the distinction of being the most productive and remunera- 

 tive collection of pars along the Tinnevelly coast. Two banks only are comprised 



13 



