51 



In the sponge, coral, eehinoderrn, molluscan and fish fauna there is practical 

 identity. One list will serve for both. 



Thus we have as common to each : — 



Petrosia testudinaria, Spongionella nigra, and Axinella donnani typifying the 

 sponges ; the abundance on these two banks of Petrosia is one of the most remarkable 

 of the many of the striking resemblances between these banks, for this sponge, striking 

 in its strangely massive form, may be said to be limited to them. I have scarcely 

 ever seen it elsewhere. 



Corals are scarce on both banks, represented by isolated colonies of Astraeids 

 (Favia sjj.) and of Meandrina. 



Occasional Aleyonarians and Pennatulids are found together with numbers of 

 knobbed horse chanks and small lameUibranchs of identical species. Pentaceros linki, 

 Linkia laevigata and Antedon sp. are the chief starfishes on the Tolayiram Par. 



On both banks the fish population as represented by the trigger fishes (Kilati), 

 and Yellamin (Lethrinus spp.) and gobies, appears to be greater in numbers than on 

 the banks nearer the shore. 



On the whole both banks are decidedly poor faunistically, with little diversity 

 of life-forms which in the majority of cases are also poor numerically. The absence 

 of Madrepores, of Pinna and of the tubes of Eunice tubifex, is characteristic and 

 note-worthy. 



The Periya Par is cited by Professor Herdman * as especially suitable for dredging 

 over. The Tolayirarn Paris equally so, or if anything somewhat superior as the rocky 

 surface is quite free from upstanding growths or rugged inequalities. 



Eeviewing the history of the Tolayiram Par as shown by the Inspection diaries 

 dating from I860, we find that subsequent to the year named — when the bank was 

 covered with oysters said to be 3£ years old — there are records of the bank having been 

 stocked extensively with spat four times, one of which resulted in the fisheries of 

 1889 and 1890. 



The particulars of these are — 



18b3. " Some young oysters ". (It would appear that the numbers could not have been 



large. " Suran " was noted as present the same year). 

 1874. " Some young oysters on Kuthadiar Par with ' Suran '. " 

 1878. " Thickly stocked with oysters of one year age." 

 1881. " Some oysters of one year." 

 1884. The Inspection sammary reads " plenty of oysters of one year age; clean and 



healthy." These oysters survived and furdished the two successive fisheries 



of 1889 and 1890, at which a total of 14,407,293 oysters were fished. 

 1904. Since 1890 only one spat fall has been recorded — that found during the present 



year's examination. 



The bank was not examined in the spring of 1861, nor in 1862, 1861, 1868, 

 1870, 1871, 1893 and 1900. 



From the above we observe that out of a total of 14 years, 1860 — 1901, there 

 have been five recorded spat falls on this bank with the probability of a sixth in 1874, 

 when this bank was not examined although the adjoining Kuthadiar Par bore 

 young. 



The bank brought one lot of these — that of 1881 — to maturity and from what 

 I can see the prospects of a fishery resulting from the present population of young 

 oysters are good if they survive till next spring. By that time they will be too 

 large to suffer much from the depredations of oyster-eating fish (Trigger-fishes and 

 Vellamin). They will then be more robust and better fitted to endure the discomforts 

 and danger of starvation, which are the concomitants of the disturbed water conditions 

 during the stormy period of the year. 



Comparing the history of the Periya Pdr, we find that in 26 years ending 1904, 

 this bank was restocked at least 12 times without yielding a fishery. We know also 

 that one fishery, that of 1879, is the only one yielded by this bank during the past 

 century (7,645,901 oysters realizing Es. 95,694). 



* loc. cit, Pt. 1, page 111. 



