so 



Desert jjiion of the 



[No. 33, 



Cliauks, &c. 



chiefly used. The sails of smaller hoats are of these fine mats, and 

 hence a considerable home consumption. 



Shells and chanks are hardly Avorth calling an arti- 

 cle of export from these islands. From one to two 

 hundred Rupees worth of tortoiseshell may be exported from year 

 to year, of late years, there has been little taken. A few candies of 

 shark fins are accumulated during the season, and exported to the 

 coast. Ambergris is occasionally picked up and is valuable. This 

 with tortoiseshell were formerly perquisites of the rulers, and in the 

 Beeby's islands still, the finders are always deprived of them. 



These Islanders do not manufacture coke (the dried holothuria or 

 sea slug) of their own accord. Moplahs from the coast go to the is- 

 lands and employ them at the usual rate of wages, one seer of rice 

 per diem, to manufacture it for them. So that the profits of this are 

 lost to the Islanders. I have no doubt that considerable traffic in chu- 

 nam, which is very fine and white, might be carried on, and that the 

 Islanders might supply chunani considerably below the bazar price 

 on the coast, but they do not appear to have attempted to export it. 



The Government islands import jaggery for their own consump- 

 tion from the Beeby's, so that if the 100 or 200 seers which yearly 

 come to the coast in their boats be the produce of our islands — its 

 place is supplied by imports from elsewhere. 



Boats. The marginal statement shows the number of boats 



in each of the islands in 

 the years 1839 and 1844, 

 no earlier record of these 

 numbers can be found. 

 The first class are large 

 shore going boats for car- 

 rying coir, &c. from 6 to 

 15 tons burthen, they will 

 be worth 4 or 5 hundred 

 Rupees each, and belong 

 to the chief families. The 



Kadaraat . 



Kiltan 



Chetlat..., 





^ S 

 .-s o 



o 



B 







o u 











'f> J. 





o 







§ 





l-l 







O.S o 



ll 









. o 





'is O 







o tc-x> 







o 













• 1839.. 

 1844.. 



17 



14 



11 



108 



18 



18 



97 



].b'3 



1839.. 



0 



2 



]0 



12 



1844.. 



0 



2 



9 



11 



1839.. 



8 



1? 



59 



79 



1844.. 



13 



11 



73 



96 



1839.. 



8 



'^0 



68 



94 



1S44.. 



8 



19 



70 



97 



increase of four of these expensive boats in Kiltan is a sure sign 

 of its prosperity. In Kadamat there are none, and they are de- 

 pendent on Ameendevy. The 2iid class are fishing boats of 1 ton 

 to 1| ton burthen, which are manned by 8 or 10 men, but seldom 

 leave the group ; the last column bhows the number of small boats for 



