Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/236

232 {|
 * colspan=2 |
 * width=70|Feb. 1880.
 * Abundance of young oysters.
 * Mar. 1882.
 * No oysters on the bank.
 * Mar. 1883.
 * Abundance of young oysters, 6 to 9 months old.
 * Mar. 1884.
 * Oysters still on bank, mixed with others of 3 months old.
 * Mar. 1885.
 * Older oysters gone, and very few of the younger remaining.
 * Mar. 1886.
 * No oysters on bank.
 * Nov. 1887.
 * Abundance of young oysters, 2 to 3 months.
 * Nov. 1888.
 * Oysters of last year gone and new lot come, 3 to 6 months.
 * Nov. 1889.
 * Oysters of last year gone; a few patches 3 months old present.
 * Mar. 1892.
 * No oysters on the bank.
 * Mar. 1893.
 * Abundance of oysters of 6 months old.
 * Mar. 1894.
 * No oysters on bank.
 * Mar. 1895.
 * Ditto.
 * Mar. 1896.
 * Abundance of young oysters, 3 to 6 months.
 * Mar. 1897.
 * No oysters present.
 * Mar. 1898.
 * Ditto.
 * Mar. 1899.
 * Abundance of oysters, 3 to 6 months old.
 * Mar. 1900.
 * Abundance of oysters 3 to 6 months old; none of last year's remaining.
 * Mar. 1901.
 * Oysters present of 12 to 18 months of age, but not so numerous as in preceding year.
 * Mar. 1902.
 * Young oysters abundant, 2 to 3 months. Only a few small patches of older oysters (2 to 2 years) remaining.
 * Nov. 1902.
 * All the oysters gone.
 * }
 * Mar. 1897.
 * No oysters present.
 * Mar. 1898.
 * Ditto.
 * Mar. 1899.
 * Abundance of oysters, 3 to 6 months old.
 * Mar. 1900.
 * Abundance of oysters 3 to 6 months old; none of last year's remaining.
 * Mar. 1901.
 * Oysters present of 12 to 18 months of age, but not so numerous as in preceding year.
 * Mar. 1902.
 * Young oysters abundant, 2 to 3 months. Only a few small patches of older oysters (2 to 2 years) remaining.
 * Nov. 1902.
 * All the oysters gone.
 * }
 * Mar. 1902.
 * Young oysters abundant, 2 to 3 months. Only a few small patches of older oysters (2 to 2 years) remaining.
 * Nov. 1902.
 * All the oysters gone.
 * }
 * All the oysters gone.
 * }
 * }

It is shown by the above that since 1880 the bank has been naturally restocked with young oysters at least eleven times without yielding a fishery.

The ten-fathom line skirts the western edge of the paar, and the one hundred-fathom line is not far outside it. An examination of the great slope outside is sufficient to show that the southwest monsoon running up towards the Bay of Bengal for six months in the year, must batter with full force on the exposed seaward edge of the bank and cause great disturbance of the bottom. We made a careful survey of the Periya Paar in March, 1902, and found it covered with young oysters a few months old. In my preliminary report to the government written in July, I estimated these young oysters at not less than a hundred thousand millions, and stated my belief that these were doomed to destruction, and ought to be removed at the earliest opportunity to a safer locality further inshore. Mr. Horn ell was authorized by the Governor of Ceylon to carry out this recommendation, and went to the Periya Paar early in November with boats and appliances suitable for the work, but found he had arrived too late. The southwest monsoon had intervened, the bed had apparently been swept clean, and the enormous population of young oysters, which we had seen in March, and which might have been used to stock many of the smaller inshore paars, was now in all probability either buried in sand or carried down the steep declivity into the deep water outside. This experience, taken