Not AvailableIT is evident from the valuable reports on the fauna and flora of the Gulf of Mannar, brought out in 1903-1906 by Herdman and others as also from the contributions of Thomas (1884), Thurston (1894), Hornell (1922), Gravely (1927) and Pearson et al. (1929), to mention only a few, that this area is remarkable for its richness and variety of fauna and that the inshore sea-bottom in the Gulf forms an ideal habitat for the growth of the shell fishes which sustain a good fishery. The records of observations made along Ceylon coast during the latter part of 1904 by Hornell (vide Herdman, 1905) revealed that considerable changes took place periodically in regard to the biological and physical conditions of the sea-bottom there....