entation are in
constant progress, are in houses built on the quarter-deck. Small
steamers, having an official cut, move here and there among the fishing
boats, doing patrol duty and carrying instructions when necessary from
the _Rengasamy Puravey_.

"Would you like to go down in a diving-costume from a boat alongside the
barque?" asks the biologist; "it's perfectly safe, and I have a dress
that will fit you. Frequently I go to the bottom to study the curious
growths there, and last season the colonial secretary did the thing two
or three times."

With a readiness of speech rivaling gunfire in promptness I nipped in
the bud the preparations for carrying out the proffered courtesy,
explaining that I was glad to accept a vicarious description of things
at the ocean's bottom.

The dingy fleet blossoms into a cloud of canvas, with every boat headed
for Marichchikkaddi, the instant the "cease work" gun is fired. The
scene suggests a regatta on a gigantic scale, and from a distance the
leaning lug and lateen sails of the East give the idea of craft
traveling at terrific speed. It is a regatta, a free-for-all,
devil-take-the-hindmost affair. The prizes are choice berths on the
beach as near as possible to the kottu, and the coolies who must carry
the sacks of oysters see to it that the "tindal" and his sailors make no
retarding error.

The camp had been peaceful and somnolent while the boats were out; but
the word that the fleet was coming in had roused every laborer, every
petty dealer, speculator, and harpy to nervous activity. Everybody goes
to the sea-front to witness the beaching of the boats and to watch the
unloading. An hour probably elapses between the coming of the leader of
the fleet and the arrival of the slowest boat. During this period the
important functionary is the beach-master, who shouts his commands to
boats seeking to crowd into positions not rightly theirs. When a boat is
securely drawn upon the strand, there is no waste of time in getting the
cargo started for the government storehouse. Muscular porters,
glistening in their perspiring nudeness, go in single file between boat
and kottu like ants executing a transportation feat. In a very few
minutes the oysters are being counted by nimble-handed coolies.
Important gamblers in oysters, men with sharp eyes and speculative
instincts, have only to note the number of sacks delivered from one or
two boats--and secure a hint from an obliging diver as to whe