The government officials have endeavored to put a stop to whatever looting may exist, searching boats and occupants at the shore, revoking the license of any boat showing evidence of oysters having been opened or carrying knives or other appliances for that purpose. The fishermen are alleged to resort to all sorts of devices to secrete their illicit find of pearls, concealing them in the nose, ears, eyes, and other parts of the body, and even hiding them in parcels in the furled sails or attached to the embedded anchor. In some seasons—as in 1904 and 1905—the government employed a guard for each boat. But serious criticism has been made of the integrity of these guards, who, with compensation of only one rupee per diem, could scarcely be expected to resist the action of thirty or forty fishermen and report their doings, when by silence they would have much to gain, and “the guards simply add to the number of thieves on board” was reported by one superintendent. Doubtless the most interesting sight in the Ceylon fishery is afforded by the return, about mid-afternoon, of the hundreds of novel, sail-spreading boats running before the wind and crowded with turbaned fishermen dressed in their few brilliant rags, and each anxious to be the first at the wave-washed beach, where they are welcomed by an equal if not greater number of officials, merchants, laborers, and camp followers, gathered on the shore to learn the result of the fishery. The fantastic appearance of the boats, the diversified costumes of the people, the general scene of animation, afford a view which for novelty is rarely equaled even in the picturesque Orient. The average number of oysters brought in daily by each boat is about 10,000. Some days when the weather is unfavorable many of the boats return empty; on other days they may have 25,000 or more. In 1905 the maximum catch in one day for one boat was 29,990, while in 1904 a single boat brought in 37,675 oysters. The catch by the entire fleet one day in 1905 was 4,978,686 oysters, or an average of 16,485 for each of the 302 boats out on that occasion.