154 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN [VOL. XVI, 



fishery laws, modifying or enlarging the scope of such enactments 

 as might be found advisable. 



The field for improving and augmenting the fish supply from 

 fresh-water sources is still more extensive. Practically nothing is 

 done among the natives to improve the quality and the quantity of 

 fish in tanks, a branch of work offering immense scope for well 

 directed cautious efforts. The restocking of inland waters that dry 

 up annually with selected fry of species characterized by rapid 

 growth and good table qualities should be taught, encouraged, and 

 organized on a practical basis. Were this done, the results obtained 

 in other countries and even in some parts of Northern India justify 

 the prediction that the fresh-water fish supply of the Presidency 

 would be doubled in quantity and greatly improved in quality 

 within a very short period. Nowhere in the world are the potentia- 

 lities of aquiculture greater than in India and yet nothing has been 

 done to utilize modern piscicultural knowledge. 



B — RECOMM ENDATIONS. 



(I) 



Improved System of Inspection. 



(a) The preparation of reliable charts. — The present charts of the 

 Pearl Bank region are extremely unsatisfactory. The positions of 

 none of the many landmarks dotting the whole length of the Tinne- 

 velly and Madura coasts are shown. It is quite impossible to lay 

 off the ship's position with exactitude upon certain of the banks 

 because of this deficiency ; numbers of good marks — chapels, 

 mosques, topes and the like — are in sight, but because their exis- 

 tence has been ignored by the cartographer they are practically 

 useless for the purpose of the inspection of the banks, even actually 

 misleading if we attempt to fix their positions on the coast line 

 and fail, as is probable, in placing them correctly. This lack of 

 beacon indications upon the charts is further adverted to in section 

 (d) below. 



The scale of the charts in use — one mile to the half inch — is 

 also too small for careful survey and for the insertion cf the 

 necessary details in regard to the distribution of oysters, rock, and 

 sand in the areas inspected. 



All the charts used for fishery work should be on the uniform 

 scale of I nautical mile to the inch. A 2-inch scale is unneces- 

 sarily great and is unwieldy to handle. It is a size especially 



