77 



thriving in confined areas liable to become more or less 

 brackish during the rains. These other species are 

 however of minor importance, either in little esteem for 

 the table or too small to be useful except as food for 

 bamin, eels or begti. 



The number of really useful species which are avail- 

 able, namely, bamin or kala, mullet, kodava, sea-bream, 

 Sillago (Madras whiting), smelts, plaice, soles and eels, 

 include all that are considered of importance either in 

 the Arcachon fish-ponds or in Comacchio lagoon, and 

 there is reason to believe that the bamin and the kodava, 

 both of greater value from the Indian standpoint than 

 either mullet or eels, will prove susceptible of propagation 

 and rearing in enclosed areas. Neither of these species 

 is available in Europe, so marine pisciculture in India 

 has the initial advantage over Europe of having both 

 better quality and a greater number of suitable fishes 

 wherewith to experiment. The rate of growth in India 

 is probably much more rapid, but upon this no data are 

 at present available. 



The Waters available and suitable for Marine Fish 

 Culture in Madras ; their Characters and Extent. 



The places susceptible of conversion into fish farms 

 fall under three heads, namely : — 



(a) Backwaters and estuarine creeks. 



(b) Salt pan channels. 



(c) Estuarine or deltaic marshes. 



(a) The first category includes all the large areas of 

 landlocked tidal water wherein fish rearing can be 

 carried on. I say advisedly rearing and not culture, for 

 in the case of ponds having an area of more than a few 

 acres, a modification of the natural culture as practised at 

 Arcachon and Comacchio must necessarily be the system 

 pursued in contradistinction to that intensive or artificial 

 culture whereby fish are reared from artificially impreg- 

 nated ova and fed partly upon artificial food, a system 

 applicable only to ponds of comparatively small area. 

 Both the east and west coasts of the Madras Presidency 

 abound in backwaters, many of them veritable inland 

 seas. On the East Coast, Pulicat lake is the largest of 

 these tidal lakes, having a waterspread of 178 square 



