( 40 ) 



Thus the bazars fully supplied are not one-fifth of the total, 

 and one-fifth of those which are so, obtain such from the sea. 



The Fresh-water Fisheries op India and Burma. 



LV. Where no regulations exist as to the method in 

 How wasteful injuries to fish- which fisheries should be worked, and 

 eries commence. should other circumstances be equal, 



that country or district which is most populated by man will 

 be the most denuded of fish. Individuals would sooner live 

 by fishing than by agriculture, as the trouble of capturing 

 the finny tribes is less than tilling the soil, being simply 

 catching without any idea of preservation. Naturally, fish 

 have been endowed with certain means of increase, and 

 protection, such as producing an enormous number of eggs or 

 frequently breeding, or even by the action of periodic floods, 

 when small-meshed nets cannot be used in rapid streams,* 

 and by swamps covering a large extent of country, where 

 shelter is afforded by grass, rushes, &c, rendering vain 

 man's attempt to depopulate. But, as inhabitants augment, 

 watery wastes become drained and cultivated, predaceous 

 man increases his methods of destruction, and then a de- 

 crease of food becomes apparent. As the price of food rises, 

 so that of fish increases, and if the fish-eating population 

 yearly becomes larger, increased exertions are used 

 to capture fish to meet their demands : the size of the mesh 

 is decreased, weirs are augmented, and everything taken, 

 no matter how small, as fishermen never appear to consider 

 from whence the next year's supply is to come, but only the 

 easiest method to take at the present time all they are 

 able. Commencing in Burma, we observe in sparsely 

 populated districts fish abound, and in quantities amply 

 sufficient for the adjacent people ; but where the population 

 is larger and the means of disposing of the captures greater, 

 increased modes of destruction are called into existence : 

 streams are dammed and laded out, weirs of various forms 

 are erected, and the use of small meshed nets, and the 

 destruction of fry is carried on. In Sind, the Indus may 

 be considered one large preserve where fish are reared, for 

 owing to the constant change in its course, its banks (except 

 at certain places) are not well adapted for the permanent 

 residence of fishermen, the surrounding land being liable 



* This amount of protection does not extend to any great extent to the fry of fishes, 

 as they would he washed away by a rapid current, consequently they seek the shallows. 



