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where they burst from the hills, have three or four different 

 beds, all of which are full during the rains, but after- 

 wards only one ; one year the stream is in one of these 

 beds, another year another, and so on. The poachers choose 

 a spot where the stream and an old bed are in close proxi- 

 mity : both have good pools in them ; they fix nets right 

 across the stream, about a mile or more below this spot ; 

 first nets with large meshes, and then nets with smaller 

 meshes. These nets are kept to the bottom with heavy 

 stones. When the nets are all ready, they dam up the 

 stream, and open a water-way into the old bed : the force 

 of the water soon cuts a deep way for itself, and then the 

 late bed of the stream is left dry, except in the deep holes : 

 all fish that try to escape down are stopped by the nets." 

 The large fish are taken away, the fry left to die as the 

 pools dry up, and there they sometimes lie six or eight inches 

 deep. The poachers do the same lower down, and after a 

 month or so begin again at the top of the hill river as before. 

 This is also carried on in Rohilcund (p. cliii). Or low- 

 country streams may be dammed for poisoning purposes, 

 as in Eatnagari (p. liv), in Belgaum (p. lii), or South 

 Canara (p. lxxxviii) : or for placing nets in artificial open- 

 ings constructed in them, as in Puna (p. xlix) : or to assist 

 in baling them out, as in Nasik (p. lviii), Colaba (p. lix), 

 and Dharwar (p. liii and lxii) ; also in Madras, as at Kurnal 

 (p. lxxxiv), or in the Kistna Collectorate (p. xcv), as 

 well as in Nellur (p. xcvij. In the Central Provinces, as at 

 Jabalpur (p. cxix and cxxiv), and in Oudh, as at Sultanpur 

 (p. cxxxviii). Tanks are drained at times solely for the 

 purpose of obtaining the contained fish, as at Cuddalore 

 in Madras; at Dharwar (p. liii): whilst at Tanjur it is 

 said that it is only small tanks that are annually drained 

 for the purpose of being filled with fresh-water from river 

 channels, at which period advantage is taken to capture the 

 fish in them (p. lxxix). In some cases as tanks are drying 

 up (p. clxxxix) a bank is thrown across them — first one 

 half is baled out, and then the other, and so all the fish taken ; 

 but this is said to be done to prevent them from dying in the 

 mud (see para. LXVII). Holes are sometimes dug by the sides 

 of rivers, as in the Panjab (p. xxiv), or Burma (p. cxcviii) ; 

 a connecting channel is cut ; when fish have been enticed 

 in, a bund is thrown across the connecting channel, the water 

 in the hole baled out, and the fish captured ; this is also done 

 in Haidarabad (p. cxiii). In Orissa (p. clxxxix), damming is 



