even the disturbing of spawning fish, or the possession of 

 unseasonable ones. To carry this out, District Boards of 

 Conservators are appointed, who levy a license tax on every 

 one who fishes for salmon, whether with a rod and line, net, 

 weir, or any other appliance whatever. 



CXX. Having now enumerated the various opinions 



Respecting any remedies that of those wllO hold that the present 



may have been tried. mode of working the fresh- water 



fisheries of India is causing their deterioration, and of others 

 who deny such, it appears desirable, prior to summing up 

 the lessons which these reports seem to convey, to ask these 

 questions : — Have any remedies been attempted by those who 

 advocate them ? If so, what has been the result of such 

 attempts ? Even did no wasteful destruction now take place, 

 could it be clearly demonstrated that a great augmentation 

 of animal food must be ensured by moderately and well- 

 considered restrictive measures, the strongest advocates for 

 the prescriptive right of the people to ruin fisheries, and 

 thus diminish their neighbours' food, and the philanthropists 

 who denounce fishery laws as engines of oppression and 

 instruments of cruelty, surely must pause, and accord this 

 enquiry that attentive consideration it so well deserves, but 

 unfortunately does not always appear to obtain. It is not a 

 subject in which assertions should convince, or statements 

 unbacked by facts be allowed much weight. It is not merely 

 in one quarter of the globe that the ruinous mode in which 

 fresh-water fisheries have been worked, has escaped the 

 observations of legislatures and even of their owners : in 

 short, it is only of late years that mankind has commenced 

 being aware that his mode of treating these fisheries may 

 be, and probably is, based upon error. The license accorded 

 by " man" is not invariably in accordance with the laws 

 ordained by " nature ;" and we have now to enquire whether 

 any conservative measures have been attempted, and, if so, 

 with what result. 



CXXI. The measures for the protection of the fresh- 

 Restrictive regulations have water fisheries of the Indian Empire 



had a beneficial result locally may be divided into two. First, tllOSe 



111 Iudia * which are natural ones, as described 



in Sind (pp. xxix — xxxii), and, consequently, do not call for 

 further remarks. Secondly, those carried out by human 

 agency. Fortunately, we are able to examine the reports 

 from officials who have attempted such in two widely 

 separated localities, — the one in South Canara in Madras, 

 the other in the Doon in the North- Western Provinces. 



