upwards to attain the head of this ' kool/ or else left in its dried-up bed : 

 one native stands at the head of the channel, and by making- a great 

 splashing he frightens the fish from coming up to the stream, and thus, 

 without using a net at all, numerous small fishes are taken, whilst these, 

 or most of them, ought to be for the next year's supply. This mode of 

 destruction must be very injurious to hill fisheries, but could be easily 

 remedied, by compelling the owner of each canal to make a matted grat- 

 ing of boughs or bamboos or a similar obstruction at the head of each, 

 which, without impeding the water, would prevent the entrance of the 

 fish. 



11. Analogous to the foregoing, is the diverting of hill streams 

 tv ,. ,.„ , and thus capturing- all the fishes therein, 



Diverting hill streams, dam- ... ' to tit . 



mingthem, the erection of weirs also damming them up and lading them out, 

 and barriers and poisoning the and the existence of weirs and impassable 

 water- barriers, which are made instrumental in the 



capture of fish, and it was properly decided in the Kangra valley that 

 " the system of catching fish by means of dams, weirs, and stake-nets was 

 prohibited, as being the chief cause of the destruction and diminution of 

 the fish in the narrow hill streams." Poisoning streams is not reputed 

 to be carried on in the Panjab. 



12. Another mode of destroying large numbers of fish in the 



Panjab, is the existence of irrigation weirs 

 Irrigation weirs and canals without fish passes, across large rivers, and 



as at present existing, destructive i • i •; 1 i 1 c 1 \l\ i 



to fisheries. which permit valuable fishes, as the mahaseer, 



which breeds along the bases of the hills, to 

 descend, but prevents any return to its breeding places as already de- 

 scribed. Worse, if possible, probably, are the irrigation weirs which have 

 impassable falls up which fish cannot ascend, but over which they may 

 descend, and so become trapped. Thus the mahaseer go down these large 

 channels, but cannot return. It has been suggested that they might 

 continue their descent, and thus find an exit at the lower end, but this they 

 will not do. As the canal becomes shallower towards its termination, the 

 falls are lower, the holes formed below them less deep, and there is not so 

 much food, consecmently they will not be found there. This is not a 

 theoretical opinion, but deduced from actual observation made when a 

 canal was dried off. These canals are emptied at certain periods for 

 repairs or other causes, and at this period many fish are left dry in the 

 bed and are easily killed, but a large number retreat into the holes which 

 exist and contain water. In some of these canals a custom obtains to 

 permit the employees to kill all they are able, in any manner they can ; 

 in other places this is more or less prohibited ; whilst in some the fishing 4 

 is let out and every living fish destroyed, no matter how small ; and as 

 none can ascend out of the canals, the destruction is enormous and suffi- 

 cient to ruin any fisheries. ' Dr. Allen/ of the 2nd Ghurkas, thus 

 observed on these constructions : — " The fisheries are certainly decreasing 

 as regards the number of fish, both in the Ganges and Jumna rivers. 

 The chief cause of this, 1 believe, to be the drain on them caused by 

 the canals. Mahaseer, rohoo, kalabeinse, &c, abound in all the canals 

 both from the Jumna and Ganges. The mahaseer are very plentiful 

 in the Jumna canal (Kumal branch, which runs down to Hansi and 

 Hissar) and in the Ganges canal. When these canals silt up, or the 



