XIX 



moved by water. These mills are all situated on the hundreds of small 

 streams in the hill gorges. To get a good water power, the people 

 construct small canals, or ducts, on a higher level than the streams, and 

 by erecting a dam across the stream, most of the water is diverted into 

 these canals, and carried along until a good head is attained, the fall of 

 which carries or puts in motion these mills. Now the most valuable 

 species of fish breed in these gorges, and the young do not euter, in any 

 considerable numbers, the large rivers till after one or two years, 

 and as these little canals are numerous in all the gorges, and at 

 seasons take in nearly all the waters of the streams, the young 

 of these several species of fish naturally find their way into these 

 canals, and whether the men who own these canals have nets or not 

 to catch fish, all they have to do when they want a meal of fish, is to 

 shut off the water from their ' kools' or canals, and in twenty minutes 

 it becomes dry, and they can go along and pick up the fish that were in 

 it. A few years ago I wished to collect the species of fish in the Mandi 

 riveiv, a branch of the Bias, which enters the Bias at the city of Mandi. 

 I had but two hours to stay at that place, and I called a fisherman, an 

 old man, and told him to take a close net to a small stream and bring 

 me any living thing he could obtain from it ; in less than an hour he 

 brought me a basket-full of life, the sight of which would have gladdened 

 the heart of a naturalist, six species of fish, and several sorts of 

 aquarium insects, shells, crabs, &c. I wondered how he alone got that 

 basket- full. He told me he owned a mill, and all he had to do was to 

 shut off the water from the ' hoof and pick up his basket-full from dry 

 land." One species was Oreinus sinuatus, Heckel, " the most valuable 

 for food to the common people on account of its wide limits of distribu- 

 tion and great fecundity. An intelligent native on the Bias river observed 

 that it w r ent up to the high hill gorges in the early summer to feed on 

 rich food and returned in the cold season down the rivers very fat. 

 * * * I have known females of 3lbs. in weight to ascend small 

 streams 8 miles, in a few hours, after the first heavy shower of the rainy 

 season." [As a corroboration of this I may mention, that on going across 

 the Himalayas from Chumba to Choaree, I stopped at a little rill that 

 formed small pools here and there, and in which were numerous immature 

 fish. Having a net with me I procured a few, some were young 

 loaches, NemacJieilus rupecula, McClelland, but the majority consisted 

 of the fry of the mountain barbels, Oreinus sinuatus, Heckel, whilst 

 none could be that year's fish. The locality was upwards of one hundred 

 feet above the main stream, with a very steep ascent, and sufficient rain 

 not having fallen so as to permit fish ascending so high, they must have 

 been the fry of the preceding season ; and from observations made in diff- 

 erent places, it appeared to me most probable, that rapid growth does not 

 commence until the presence of rain water in the rivers, which it is said, 

 and probably correctly, brings down some peculiarly nourishing food. J 

 34. In the Peshawar Division the Tehsildar of Peshawar reports 

 Peshawar Division. — Answers there are 190 fishermen who also pursue 

 of native officials of Peshawar, other occupations ; their castes are Jhewurs, 

 Haripur, Mausera, and Kohat. Jhub ^ Afghan &nd Meen Lo(jal markefcs 



are not fully supplied with fish ; more could be sold. About 10 per cent, of 

 the people are fish-eaters. Fish have decreased of late years, very small ones 

 are taken during the rains in nets made of thread, and occasionally 



