lxxix 



in which fish are obtainable in numbers are the river Toongbhudra, 

 which bounds the district on the west and north, and some eight or ten 

 of the large tanks scattered through the collectorate. The single tank for 

 fishing is at Darogee, situated within 19 miles of Bellaiy. The only 

 mode resorted to for catching fish, is that of placing a net across the 

 mouth of the sluice, and thus capturing all those that are forced 

 through by the pressure of the water. The size of the mesh of the 

 net thus used is of no consequence, as all fish escaping this net must 

 of necessity die within a short time afterwards by the drying up of the 

 channels. In the river the want of large markets along its banks will 

 probably prevent fishing in it from being a profitable speculation for 

 some time to come. The fishery here may be regarded as practically 

 inexhaustible, and it does not appear necessary to place any restrictions 

 on it. It would rather seem to need encouragement. It is not consi- 

 dered that the right of Government to let any fisheries in the district 

 would be disputed. No rule exists why they should not be let, except 

 that it is not probable that any persons would be found to bid for them ; 

 letting by a term of years is preferable to annual auctions, so that the 

 contractor has an opportunity for recovering in a good year what he 

 may have lost in a bad. Fish, when very young, are not destroyed to 

 any great extent. The nets used in fishing are usually of a small mesh, 

 but they are, as a rule, cast nets, and merely catch those small fish that 

 lie in shallow water £this is exactly the place where the fry are to be 

 found.] The nets used in the Toongbhudra are generally of a large 

 mesh. If it were deemed advisable to prohibit the use of small-meshed 

 nets, it would merely be required to insert it as a stipulation in the con- 

 tract ; no notice is absolutely necessary. The Acting Collector (June 

 4th, 1870) propose to let out the fishing of seven tanks, but he considered 

 it impossible to give out that of the river on lease, and reported that 

 no protective measures were necessary. 



155. The Collector of Tanjur (November 15th, 18G7) observes 



that previous to the construction of the 

 °P» iMI of the CoUector of lower Coleroon auicut in 1836, the sable fish, 

 ,IUJ ' Clujoea palasah, was caught in the neighbour- 



hood of Trichinopoly, but since that year it has, according to general 

 report, disappeared. It comes up stream from June to the middle of 

 August. On July 26th, 1870, the same official reported, that the right 

 to the fishery of all tanks as well as village channels in this district 

 belongs to the Merassidars, having been conceded to them in the orders 

 of Government of June 11th, 1857, No. 576, paragraph 29 ; and if, there- 

 fore, it is intended to prohibit the draining of the tanks for catching fish, 

 lie thinks it must be done by legislative enactment. In a previous letter 

 dated August 17th, 1869, the Collector observed that all rivers in his 

 disti'ict are let by auction, and that this does not appear to entail any 

 hardship on the fishermen classes ; it is only small tanks that are annually 

 drained, for the purpose of being filled with fresh-w T ater from river channels, 

 at which period advantage is taken to capture the fish in them. Waters 

 are not poisoned in Tanjur. Fishing near anicuts is forbidden on engineer- 

 ina- considerations: a close month in irrigation canals from October to 

 February is approved of, because it is after October, when the floods have 

 subsided, that the bulk of the fish are caught on their return to the sea. 



