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most part, live on small fish. I do not believe any Magistrate would 

 convict except under peculiar circumstances. This is the case at home." 

 £ The enquiry appears to he misunderstood. Here is a district in which 

 the fry of fish are caught to a great extent, and how preventing such 

 destruction and so increasing food would he ' cruel,' it is difficult to see. 

 As to Magistrates refusing, except under peculiar circumstances, to ad- 

 minister the law if one existed, is a question I need not enter upon : 

 but Mr. Turner is mistaken as regards fishery districts at home, as may 

 be perceived by turning over the files of any newspapers devoted to 

 practical natural history, sport, and law.] The Acting Head Assistant 

 Collector (March 16th, 1869) reported, " the rivers within my division are 

 inconsiderable in size ; but from what I can learn, I believe that both 

 in them and also in tanks when the water is low, the people catch, by 

 means of nets and buskets, fishes of various sizes indiscriminately: the 

 mischief of this practice being, that fish are caught whilst still very 

 young and before they have attained their full growth." He continued 

 that he had frequently seen taken "just whatever they could get, some 

 of the fish caught being only an inch or two, and some a foot and up- 

 wards in length." That the fish were poisoned, and " it seems very ad- 

 visable that some measures should be taken for the protection of the fish 

 against such destruction." He subsequently (September 1st, 1869) ob- 

 served that it seems highly desirable that the measures proposed for the 

 prevention of unfair and wanton destruction of fish should be adopted. 

 " The letting to certain individuals the exclusive right of fishing in all 

 large pieces of water and rivers not navigated by sea-going vessels, seems 

 to be the most effectual means of preventing the wanton destruction 

 of fish. It might be as well not to limit in all cases the period of renting 

 to one Fusly ( year) , but the fisheries might sometimes be let for lengthen- 

 ed periods, such as for two or three or even for five years at a time, though 

 at first, I suppose, it would be advisable to let them for more limited 

 periods. I do not think the headmen of villages ought to have any 

 priority of right above others. I do not think the letting by auction would 

 have the effect of giving the fisheries into the hands of outsiders, as I 

 believe the competition would generally be limited to the inhabitants of 

 the villages where the fisheries are situated, or of adjacent villages. It is 

 doubtful whether the profits would be sufficiently large to attract persons 

 from any distance." Four inches as the minimum size of the mesh of 

 nets is considered too large. Irrigation weirs must have decreased the fish 

 above them, as no ladders exist ; fish descending over them are now 

 unable to re-ascend. Fry are destroyed to a great extent by poisoning 

 the waters generally by a substance called ' mallum/ the bark of 

 the f Billu' tree, and also by small-meshed nets. There would be 

 some difficulty at first in regulating the minimum size of the meshes, 

 but it would cease after some time ; a notice of six months, or a year 

 at most, would be sufficient. The Acting Head Assistant observed 

 (January 15th, 1872) that breeding fish and very young ones are 

 not killed to any great extent, but that in the hot season fish 

 of all sorts are destroyed. A very small mesh is used, and it would 

 be impracticable to regulate it. The fry of fish are not sold, but 

 only captured for individual consumption. The Deputy Collector of 

 Peapally remarks that the fish in tanks are indiscriminately destroyed, 



