cxliv 



water ; the exit is closed, and countless small fishes are taken/' In fact, 



fixed engines are everywhere employed, even across some of the rivers as 



in Goruckpur and Bustee, capturing" everything. But this is not all : 



some fish are taken, as at Bustee, only to be wasted ; and likewise the 



following is reported in the Koana river — "there is a trap under every 



bridge that spans it, where fish are caught and slaughtered in numbers •/' 



the water having become poisoned from some natural cause, "the fish 



sickened and died in thousands ; on the up-stream face of each of these 



bridges and traps, you would see millions of fish eager to get down past 



the obstruction, and escape from the poisoned water. In a hundred yards 



or so the river was a mass of living heads. The fish sickened and died in 



a day or two, and birds of prey came from all parts to devour them. I 



saw this myself, and heard that it was not of infrequent occurrence, and 



that the dead fish were so numerous on these occasions that they were 



carted off as manure/'' Then another amusement of the hill-people, or of 



fishermen who resort there to ply their poaching trade, is thus detailed : — 



"The poachers choose a spot where the stream and an old bed are in 



close proximity ; both have good pools in them ; they fix nets right 



across the stream about a mile or more below this spot. First, nets 



with large meshes, and then nets with smaller meshes, and these nets 



are kept down to the bottom with heavy stones. When the nets are 



all ready, they dam up the stream and open a water-way into the old 



bed ; the force of the water soon cuts a deep way for itself, and then the 



late bed of the stream is left dry, except in the deep holes; all fish that 



try to escape down -stream are stopped by the nets. The poachers then 



take away all the fish they want, and leave the rest to perish gradually as 



the pools dry up. I have sometimes seen the small fry lying dead, six and 



eight inches deep, in these holes. The poachers in a day or two do the 



same thing somewhere else lower down, and after a month or so, when the 



fish have become accustomed to the new bed, they commence at the top 



again, and return the sti*eam into its late bed," &c. These extracts will 



suffice to show the causes of the asserted decrease of fine fish in this part 



of India ; of course, with such wholesale poaching not only connived at but 



approved of by some of the senior local authorities, other modes, as small 



meshed nets, snatching, fixing ropes covered with hooks across streams, 



&c, find few legal opponents. Thus the Commissioner of Kumaon 



observes on prohibiting breeding-fish being unfairly captured during the 



spawning season by the institution of close-months in the hills — " I do 



not perceive how the hill-people would be benefited by allowing them 



to go, as they would only come up to the hills during the close season ;" 



and as all are eaten, he considers no waste occurs, whilst the rights and 



amusements of these tribes should not be interfered with. 



317. What is the proportion of the general population who would 



„ „ , . eat fsh could they obtain it ? Owing to only 



Mniority of Population may c o l\ l xi w „ *. j. 



eat fish a tew of the answers to the questions sent to 



the Tehsildars having been received, the 



figures are not so complete as they might have been. In the Meerut 



division, the Tehsildars of Bulundshuhur compute them at 60 per cent. ; 



of Allyghur at 50 per cent.; in Bijnour 50 to 60 per cent. ; in Bareilly 



and Kohilcund 75 per cent. ; and all but high caste Hindus in Shah- 



jehanpur; in Kumaon apparently all the hill-people, and in the Turai 



