cxlvi 



321. Are breeding -fish and fry de- 

 Bree.ling-fish and fry <le- stroye d ?— They are evidently, and in every 



stroyed. i • • • . i • ^ ., . J 



division, taken in any way they can be 

 procured. 



322. The modes of fishing are very diversified ; at para. 315, I have 

 , t .... , . enumerated some of those which are pursu- 



Modes of fishing employed. , . ... l 



ed ; — weirs across streams which are, or ought 

 to be, the highways for breeding-fish and their fry, both in the hills and 

 in the plains ; screens, fixed nets, and traps capturing breeding-fish and 

 their fry attempting to find an exit to rivers as the yearly floods subside ; 

 the damming of whole rivers in the hills diverting their courses, and 

 taking out the large fish, leaving the fry to perish. The placing of 

 strings armed with hooks across the usual run of fish so as to capture 

 some, but injure many ; the use of lines thus armed for the purpose 

 of snagging breeding-fish by which some are taken, but far more, barba- 

 rously wounded, wander away to die ; by knocking breeding-fish on the 

 head with sticks, or capturing them by any poaching practice as they go 

 up small streams in order to deposit their eggs. In short, by the taking 

 of fish from breeding to the most minute in every possible way, — a plan 

 which is said not to be waste, because they are eaten. 



323. The foregoing appear to show— (1) that more than half the 

 c . people of the North-West Provinces might 



eat fish could they obtain it ; (2) that the 

 markets are not sufficiently supplied; (3) that the fish in the waters, 

 especially of the hills and in the Jumna, are decreasing j (4) that there 

 are no restrictions against the most destructive and barbarous modes of 

 poaching ; (5) that breeding-fish are trapped everywhere ; (6) that fry 

 are killed, often wantonly, wherever obtainable; (7) that fixed and 

 unfixed nets with most minute meshes are used to destroy immature 

 fish; (8) that weirs and wicker traps with very fine interstices are 

 employed wherever they can be fixed, without any close time; (9) 

 that waters are dammed to obtain the fish, and (10) that they are 

 sometimes poisoned. 



324. We now arrive at the reasons that have been advanced 



for permitting matters to continue as they 

 Reasons for masterly inacti- i i • i u i i i i 



vitv ave > a which would probably come under 



one of the following heads : — (1) that fish 

 are not employed to any extent as food, consequently are not worth 

 legislative interference. This proposition is disposed of in paragraph 

 317, which would show that above half the population, which in 1865 

 comprised nearly 28 millions of people, might eat fish could they obtain 

 it. (2) That no wasteful destruction of fish occurs, so remedial measures 

 are uncalled for. This likewise cannot be maintained, as even were the 

 destruction of fry not waste, they are shown to be killed, but left to rot in 

 places, as in damming streams in hills, in weirs as in Goruckpur, and by 

 keeping up standing weirs, as in the Koana River, preventing the fish es- 

 caping from poisoned waters, and which, when so captured, could only be 

 used as manure. However, some officials admit waste, but (3) consider such 

 as a prescriptive right attained by long usage. To this, omitting the legal 

 question which comes under the next head, I will only answer by quoting 

 the opinion of one of the local officers : — "Prescriptive right to do wrong 



