CXC1V 



under holy keeping. In some districts, as Pegu, it was stated that some 

 of the fisheries prior to British rale were in the possession of certain 

 persons or hereditary Een Thoogyees, who paid a fixed annual rent, and 

 kept their overseers and employed coolies, hut no one could fish without 

 their permission, for which a small annual sum was charged. Irrespective 

 of the direct revenue, large indirect sums had to be given as gratuities. 

 It appears to me that the statements in Pegu are in reality good proof 

 that the plan which now exists in Upper Burma was also the rule 

 there prior to 1852, when the country was annexed. The Een Gay- 

 gyee Lake fishery appears to have possessed a far-famed celebrity for 

 a long period of time, traders coming from great distances in the month 

 of June to invest in fresh, salted, dried, or smoked fish for disposal in 

 distant markets. According to O'Riley, " owing to the profits realized 

 on this trade, the competition for the purchase of the fish at the lake 

 became so great, that it was not unusual to make advances several sea- 

 sons previous to the completion of the contract. So valuable a source 

 of revenue to the Burmese Government as this fishing appeared was 

 not allowed to escape easily; accordingly the sum of 60 viss of silver, or 

 about 6,000 ticals, each equal to Rs. 1-6, or Ks. 8,237-8 annually, was 

 exacted as a Royal tax from the hereditary Chief of the lake/'' 



363. There are two principal descriptions of fisheries, namely, 



r,. , , , „ , . those in the rivers, aud those in tanks or 



Rivers and tank fisheries. ■ ,, , . , ' . , , . , 



"eengs, which are due to the inundated state 



of the country during the rains, either augmenting the size of those 

 existing, or turning large tracts of country into enormous expanses of 

 water. In Arraean the amount of fresh-water is insignificant in com- 

 parison with what exists in the other two Commissionerships, and which 

 call for a more detailed notice. 



364. The principal rivers of British Burma are the Irrawaddi 

 Principal rivers in British an ^ Salween, which have Alpine sources, and 



Burma, some with Alpine the Pegu, an affluent of the first, which is 

 sources. destitute of such an origin, as it takes its 



rise in the Pegu hills or " Yomas/'' as they are termed, and which divide 

 the Pegu District from the Tenasserim, wherein is the Sittoung or Poung- 

 loung River. The Irrawaddi has various affluents, and in its course 

 divides and sub-divides into many branches, becoming comparatively 

 shallow during the dry season of the year, but an impetuous torrent in 

 the rains, flooding the surrounding country, turning plains into lakes, 

 and uncultivated tracts into vast fishing districts. The most northern 

 portion of the Irrawaddi, where I commenced my investigations, was at 

 Mandalay, the present capital of Native or Upper Burma. In this 

 State the river, as a rule, did not appear to have any large amount of 

 contiguous tanks suitable for fish-breeding, which would be filled as the 

 river overflows; consequently most of it is carried on in the stream and 

 small creeks along its course. As the Irrawaddi commences to pass the 

 frontier, the natural tanks and sub-divisions of the river increase, and 

 the fisheries become augmented; in fact, below Prome the country of 

 Pegu may be looked upon as one large delta formed by this river, and 

 entirely distinct from the comparatively dry condition of Upper Burma, 

 which the south-west monsoon very slightly affects, and where the 

 river possesses high banks. In, or prior to, the June or south-west 



