CCVlll 



closing' of water-courses to fish ascending in the month of May should 

 be prohibited, and the use of close screens until after November.'" The 

 Deputy Commissioner of Mergui (August 3rd, 1872) reported "that the 

 fishing in his district is all sea-fishing-, and it is not known where the 

 fish breed, fee" [This will stand over for the report on the marine 

 fish and fisheries.] The Deputy Commissioner of Tounglwo (June 24th, 

 1872 ) observed " that all fish caught are killed, both breeding and young 

 ones.''' Fish breed in June and July, in which latter month the 

 country becomes inundated, and the fry enter the small creeks, and 

 thence find their way to the paddy-fields, and are caught by the culti- 

 vators. The ' Nga-yan' [Ophiocephalus siriatits~\ is, I believe, the 

 only large fish which, when very young, leaves the rivers and is found 

 in the paddy-fields. The people use 'yethai/ a bamboo frame-work, 

 with a mat bottom, dragged sometimes by buffaloes and sometimes 

 pushed by a man ; no fish, let the size be ever so small, can escape. 

 These instruments are used in the paddy-fields and swampy ground 

 during the monsoon generally/'' Sees no reason for altering the mesh 

 of nets or fence months in hilly districts. 



381. The Commissioner of Pegu (March 27th, 1872) reported upon 



ft the damming up of certain creeks in the 

 Opinions on bunding streams p township with bunds, by the fishermen 



fur hiking purposes. » . .. * .' J n , . 



renting the same, to the impeding of their 

 free navigation and the flooding of the neighbouring lands. The 

 Principal Revenue Settlement Officer, in the course of his season's work, 

 observed the same evil which has been brought to notice by the 

 Assistant Engineer in charge of the Pegu and Iwantay roads." 

 f Respecting this bunding of streams by fishermen, I observed on my 

 report on the fisheries of that province in October 2nd, 1869, "but the 

 other form of bunding tanks, or rather bunding streams into tanks, is 

 most destructive, for it must be remembered that in Burma there is no 

 necessity to conserve water as in India; on the contrary, they have 

 generally too much. An earthen dam or bund is thrown across a stream, 

 which, of course, causes the water to collect above it : next, smaller ones 

 are erected parallel with the course of the stream, or cutting off a portion 

 of it from the main channel. The water is laded out, the whole of 

 the fish captured, and this is continued portion by portion, till not 

 a fish is left. The injury is not prospective, it is now going on, and 

 thus in one fishery alone the rents have sunk, owing to decrease of fish, 

 as follows : Rs. 700 to 500, and this year to Rs. 200. It is a lazy, 

 destructive, and iniquitous mode of fishing, doing injury to the river, for its 

 bed silts up behind this bund, and thus the neighbouring paddy-fields 

 suffer in times of floods, as well as positively destroying the fisheries; 

 all this bunding of streams should be absolutely prohibited ; the renters 

 can employ bamboo weirs ;" para. 16. "In making an earthen bund, 

 two rows of strong stakes, 6 feet apart, are driven in across the stream, 

 the interval is filled in with grass and clayey mud. When all the fish 

 have been destroyed above this by lading out the water, they leave it and 

 raise another bund lower down the stream. The old stakes and banks 

 are never removed, but remain to be an obstruction to navigation, and 

 floating trees, which often permanently remain ; sometimes the bunds 

 give way, a great volume of water suddenly rushes down, and fortunate 



