MALAYAN FISHES. ial 
bok), which ascends the rivers to a considerable distance during the 
breeding season. It arrives on the coast in enormous shoals, and 
twenty eight years ago, as Skeat has recorded, they were invariably 
taken in full roe, when they are in the best condition, 
Recent reports show that Térubok have fallen off both in 
quantity and, as the writer knows from his own experience, in 
quality, those now taken being mostly spent fish in which state 
they are positively unwholesome. 
These fish used to be taken in such numbers that the nets con- 
tained more than the boats could load. Within the past few years 
the writer has, on several occasions, picked up these fish by hand in 
a dying condition apparently choked by silt in their attempt to 
ascend the rivers. Failing to ascend the rivers the Shad must 
either spawn in the sea or in the polluted lower reaches and in either 
case the eggs perish. 
Unfortunately, the migrations of the Térubok do not, as far as 
the writer’s experience goes, take it to the East coast of the Penin- 
sula, so that, the Térubok fishery of Malaya appears to be in 
danger of extinction. 
This introduction would not be complete without some mention 
of the conditions under which the transport of fish from the source 
to the consumer takes place. 
There is a general agreement that transport is bad. Many 
schemes have been evolved for ensuring rapid transport and reduced 
prices, but none of them have been put into practice and probably 
none are commercially practicable. A permanent scheme is re- 
quired that can be built up by degrees; the writer has advocated 
in two reports the use of cold storage. While allowing that the 
expenditure will be great we should not lose sight of the fact that 
it will be a permanent and sound investment. 
Let us consider the existing conditions first. 
In a temperate climate fish will keep fresh for days. Here, 
near the Equator, fish caught in the morning are in an advanced state 
of decomposition before the evening. Decay is arrested by the use 
of ice. For instance, ice manufactured in Kuala Lumpur is taken 
by train to Port Swettenham and sold to small middlemen who 
go to sea and purchase from the fishermen. These middlemen are 
bound as a rule to sell the fish to the ice dealers, who again sell to 
other middlemen, who sell to the retailers in the markets. The 
result is that fish costing $15 a pikul at sea cost $80 a pikul in 
Kuala Lumpur, 30 miles away. 
Ice melts rapidly in the trains, in the boats, and in the mar- 
kets. A box of fish must therefore contain an enormous proportion 
of ice to allow for wastage, and the fish instead of being fresh, cold, 
and wholesome are in a swollen and sodden condition, 
