INDIAN CYPRINID&. 459 
A single female Carp weighing only nine pounds has been found by 
Bloch to contain no less than six hundred thousand ova; and by Schneider. 
one, ten pounds weight, was found to contain seven hundred thousand ova, 
or eggs. 
The fecundity of the Ruee, Catla, and Mrigala, has not yet been ascertain- 
ed, but from their close affinity to the Carp we may suppose them to corres- 
pond in this respect with that species ; the question, however, is one that may 
be easily ascertained by weighing a grain of the roe and ascertaining the num- 
ber of globules it contains, while these will be to the whole roe what one grain 
is to its entire weight. The result will show that these species are capable of 
yielding, by their extraordinary fertility, a source of food as inexhaustible as 
the sands of the ocean, could we only bring their propagation and the safety 
of the young sufficiently within our control. 
In the reservoirs above described, we have every facility for effecting this 
object on a scale of great magnitude, without in any way interfering with the 
other uses of the water. 
There are certain kinds which though they cannot be said to be carnivor- 
ous, would yet be still more fatal to our object by devouring the spawn or 
eva ; such are the Barbels, so common in the higher parts of our rivers, and 
which but for a knowledge of this trait in their character would, from their 
appearance and flavour, be the first we should recommend for propagation, and 
thus from an ignorance of one simple fact, destroy every chance of success. 
We should not, however, condemn all the Barbels merely from a fault in some 
of the species, the circumstance should impress on our minds the necessity of 
confining the varieties of fish in a single reservoir to the lowest possible num- 
ber of herbivorous kinds, such as the three I have mentioned, namely, Cypri- 
nus rohita, Buch. Cyprinus catla, id. and Cyprinus mrigala, id.; there is reason 
to believe that either of these species would answer equally well in any part 
of the plains of India. As they usually attain a large size, they may be slow 
in coming to perfection, and, therefore, instead of having these three large spe- 
