INDIAN CYPRINIDE. 461 
Should our success be complete, from every moderately sized female Ruee 
we should have on the commencement of the rains from five to ten hundred 
thousand fry, which, as the waters rise would be quite able to take care of 
themselves till the next season, when it would be necessary again to destroy 
the rapacious kinds, as before. 
The repair of the carays* of Mysore is said, by Buchanan, to be attended 
with considerable expense, nevertheless it is understood to be an indispensable 
object to have them in perfect repair, since the fertility of the country depends 
entirely on them. The plan here proposed of converting them to new pur- 
poses of utility would add to their importance, and the interest of keeping 
them up, without in any way increasing their expense. 
On the fishes of Bengal, Assam, and other provinces subject to the inun- 
dations of the larger rivers, we can exercise no control, nor is it desirable that 
we should, even if it were in our power, the supply of fish being plentiful and 
constant enough ; but in the higher parts of the plains, near the foot of the 
mountains where the larger Cirrhins and Barbels retire during the dry season 
for the purpose of spawning, fisheries might be carried on with advantage to 
a considerable extent. See p. 339. 
It would here be out of place to enter on the subject of sea fisheries, and 
before we could do so with advantage it would be necessary to pay as much 
attention, or more, to the fishes of our coasts as we have devoted to those of 
our rivers. 
Already we have attained one important piece of information regarding 
the value of the Sw/ea fish of our estuaries, Polynemus sele, Buch., which from 
the earliest times has been celebrated throughout China for its isinglass. 
This substance was formerly supposed to be afforded only by certain fishes 
in the rivers of Muscovy, from whence it was exported to all parts of 
Kurope, where, from its high price, its use is chiefly confined to the arts. 
* Such is the name by which the reservoirs are known in Southern India when kept up 
for irrigation. 
3 R 
