( 42 ) 



trapping is not employed. In Mysor and Coorg, the native 

 officials consider that fish, irrespective of time or condition, 

 are captured in every conceivahle manner. In Madias, 

 trapping breeding- fish and young ones appears to be the rule. 

 Fishing weirs are permitted to extend across whole rivers, 

 not allowing even try to pass; there is no close time Avliat' 

 ever anywhere. D.unming and lading out and poiiioning 

 waters are freely resorted to for fishing purposes. At Midnapur 

 (p. clxxxii), breeding-fish are said to be destroyed to a L;re:it 

 extent ; in Burdwan (p. clxxxiii), they are largely taken for 

 consumption ; in fact, they are killed, it ap[)ears from the 

 answers, throughout Bengal, Avhether in Orissa or in Assam. 

 The parent fish being thus shown to be slaughtered when- 

 ever and wliCrever procui'able, it is necessary to enquire 

 whether the jrij fare any better. In the Panjab, prior to 

 the introduction of the present rules regulating the mini- 

 mum slue of the mesh at 1^ inches hetween each knot, large 

 numbers of young fish Avere sold as chilioas ; the destruc- 

 tion is considered to be now diminishing. In Oudh, it is 

 asserted that in twenty districts Ay are captured in largo quan- 

 tities, but that this does not take place in two ; the reports 

 from four native otfu-ials give G8,30() ir.aunds of fry as yearly 

 killed in their districts alone. If fry are calculated at 

 one grain each, a destruction in four districts of up- 

 wards of l'l,O00,00(),00O grains of young fish, which, 

 in less than a year, wouKl, taking an average of the sorts, 

 weigli as many pounds— so the oj)inion that nothing need be 

 done may be open to dispute. In Bombay, the fry of fish 

 appear to bo almost universally captiu'cd throughout the 

 rains. In the Ilaidarabad Assigned Districts the same uni- 

 versal destruction is reported, as is it also in Mysor and 

 Coorg. In the Madras Presidency, the fry are wastefuUy 

 destroyed whenever and Avherever they can be obtained ; nets 

 that will catch a " black-ant," or detain a mosquito, or even 

 the eggs of lish are recorded, Avhilst the interspace of the 

 sxibstances forming traps is said to be less. In Bengal, fry 

 are stated not to be wastefuUy destroyed, but only to be cap- 

 tured whenever they can be caught, either fur eating or 

 storing tanks Avith (]). clxxxi) ; as ol)serves the Commissioner 

 of Itajshahye (p. clxxxvi), bamboo contrivances for fish- 

 catching are in use in every paddy-field ; in Assam 

 (p. ccxxix), "many of the river fish, some of which attain a 

 large size, come annually up the smaller streams and deposit 

 their spawn, and the young ones of these are during the 



