Ill 



4. With rercreuce to tlie (jiiostions issiiecl witli my letter of Sej^tem- 



licr 17tli, 1871, the following' is a svn(>i)sis of 



WImt is tho proportion of (l,o d,^. answers received. First, «.? fo he prvpor- 



Sfncral nopiilntioii who coiisuuic .. „,, , 7,- , , , , 



fisl, ? tion of tke general, popuLatton 7vho would eat 



JisJi could thci/ obtain it!' Out of 41 native 

 officials who have replied, the following are the figures given — 



Irrespective of tliese, in 10 'the ma,jority of the people,' in 5 'a small 

 proportion,' and in 1 ' none' of population are said to cat fish, but in the 

 last, the reason given is, ' because there are none to eat.' The Mahomedans, 

 except the Slieeas at Jalandur, as a rule do so, iniless prcvenled by local 

 objections (see para. 2) : most of the Hindus in towns or along the banks 

 of large rivers, unless they are Brahmins, whilst the rural jiopulation is 

 more averse to it. 



5. Iloiv are the local markets supplied wif/i fish ? is a question 



answered by some Tehsildars directly ; by 

 Locd nmrkcts insulTicicntly ^ more' indirectly. Seventy-six give de- 

 suiipiicil with hsh. . Z 1 /i 1^- • 1 1 



hnite answers, which may be tlius diviued : 



ill 7 tehsils the markets are fully supplied; in 2 tbey are moderately so; 

 in 10 sufficiently only during the cold season ; in 1 only during the 

 rains; iu 48 insufficiently all the year round, and in 8 not at all. In 

 Ilusliiarpur there are said to be no markets, the people only capturing fish 

 for their own consumption ; in 2 tehsils fish are exchanged for grain. 

 Where fish are sold, the i>rice of the better sorts bears the same pio- 

 jioi tion to that of the liest mutton, as the piiee of inferior fish to that 

 of inferior mutton, and varies from one-third that of mutton to an e(pial 

 price with it. Salt-fish does not find much of a sale. 



0. Have the fish ijicreased, decreased, or remained stationary ? is 



replied to by 78 Tehsildars, an increase being 



I'rcsriit stnto of the fisliniies. rppoited by 13, a stationary state by 32, and 



Di'struction of hrccdiiicr iish in , i oo a r i 



hilly districts. ^ decrease by 33. A (^ause of decre^ase is 



stated at l)elhi to be the Okla weir, which 

 crosses the Jumna near that city, and does not possess any fish jiass in 

 it (see para. 43). In the Sialkot Division the wholesale destruction of 

 Mahaseer by means of fixed nets is adverted to in the aflluents of tlio 

 Chenab. 'Colouel Macpherson' observes, that he "can testify to the 

 lislieries in the Ganges and Jumna having deteriorated very greatly in 

 the last eight years. * * One can haidl}' see fish moving now-a day, 

 whereas in the years 1 have mentioned (|!^G1 — G3) we used to hear and 

 see shoals of large mahaseer on the feed, three or four times a day." 



