Hi 



ia cavricil on Ly persons from the banks throng'hout the year, anil a nxnnljor 

 of bieuiling- (iah must be victimised in this way. However, the mis- 

 cliievous practices of poisoniny the waters and trapping' the lisli appear to 

 be unknown. The smallest distance between the knots of the meshes 

 of the nets, it is considered, shoulil Ije iialf an inch ; tlie]iublie sale of the 

 fry does not ap[)car to be known, they being- consumed liy their takers, or, 

 should there be a surjilus, being privately disposed of. The Axshtaul Col- 

 lector remarked of his district, that in addition to fishing by means of nets 

 and trapping', nallas, rivers, and tanks are in the hot weather dammed up 

 with bunds, and poisonous drugs are thrown into the water, so that the iish 

 either die, or, becoming' stupeiied, iloat on the surface, and are easily caught. 

 Angling is occasionally resorted to, Ijut only, as a rule, where the water 

 is too deep to admit of a bund being- erected. The practice of 

 poisoning tish has, to a certain extent, been stopjied in the Ijokah Talooka, 

 owing to the ndes of the Forest Department, under which is prohibited 

 the cutting the small twigs and leaves from which the stupefying drugs are 

 made. The size of the mesh of the nets does not seem to vary very 

 much in the dilferent talookas, the smallest being from one-sixth to one 

 quarter of an inch between the knots. In lielgaum, however, and 

 the neighbonrhooil, a net with even smaller meshes is used for the purj)ose 

 of catching' prawns and a small lisli called " moree.'' Nets with minute 

 meshes are used, as a rule, during' the rains, and with larger meshes during- 

 the Cold season and hot weallier, but this is not strictly observed. No 

 difliculty is considered to exist, in organising- a scheme to prevent tlie 

 present wholesale destruction of fish, by regulating the size of the small- 

 est mesh of the nets that will be permitted, by determining at what 

 Bcasons nets with different sized meshes may be employed, by pro- 

 hibiting- the sale of the fry of fishes in the bazars, and forljidding- tlie 

 eaptiu-e of fish at any rate duriug- the first two months of the breeding' 

 season. 



107. The Acliiig Collector of Bharwar (March 29th, 1870) propos- 

 ed selling the fisheries by auction, either 

 Opimons of tlio European , f ; ^^ f ^, . „^. f^,„. .g 



omciiils of tlic Dliiu-wai- Collec- ■'■'.'. ,i . , , l- j. 



torate. at a tune, m order to give tlie lessee tinie to 



improve them, lie observed that a former 

 Collector on several occasions hail done so at Seerbiirdghee in Bankipur 

 Talooka; selling that in one tank for iJOO rupees, for others as much 

 as 80 to 100 rupees have been given. There are, taking the district 

 all round, U])wai'ds of two hundred tanks in wliich the right to net 

 fish might be sold. There should be strict rules as to the size of cer- 

 tain fish that should not be allowed to be removed, but beyond fixing a 

 minimum of mesh, and protecting the young of certain descriptions, other 

 restrictions are not advocated. The money collected from tliis source 

 would, in this (Jollectorate, prolialdy yieUl about 1(),000 rupees per 

 annum, and .-jhoiild be credited to local funds, to be expended on the 

 tanks which alTurd lishing. In many cases, sleps might betaken to 

 provide an inner and deeper tank into which the fish might be driven on 

 tlie water becoming- very low. Thus, not only the tanks would be im- 

 jn-oved, but the amount of fish might be augmented, adding to the 

 food and comfort of the poorer classes, whose interests in this particular ])oint 

 have been hitherto neglected. Subsecpiently (November iiOth, 1871), the 



