Ixviii 



alion. T/te SfCfcl.ii-i/ of Slate for India {iwwa 17l.li, KSG'J) dl.sorvcd, " lli:il, 

 the consorvaiicy ami control of tbc lisliorios, ami the iiicasiires biiL;;>otit(j«l 

 for the improvement of pisciculture throughout Iiulia, constitute suhjecls 

 which certainly ilcscrvc attention from your Govcrnmeutj (that of Imlia) 

 ami I fully approve of the arrangements that have been made. * * la 

 carrying out your views, mucii will depend on the interest that is taken 

 by local olficers." 



lit). I may hero mention that prior to the commencement of tliis 



cnipiiry, I observed in the ' ^ladras Medical 



Fi-esli wutor fisl.LTi.s in Mu- J„i,ru;il'—" Amongst the animal productions 



of Uiis iiivcsii'iitiou. ''' Indui, iish meet with the least sympathy, 



and the greatest persecution, especially as 

 regards the frcsli-water tribes, which liave to struggle for bare existence 

 in rivers that periodically diminish to little streams, and often dry up 

 during tlie hot months; or in tanks from which the water totally dis- 

 appears. Hesides these and many other disadvantages, they have their 

 natural enemies in the ova state, in youth, and maturity; but amongst 

 these foes mankind is perhaps the greatest. A fish diet is much esteem- 

 ed and procurable at a comparatively cheap rate, because these unfor- 

 tunate creatures are captured by every one who gets the chance : 

 the larger species are killed irrespective of time and season ; the young- 

 are destroyed for curries ; water-courses arc poisoned for the purpose of 

 obtaining them in large quantities for salting and transmission to distant 

 markets ; whilst they meet with no protection even from inferior foes. 

 Now that every article of consumption is increasing in value, the propa- 

 gation of fish must become a subject worthy of great consideration, 

 especially as they live in places which are otherwise unscrviccalilc to man 

 in the production of food, excciiting in a secondary manner; whilst no 

 grain is rcfpiired for their support, but little trouble for their protection, 

 and they thrive in places which but for them would be deserted wastes. 

 Were it not for the vast number of eggs which Iish deposit, the probabi- 

 lities are that, long ere this, they must have been exterminated in India, 

 cxcei)ting in thinly jiopulated or uniidiabited districts, lor man allows 

 them no law, and were they noxious reptiles, could not more anxiously 

 compass their destruction * *. But now the ))iscine tribes seem to have 

 fallen on evil days, being only protected in or near Hindu temples, for in 

 fact elsewhere they appear to exist solely because man has been unable 

 to destroy them." 



141. Since the foregoing was written, I have visited several of the 

 _ , , .... districts of the Madras Presidency to invcsti- 



I'ersonal obBorvrttioua ill ai3- l i\ iii ici t c 



tricts iu Miidius. gate tlie present state and luture prospects ol 



its fresh-water lisherics, and extract the fol- 

 lowing from my reports. Across the Kistna river is the 13ezwada irri- 

 gation weir^ which on its first construction by preventing the ascent of 

 breeding fish, cavsed them to be detained below it, where they were netted 

 in numbers. Since these first iwo years there has been a gradual dimi- 

 nution of the shad, as well as of all other kinds of fish, whether strictly 

 iVesli-waler or ]iartially marine ; whilst the fishermen complain that they 

 cannot now (ISGS) supjily half the local demand. Abusing the anient as 

 the cause of this, they will not iiereeive that they are doing cpiite as niiicli 

 niiseliicf b)- dc.':.ln)y ing the fry of the fiesh-walcr species, i saw liltli- 



