Ixxxix 



109. On Novcml)cr 28tli, ISHS, llio IMn.lrns riovonimonl: sanc- 

 tioned Us. :J,n()() (2,000 wns only expcnde.l) 

 Jrl^tl C^;!.,';: ''""- towards canyinn, „„t a year's ex^.injental 



tii.'u ol pisciculture lu tlic rivers o( ISontli Ca- 

 nava, coiicerninf:; whieli tlio C^oi^/tv'/o/- (August 7thj 1S70) rc]ioitcd in full. 

 ]\Tany of tlic rivers descend from the Gliats of ISIysore and Coorg, and 

 their oriirins and portions of their course are in forcifrn territory. The 

 poisoning' of fish is popular, and has been lessened with great dilRcuIty, 

 more especially as it is freely resorted to in Mysore and Coorg, and tluis, 

 irrespective of the immediate in jury they cause, the rivers become tainted 

 lor miles below. During the season of the coiree crops the pulpcrs are 

 always at work, and tlieir refuse runs inio (he liend of tlic Puiswani 

 river, defiling it for miles and apji.'irently killing the fish, which is said 

 not to be a necessity. It may be doubted whether poisoning rivers or 

 the wholesale destruction of fry is most injurious to fisheries ; and 

 although it was found imjiossiblc to obtain exactly accurate information 

 n])on the number of small-meshed cruives employed in the districts, sufii- 

 cient dafa existed for concluding th:it there were at least 1,000 on the 

 Netrjlvat}' river and its aflhients, and calculating that every one of the 

 cruives captures on an average .'5,000 fish in a d.ay, then there are as 

 many as 9l',r)00,000 tiny fry destroyed for no ad('(piate i)ur]>ose, in a 

 single month, in one river alone. These closely-woven bamboo cruives 

 were forbidden and vigorously hunted out of the rivers, and the result 

 of these two steps alone, of jnohibiting poisoning and the use of these 

 small cruives in the rivers, "has l)ecn, that the most ignorant, and there- 

 fore, the most obstinate o]iponents have been convinced by the testimony 

 of their own senses, and have exclaimed, to use their own words, " truly 

 the river is everywhere Imhhlhig with fry," and what is still more to the 

 jioint, their practice has not belied their words, for they have taken to 

 fishing on grounds that were before considered profitless. * * * 

 Two year.s' discouragement of poisoning, and one year's discouragement 

 of fine cruives, has worked such a change, that it has been demonstrated 

 beyond the cavil even of the ignorant and of the interestedly opposing, 

 that marked advantages can be reaped from the adoption of these two 

 simple measnres alone. * * * While the south-west monsoon 

 prevails, the ample rainfall on this coast su]i])lies abundant water for irri- 

 gation purposes, and the rivers are the while too turbulent to be diverted. 

 15ut as the dry season commences, and water is wanted for the irrigation 

 of the second crop of rice, the rivers have settled down to more manageable 

 ])roportioiis, and near their sources, it becomes an easy matter for the 

 farmers to collect the boulders in the stream, lay them in a line across 

 it, and after filling in the interstices with shingle from the bed, to stop 

 the whole with clay and bushes from the lianks. A temporary and in- 

 cx]ieiisivc, yet ciroctive dam, is thus run up annually by every farmer 

 that has ground conveniently situated for irrigation, though it is com- 

 jilctely swept away by the first Hood of the next south-west monsoon, 

 it lasts throughout the hot weather, throughout the life-time of the Ay, 

 and the river or rivulet being thus completely cut ofl^, is diverted entirely 

 into an irrigation channel." The fry gliding down the stream pass 

 with the water into the irrigation channel and so into the rice " fields 

 that have been carefully levelled by man, and partitioned witii narrow and 



