xci 



iain iliem wlioii erect ctl. If, as alre.idy describctl, the Indian favnior diverts 

 the whole stream in ]itaoes, " tlic oj)ti()n tniglit be given him, ' cilhcr 

 jon must leave a lair passage in the river for tlie fry, and put a grating 

 before your own artillcial channel, or if j'ou must needs have every drop 

 of water in the river run through your own fields, then you must leave 

 that passage unobstructed to the fry,' so that eventually, if ])ossiblc, 

 they may rejoin the river by means of the waste water." Some hsh spawn 

 below these dams, other young fish remain in the pools above, consc- 

 tpienf.ly all are not destroyed, and stock pools, it is projiosed, should be 

 conserved in ail these rivers. The fixed engines, in use in South Canara, 

 are elosely-woven eruives termed ' Kuri,' which is a basket made on the 

 same principle as the mouse-trap, with narrowing entrances, and springy 

 bamboo spikes projecting inwards, preventing any exit, and from one to 

 twelve feet in length ; the smaller ones are placed in irrigated fields, the 

 larger ones in main runs. The ' Voddu' or ' Woddu,' or fishing weir, is 

 like a large hurdle the full breadth of the river, a line of stakes being 

 driven in across a river, split baml)oos are interlaced, aud the whole faced 

 with bushes, so that the stream passes, although all fisli are sto]iped. Gaps 

 exist, and here eruives or ' kuris'of 10 or 12 fcetiu length are fixed. Tlie 

 Coorgs annually ]ilace these Woddus at the heads of the Canara rivers to 

 intercept all the fish returning from spawning. The ' K:\n(];\ri' is just 

 like a large kuri with the addition of an ujiper liji extended forwards 

 and upwards at an angle of '15 degrees. It is placed in a uatural 

 run in the river, between boukier.s of rock, fdling up the whole 

 passage, minor ways having been blocked up. The long protruding 

 lip ascends above, and prevents fish passing over the trap; thus every 

 descending fish is captured, and twice daily it is examined. Where 

 there are no convenient ra[)ids, they are artificially constructed in the 

 shallows, by placing long lines of stones iu a V shape across the river, 

 the apex being fitted with a ' kitndari.' The ' ycpu' and ' bdikuri' 

 are on the same principle, but better adapted to falls. The first is a 

 platform made of bamboo, somewhat bellied so as to liold the stream, 

 aud propped up so as to lead ladder-wise froiti the top to the bottom 

 of the waterfall at an angle of 45°. The fall is thus broken, and eon- 

 ducted with a rush into the b.'iikuri, or wide-mouthed kuri, the con- 

 struction of the baikuri being very similar to that of an ordinary kuri, 

 and the rush aud concentration of the water being heavj', fish once 

 down cannot re-ascend, but are quickly beaten to the bottom and 

 smothered by other fish. The yepu is a less elaborate adaptation of 

 this last conlirivance to smaller falls. The ' kunjol' also is a rude sort 

 of kuri. If a few stock pools are reserved, and poisoning and the use 

 of fixed engines prohibited, a close time m.ay bo dispensed with. The size 

 of the mesh employed is from throe-fourths of an inch in circumference 

 aud ujnvards. rrohibiting the use of nets with meshes of less than four 

 inches in circumference is deprecated, on the ground that the smaller fish 

 having ininnmity from netting must disproportionately increase on the 

 larger netted sorts. [To show that this is not the case, I would refer to the 

 Sind fisheries, para. 47 ; and to those of the sparsely ])oi)ulated dis- 

 tricts in British Burma. The Thames fisheries are not analogous to those 

 of India, as in this last counlry the majority of the finny (rilies, even tlio 

 most of the carps, arc greedily carnivorous, but this is not the case in the 



