CXIX 



cnnglit. in tlie rains cliicfly hy nets, Iiooks, jliinkars, anil bamboo dcrias. 

 'I'lio nets which have meshes of a very sninll size are ilrag'gcil aoioss 

 the water. 1) hi mars do not usually use Iiooks, V)ufc in the larger rivers 

 during the monsoons they not unfrcquently jilaee a rope across the 

 stream, the rope having hooks with dill'erent kinds of baits at a distance 

 of about a cubit ajvait attached to it, and resting upon pumpkins, they 

 examine it every few hours. Weirs are stretched across water-courses. 

 The Goonds are re]iutcd to poison fish ; in fact they are dcstroj'ed indis- 

 criminately at all times of the year, inchidiiig the breeding season. 

 The smallest sized mesh in use takes five meshes wifliin one inch, but tliere 

 would be considerable difficulty in regulating it, unless tlie police force were 

 augmented: however, were it regulated, would propose threc-fourllis of an 

 inch between each knot. No valid objections exist against prohibiting the 

 sale of fry in the bazars, the supply being above the demand. T/ie Collector 

 of Ward/ia answers, that breeding fish and young ones are destroyed to the 

 same extent as in the rest of India, being captured most readily during 

 tlie l)rceding season. The breeding fish often linger in the pools before 

 tke rains commence, and there fall easy victims to all sorts of people. Tlie 

 smallest size of the mi'sh used is between one-fourthand onc-leiithof an inch 

 square, but even cloths are extensively emploj'cd ; the onl^' difiiculty in re- 

 gulating the minimum size in future is " that another class of poor jieople 

 would be pestered witli orders and regulations, which they and their neigh- 

 bours would not understand." " If any regulation is considered necessary, 

 it should be a simjile prohibition to use cloths or nets of a smiiller mesh 

 than three- fourths or one inch square for the capture of fish." Prohibiting 

 the sale of fry would be useless ; " if the mesh of nets is regidatod, and the 

 rules really enforced, there would be no necessity for it; ; if nets are not in- 

 terfered with, the fry will be caught nnd disposed of privately, as the greater 

 portion is now." Tfie Collector of Balughai rcjilies, that breeding fish and 

 young ones are destroyed to a great extent, mostly in the rains, by means of 

 nets with very small meshes, in the rivers, smaller streams, rice-fields, and 

 tanks. Fine bamboo-matting is also used, as well as sticks and cloths. 

 The smallest meshes of nets are less than one-fourth of an inch ; regulating 

 their size would lie useless, no orders could be carried out, and would not 

 recommend prohibiting the sale of the fry in the bazars. 



259. The Deputy Covunissioners' answers of t/ie Jnhalpur Bivhion 



are amalgamated. In Julialpur (ish are said to 



Opinions of tlie Deputy Com- Ijq tnkcu all the year round regardless of season. 



mi.sioncrs of the Jubnlpiir J3,.cp,ii„g and immature oues are destroyed to a 



JjiVlBlOn. , ,,'-HT 11 lO • \ L L 



great, extent ui Maudla and Seoni, tint not so in 

 the Sagar District. In Damoh it is considered that breeding fish are not des- 

 troyed wholesale during the hot season. Spawning fish ajipcar to he goner- 

 ally taken whilst migrating up stream in Jvnie or July for breeding pur- 

 poses, and the fry in September or October whilst attemjiting to jiass from 

 the shallows wliere they are bred to the deciier water. The modes arc 

 thus described in the Seoni District. " Every little streamlet is datnmed 

 up, and the fish are baled out in thousands, l)y people standing in the 

 water. Those escaping this attack are caught in the woven bamboo 

 weirs of the dam. In some of the wilder parts of the district, the 

 poisoning of stagnant jiools, and oj temporarily dammed water, is 

 resorted "to in the hot weather. Not only are all the fish in the pool 



