cxlix 



(lie end of the rains in baskets placed in fields at the outlets for ii'iif>-a- 

 (ion water; in the cold weather small fry are caught in nets of all kinds 

 having very small incshcs. Streams are turned, the large fish taken out, 

 and the small fry loft to jicrish. Waters are poisoned liy which fish of all 

 sizes and kinds are destroyed. Formerly nets with every size of mesh 

 were used, hut now, with consent of the land-owners, it has been limited 

 to one and-a-half inches between each knot. I have found no difiTiculty 

 in regulating the size of the mesh. In all streams or lakes, where there 

 are large sorts of fish, no net with a mesh, less than that given above, 

 shoidd be allowed. In places where there are only small kinds, smaller 

 meshes may be permitted, but very guardedly. No objection exists 

 to prohibiting the sale of small fry in the bazars; it is (piite easily 

 carried out; neither arc there objections to jneventing the catching of fish 

 in the hills for the first two months of the monsoon. 'J'his, however, 

 would be difiicult in the Himalayas as the streams are all in Native 

 States. The Chiefs woidd, however, readilj^ co-operate." The same officer 

 reported (December 1 ] th, 1871) that "wasteful destruction of fish is 

 carried on to a fearful extent; the following are the chief modes : — from 

 March to the beginning of the rains, streams are dammed and turned. 

 In this district the mountain torrents, when tlicy burst (iom the hills, 

 have three or four different beds, all of which are full during thcrain.s, but 

 afterwards only one; one year the stream is in one of these beds, 

 another year another, and so on. The poachers choose a sjiot where the 

 stream and an old bed are in close proximity ; both have good pools 

 in them ; they fix nets right across the stream about a mile, or more, 

 below this spot. First, nets with large meshes, and then nets with 

 smaller meshes. These nets are kept down to the bottom with heavy 

 stones. When the nets are all read}' the}' dam up the stream, and open 

 a water-way into the old bed; the force of the water soon cuts a deep 

 wajr for itself, and then the late bed of the stream is left drj', excejit 

 in the deep holes ; all fish that try to escape down are stojijied by the 

 nets. The poachers then take away all the fish they want, and leave 

 the rest to perish gradually as the pools dry up. 1 have sometimes seen 

 small fry lying dead, six and eight inches deep, in these lioles. Tha 

 poachers, in a day or two, do the same thing somewhere else lower down, 

 and after a month or so, when the fish have become accustomed to the 

 new bed, they commence at the top again, and return the stream into 

 its late bed, catching all the fish in the new bed. Sec. This used to be 

 one of the most dcadi}' modes of poaching; besides this, during the 

 above period, they were in the habit of using nets of verj' small meshes, 

 with which they caught the young fry of the big kinds of fish. In 

 conjunction with the zemindars, I have put a stop to these two ways 

 of ]Ki:\ching, and hence the number of small fry seen by Dr. Day ; if 

 he had seen the Song in 1808, he would not have seen the fpiantities of 

 small fry he alludes to, and if, when he did sec them, he had had the 

 river netted, he would have Iniind a total absence of fish four or five 

 years old." fMy re])ort was in 187J,andas follows: — •" The Song River, 

 one of the tributaries of the Ganges (not replenished from melted snow, or 

 ice water), joins the main river a few miles above llurdwar, and when 

 examined (Feliruary) contained but little water, except every here and 

 there, where deep pools existed. Owing to the clearness of the stream, 



