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necessity for takiiif^ aetive steps ; nt tlie same t!mo lio ailmillod injnvy 

 must cvnntiinlly ensue. Tlio 0[lic>athtg Collector, Mr. /Irms/ronr/, liow- 

 evor, continues, — " I venture, with much dinklenco, to dissent from 

 ]\Ir. MePherson's opinion, and woidd earnestly urge the necessity of 

 immediate action in this matter. I thinlc that if effectual measures 

 of remedy be not now taken, every one interested in the prosperity 

 of this district will regret it afterwards. I am certain a wholesale 

 destruction of fine fish of full growth is day by day going on at the 

 ]\1alianuddi weirs, and what is worse than this, the young fry perish iu 

 nnmhers beyond calculation." He also remarked upon the great de- 

 struction so easily carried on by the clumsiest contrivances below the 

 weirs. 3Ir. Leviiige, the Cliief Engineer of these irrigation works, 

 observing upon the obstruction caused by these same weirs, says, — 

 " the real injury to the fisheries is probably caused by the wholesale 

 slaughter of fish by the natives whilst thus temporarily stopped, 

 and I think it would be quite proper if an Act were passed, render- 

 ing it illegal to haul a net or otherwise destroy fish witliin a distance 

 of half a mile below a weir during the season at which fish migrate." 

 ]\lr. Fouracre.s, in chnrge of the Naraje weir, observed, — " the fish are 

 certainly stopped for about eight months of the year." Mr. McMillan, 

 ]']xecutive Engineer in charge of the Jobra or great Mahanuddi weir, 

 reported, — "to a ceitain extent the weirs have enabled the lishermen to 

 catch more fish than they did before during the dry weather. * * Eelow 

 the weir the fish are taken, as it were, wholesale, and great destruction 

 takes place." I will here mention tliat the weirs on the Malianuddi 

 and its branches are the following, proceeding down-stream from Na- 

 raje, which is 67^ miles from the sea, where the river divides into two 

 portions : the one termed the Kajuri, passing Cuttack on one side, de- 

 scends lo the sea; the other division, under the name of the Mahanuddi, 

 runs past the other side of the town en route to the ocean. It having 

 been found that too large an amount of water was running to waste 

 down the Kajuri, besides causing extensive injuries, duo to the river 

 fiooding the country, a bund or weir was thrown across it a little 

 below its head, so as to direct more water into the Mahanuddi branch 

 of the mainstream: this of course decreased the supply in tiic Kajuri 

 to the same amount as it increased it in the Mah.muddi branch. A 

 mile below Cuttack another weir termed the Jobra, GO miles from the 

 sea and 0,400 feet long and 124 feet high, was constructed across the 

 Mahanuddi, thus deepening (he river on that side of the town and for 

 some distance up-stream, whilst near this second weir the river gives 

 off a third or the Baropa branch, which also has a weir across its bead. 

 From personal investigation I most unhesitatingly deny that breeding- 

 fish ever pass up the narrow \inder-sluices of these weirs, but those in 

 the centre of the Jobra and Midnapur weirs, from 45 to 50 feet wide 

 when open, can cause Init little impediment to the ascent of fish ; it is a 

 wide open gap than which nothing can be better. But it is whilst the 

 fish are waiting for them to be opened, and at such times as they are 

 obstructed at these weirs, that their slaughter goes on ; likewise in the 

 dry months, when the spent ones and their fry are endeavouring to 

 return to the sea, and all the waterway is closed against them, that 

 injurj' is caused. The destruction of large fish when in season would 



