CXCIV 



under holy keeping'. In some districts, as Pefju, it was stated tliat some 

 of the fislieiies prior to British rule were in the possession of certain 

 persons or hereditary Ecn Thoog-yees, who paid a fixed annual rent, and 

 kept their overseers and employed coolies, hut no one could fish without 

 their permission, for which a small annual sum was charged. Irres|)ectivc 

 of the direct revenue, huge indirect sums had to be given as gratuities. 

 It appears to me that the statements in Pegu are in reality good proof 

 that the plau which now exists in Upper Burma was also the rule 

 there prior to 1852, when the country was annexed. The Een Gay- 

 gyea Lake fishery appears to have possessed a far-famed celebrity for 

 a long period of time, traders coming from great distances in the montli 

 of June to invest iu fresh, salted, dried, or smoked fish for disposal in 

 distant markets. According to O'Riley, " owing to the profits realized 

 on this trade, the competition for the purchase of the fish at the lake 

 became so great, that it was not unusual to make advances several sea- 

 sous previous to the completion of the contract. So valuable a source 

 of revenue to the Burmese Government as this fishing appeared was 

 wot allowed to escape easily; accordingly the sum of 60 viss of silver, or 

 about 6,000 ticals, each equal to Rs. 1-6, or Hs. 8,237-8 annually, was 

 exacted as a Royal tax from the hereditary Chief of the lake." 



303. There are two principal descriptions of fisheries, namely, 



T,. , i 1 c 1 • those iu the rivers, and those in tanks or 



Rivers nud tank fislieiics. « i ■ i i . .^i ■ i ^ i < < 



"eongs, which are due to the inundated state 

 of the country during the rains, either augmenting the size of those 

 existing, or turning large tracts of country into enormous expanses of 

 water. In Arracan the amount of fresh-water is insignificant in com- 

 parison with what exists iu the other two Commissionerships, and which 

 call for a more detailed notice. 



364. The principal rivers of British Burma are the Irrawaddi 

 Priiicipul rivers in British ^^^'^ Salween, which havo Alpine sources, and 

 Huruift, some witb Aljiiue the Pegu, an afiluent of the first, which i^:; 

 "•""<='• destitute of such an origin, as it takes its 



vise in the Pegu hills or " Yomas," as they are termed, and which divide 

 the Pegu District from the Teuasserim, wherein is the Sittoung or Poung- 

 loung River. The Irrawaddi has various afliluents, and in its course 

 divides and sub-divides into many branches, becoming comparatively 

 eballow during the dry season of the year, but an impetuous torrent in 

 the rains, flooding the surrounding country, turning plains into lakes, 

 and uncultivated tracts into vast fishing districts. The most northern 

 portion of the Irrawaddi, where I commenced my investigations, was at 

 Maudalay, the present capital of Native or Upper Burma. In this 

 State the river, as a rule, did not appear to have any large amount of 

 contiguous tanks suitable for fish-breeding, which would be filled as the 

 river overflows; consequently most of it is carried on in the stream and 

 small creeks along its course. As the Irrawaddi commences to pass tlic> 

 frontier, the natural tanks and sub-divisions of the river increase, and 

 the fisheries become augmented; in fiict, below Prome the country oi 

 Pegu m.ay be looked upon as one large delta formed by this river, and 

 entirely distinct from the comparatively dry condition of Upper Burma, 

 which the south-west monsoon very slightly affects, and where the 

 river possesses high banks. In, or prior to, the June or south-west 



