CHAPTER XXV. 



A PLEA FOR RIVER FISHERIES. 



Sctli Green, the noted pisciculturist, Bays: "Expend one thousandth 

 part of the sum spent in tilling the land iu tilling the water, and fish may 

 be sold in our markets at two cents a pound. — Report of the Commis- 

 sioners of Agriculture. — Washington, 1870. 



I had intended in the foregoing pages to embody, in a move 

 pi i] mlar form, all the piscicultural information contained in my 

 Official Report of 1870 ; but finding that I have failed in some 

 respects, I subjoin extracts from that Report As the Report dealt 

 primarily with my own then District, South Canara, its name 

 (•nines frequently in; but the reader will recognize that the remarks 

 on the peculiar formation of the rivers have equal applicability to 

 other rivers of the West Coast of India ; and that almost alb the 

 other observations have a general, quite as much as a local, perti- 

 nence in India : — 



Rivers. 



6. It will be convenient to treat first of the rivers and then of 

 the sea, and in elucidation of remarks that will follow, it may be 



well to seek attention to the general features of the rivers of South 

 Canara. The district lies between the sea and the high plateau of 

 Mysore and Coorg; most of its rivers consequently take their rise 

 in those provinces, and, as long as their course lies therein, the] 

 beyond the jurisdiction of the Collector of South Canara. Though 

 rapid and rocky at their sources they are tortuous at then- mouths, 

 and subject to much tidal intluence. They would seem to be the 

 natural result of the marginally noted formation of the district. 

 Furthermore, Canara and its boundary hills are 



Hindu mythology . ' 



says that the «i»'i<' the tn.-t land that meets and receives the full 

 i^l'ZC:':l *™» °* &» south-wesl monsoon, and the 



ocean, the boundary annual rainfall on the coast is l;ii) inches, (in 



oJ which was the 



edge of the Mysore the hill sides id' the interior it is probable that 



