348 A Flea for Biver Mshe/i Ciiatt. xxv. 



and longest ; they are sometimes as much as twenty feet deep and 

 a quarter of a mil'; lung. They are generally cooler from being 

 overshadowed with trees and more or Less overhung with rocks. 

 Their very depth also would keep them cooler than the wide 

 shallows, extending for miles together, and in the height of the hot 

 season, of a few inches only in depth, under a tropical sun. Their 

 depths afford also concealment, and probably greater facilities for 

 escape from otters. To bottom feeders, which the large fish mainly 

 are, thev must also yield more food than the 



Paras. 51, 52. ' " J 



shallows. J hey are natural resting places for 

 the spawners, as shown below. 



12. These pools are well known to the villagers, are all distin- 

 guished by local names, and are selected as the ones for poisoning ; 

 consequently the poisoning of one of these pools is pretty nearly 

 equivalent, as far as the bigger sorts of fish are concerned, to the 

 poisoning of four or five miles of river. 



13. Thus, whatever may be the cause of larger sorts of fish 



congregating in the deepest pools, the fact remains that they do so, 



and that it is taken advantage of for their 

 Para. 53. _ , 



poisoning. It may also be taken advantage ol 



for their protection. 



14. But the chief sources of most of the Canara rivers are on 

 the western ghats of Mysore and Coorg, and to these it is that the 

 best fish migrate for spawning purposes. Efforts to stop poisoning, 



and to protect the fry, must therefore be incomplete, till the Si 



measures are adopted in Mysore and Coorg. It is obvious that, to 

 lie treated successfully, the rivers must be treated as a whole, no 

 matter what territory they run through. It may seem unreasonable 

 to object to the Coorgs and Mysoreans destroying the fish within 

 their own countries ; but it should be borne in mind that they 

 cannot stop the effects of their poison abruptly at their boundaries : 

 the tainted river will roll on. They also will benefit, as well as 

 Canara ; for if they spare the fry which are to descend and stuck 

 its rivers, those same fry, when grown, will not fail to revisit them 

 annually, crowding up in increased numbers to spawn. In short, 

 Mysore, Coorg, and Canara possess, more or less in common, one 

 water farm, which, to be cultivated to advantage, must be worked 

 in unison. At present, however, these people poison the fish and 

 way-lay the descending fry in innumerable cruives. 



