Ciiai't. xw. Fry in Rivers. 349 



Fry in Rivt 



20. But whether the poisoning of the waters, or the capture of 

 the fry, he the more fertile source of ruin to the rivers it is hard 

 to decide. Dr. Day and I have already urged that too much 

 importance can scarcely be attached to the suppression of the 

 practice of destroying fry wholesale, it has not been possible to 

 obtain an exactly accurate account of the number of small-meshed 

 cruives used in the district of South Canara, bnt there are sufficient 

 data for concluding that there were at Least 1,050 on the one river, 

 the Netravaty, with its affluents. If it be calculated that every 

 one of these crimes captures on an average 3,000 fish in a day 

 then there are as many as '.U.oOO.OOO tiny fry destroyed for no 

 adequate purpose in a single month in one river alone. To Bay 

 what may be the total number thus destroyed in the course of a 



Ln all the rivers of Canara would he beyond my arithmetic. 

 These closely-woven bamboo cruives then have been forbidden and 

 vigorously hunted out of the rivers. It is not to be concluded 

 that they have been entirely got rid of, far from it; there are 

 rly many remote places where they are freely used, and the 

 water bailiffs sought are wanted as much for this purpose as for 

 stopping poisoning. Still a considerable impression has already 

 been made. 



21. The consequence has been that the most ignorant, and 

 therefore the most obstinate, opponents have been convinced by 

 the testimony of their own senses, and have exclaimed, to use their 

 own words, " truly, the river is everywhere bubbling with fry;" and, 

 what is still more to the point, their practice has not belied their 

 words, fur they have taken to fishing on grounds that were before 



-id. nd profitless. 



22. Though this is nothing more than in my former paper 1 

 anticipated would be the natural result of the simultaneous 

 Btopping of poisoning and prohibition of the use of closely-wo\ en 

 cruives, still the actual sight of the result has surprised even my 

 sanguinely expectant self. Two years' discouragement of poisoning, 

 and one years' discouragement of fine cruives, have worked such a 

 change that it lias been demonstrated, beyond the cavil even of 

 the ignorant and of the interestedly opp tsing, that marked advan- 



