cii.vit. xxv. Fry in Bice Fields. 351 



grown, before the recurrence of the annual floods in June There 



are thus qo unseasonable Hoods coming clown as in England, alter 

 the spawning time, and carrying away the spawn ; and when they 

 do come in June, they seasonably sweep away the obstacles, in the 

 shape of temporary irrigation dams, which 

 would otherwise prevent the spawning fish 

 from ascending. 



29. In respect, therefore, both of the extremes of change, ami 

 the regularity of the change, the Canara rivers have an advantage 

 over the rivers of England 



30. But while Providence has thus beautifully arranged to 

 shield the fry from their voracious parents, they are by that very 

 arrangement placed entirely at the mercy of short-sighted man, 

 and the i for prohibiting all closely-woven cruives can 



lv be too strongly insisted on. 



Fry in Bice FiclJ.-t. 



33. But the beautiful arrangement spoken of in paragraphs 27, 

 28, and lI'.i lays the tiny fry at the mercy of improvident men in 

 yet another way. While the south-west monsoon prevails the 

 ample rainfall on this coast supplies abundant water for irriga- 

 tional purposes, and the rivers are the while too turbulent to he 

 diverted. But as the dry season commences, and water is wanted 

 Eor the irrigation of the second crop of rice, the rivers have settled 

 down to more manageable proportions, and near their sources it 

 becomes an easy matter for the farmer to collect the boulders in 

 the stream, lay them in a line across it, and after tilling in the 

 interstices with shingle from the bed, to stop the whole with clay 

 and bushes from the banks. A temporary and inexpensive, yet 

 effective, dam is thus run up annually by every farmer who has 

 ground conveniently situated for irrigation. Though it is com- 

 pletely swept away by the first flood in the next south-west 

 monsoon, it lasts throughout the hot weather, throughout the life- 

 time of the fry, and the river or rivulet being thus completely cut 

 off, is diverted entirely into an irrigation channel. As it is the 

 instinct of the grown tish to ascend the rivers to spawn, so is it the 



instinct of the try, as they grow,to allow them- 



The frv of four- . 



toon sorts' have boon selves to drop downwards with the stream to 



