35G A Plea for River Fisheries. CHAPT. xxv. 



"you must have every drop of water in the river and make 

 " the only passage run through your own fields, then you must 

 " leave that passage unobstructed to the fry." Whichever alter- 

 native is accepted the result is the same, fry are not to be entrapped 

 in the rice-fields. As with salmon in England, therefore, it should 

 be made illegal to " place any device for obstructing their passage." 



44. It may be argued that the analogy of the Indian farmer 



and the English miller is faulty in one respect, the former having 



the use of the water itself, while the latter has a right only to its 



passing power. But the principle at the root of both cases is the 



same. The real question is whether or not private interests are 



to yield to public advantages; whether it is necessary that they 



should yield, and what amount of hardship the yielding will 



entail. As regards the hardship involved, the expense to which 



the Indian agriculturist will be put will be as nothing to that of 



the English miller; the loss of much appreciated morsels will be a 



vexation, and the fact of their being replaced by fish becoming 



more plentiful is not likely to be taken into account. On the 



other hand, the necessity for the measure may be judged of by the 



destruction now carried on in the rice-fields. 

 Para. 35 to W. .... 



Though in the case of freshwater fish it might 



be possible to arrange, by gratings at the commencement of the 



channels, to keep them in the river till the monsoon came and 

 carried away the temporary dams, still they would be in many re- 

 spects very unfavourably placed ; and in the case of sea-going fish, 

 like the Glwpea Uisha, there seems no other way of protecting their 

 fry from total extermination, for reach the sea they must, and they 

 have no other way but through the rice-fields. Therefore it would 

 seem unavoidable to prohibit the entrapping of fry in the rice-fields. 



45. It will further lie desirable to make provision for a way 

 being kept open for the fry eventually to rejoin the river by menus 

 of the waste water. This will frequently be found to have 

 arranged itself, though in some places it will be susceptible of 

 improvement bj a very little labour, while in others it may be a 



little •'■--] O ■ 1 1 i\e In o|.i-ll ;l ! II!. .1! I. 'II Most of 



these places again are liable to get a little out of order from u 

 trodden by cattle, and Erom other causes, and may at the com- 

 mencement of the monsoon require the mosl trivial repair to keep 

 them in order. In those eases iii which the labour entailed is 



