360 A Plea for River Fisheries. Ciiait. xxv. 



I" fore it can flow over at all Consequently the tails of pools form 

 favourable spawning beds, and being not unfrequently followed l>y 

 a long .scour, the fry have a very fair chance of escajnng their 

 devouring parents, who, after spawning, have returned to deep 

 water nearer the head of the pool, a furlong or a quarter of a mile, 

 more or less, away from their fry. These are 

 para. 11 oftny for- tne &7 tnat ' having kept out of the rice-fichls, 

 mer Report in Pro. use j to ] )e caught i n the numerous basket- 

 Madras Uovernment, ° 

 Revenue Dept., 27th work cruives set in the river. These are the 



001^506. fry which have peopled the river since those 



p „„ cruives have been removed, and since the 



poisoning of these pools has been checked. 



52. Seeing, then, that the larger pools are not only the hot- 

 weather resorts of the larger fish, but frequently the birth-place of 



the fry also, the mischief done by poisoning 



Para 11. , , . . , , , . 



ilirin and tainting the scours below, is greater 

 than at first sight appears ; for fry as well as big fish are poisoned. 



Stack Pools. 



53. But though poisoning be reduced to a minimum, the fact 

 of the larger fish being driven out of the rest of the river by the 

 lowness of the water in the dry season, and compelled to mass 

 themselves in the pools, will still be taken advantage of for net- 

 ting them. At that time parties of Moplahs make expeditions as 

 far as Shady, 50 odd miles from Mangalore, prepared with boats 

 and sets of large nets to fish all the pools ; and so great are their 

 takes that traders come down from Manzorabad and the neighbour- 

 hood to purchase, slightly salt, and carry into the interior, the fish 

 that are in excess of the local demand. Weavers, and other's who 

 are aot fishermen by trade, turn out in force, unite all their in ts in 

 one, and sweep these pools. There is the danger, therefore, of the 

 river being over-netted, and an insufficient stock left to supply 

 spawn the next year. It would be well, therefore, to select a lew of 

 these pools, and in them to prohibit netting altogether. 



54. That there might be no needless anxiety as to which were 



,. ... prohibited pools, and no idle excuses of having 



I lie 0081 01 thU ■ r 



precaution is estima- netted them by mistake, they might be dis- 

 mated at l' rupees, . , , , ... • , , 



and entered in Ap- tinetly marked, at a trilling cost, with the 



i"'"' ilN ' • Queen's broad arrow, cut on the rock. An 



