Cha.PT. xxv. Sn Fishi 371 



107. It is hoped, however, that it will be considered <■ proposal 

 of sufficient importance to warrant its thorough investigation and 

 application to practical [imposes as the study of pisciculture 



advances in India, and in this hope the paragraph mi this subject 

 i- extracted from my former report and placed in the appendix in 



order that it may be consulted if desired by any one inclined to 

 make the experiment. Australia, lhirmah. and the warmer parts 

 of China and America also, are probably in latitudes equally 

 suitable to the trial, and in these places there is no lack of per- 

 ring and successful pisciculturists. 



Sea Fisheries. 



110. The observations hitherto made in this report have had 



reference only to the rivers. But the sea fisheries of this district 



are more fruitful and more important. It has been computed that 



an acre of uncultivated sea bottom yields 

 Ri-nort of Sea . . , . „ , . 



Fi-htrics Commis- every week a larger supply of food than an 



equal extent of good land carefully tilled 



will produce in a year. The weight of fish and of beef annually 



consumed in London is in no great dispro- 



Para. 26. & f 



portion. In Canara, fish are almost the sole 

 meat food of the people. 



122. There are marshes by the riverside that are flooded by 

 every high tide. The fry of sea-fish frequenting the estuaries are 

 in the habit of coasting along the very edge of the rivers, and 

 running into all shallow places. When the tide rises over these 

 marshes the fry go in with it, probably finding more insect food 

 amongst the swamp grass, and on the freshly inundated land. But 

 when they think to return with the ebbing tide, they are met by 

 long lines of close wattle and fine leaf basket work, that allows the 

 water to pass, but not the fry. At every tide in the day time the 

 fry are thus waylaid, and left high and dry, thickly strewn in long 

 lines, whence they are carried away in basket loads. The mullet 

 suffer much in this way. They are a desirable sea-fish, and the 

 wholesale destruction of their fry in this manner should be pre- 

 vented. 



123. It has been thought in England that the numbers of sea- 

 fish frequenting a shore were greatly affected by the over-fishing of 



TUB ROD IS rNDIA. 'i. li i. 



