372 A Plea for River Fiskerit i. CHAPT. xxv. 



their natural food, the shrimp. Tlie mullet lives largely on shrimps 

 ami sand-worms. A small plot of some four or five acres in the 

 Mangalore estuary was therefore buoyed off, to be left undisturbed 

 for shrimps to breed in. This might, perhaps, be done with advan- 

 tage in every estuary. 



Pisciculture to be made a Separate Department. 



1 53. If the receipts obtained by the above proposed means do 

 not equal the expenditure, exception cannot fairly be taken on that 

 ground, for it is not reasonable to expect that a Government, any 

 more than an individual, can commence a new undertaking 

 without some outlay at the first. The only proper question is, 

 what amount of outlay is called for, and promises a reasonable 

 return. This amount being placed to the debit of pisciculture in 

 India, there is good ground for confidence that at no distant period 

 it will be repaid with interest. It will be much more satisfactory 

 that pisciculture should be fairly put upon its trial by the keeping 

 against it ofa strict profit and loss account, much more satisfactory 

 than that the proceeds should be lost sight of as hitherto, by being 

 merged in the general revenues, and that every outlay required for 

 its proper advancement should be so sparingly doled out as to defy 

 success, and should be looked upon as an encroachment on the 

 Imperial revenues. If piscicultural accounts had, as now ad- 

 vocated, been hitherto kept separate, there would be now a weighty 

 balance in their favour, for large sums have been annually taken 

 therefrom from the very commencement of our rule in India, and 

 have been applied, without any return whatever, to other purposes; 

 have been absorbed into the Imperial revenues. 



