394 A Plea for Sea Fislieries. Chapt. xxvr. 



Malabar. — The fishermen did not suffer as a class during the 

 famine. Though the captures were not as abundant as usual, they 

 fetched good prices. Fishermen were not to be seen begging. 

 'J'ln nigh it cannot positively he said that they nourished, yet it i an 

 lie said that there was no distress aim nig them, such as afflicted the 

 Irishmen. " The fish supply undoubtedly helped as through our 

 " difficulties in the famine. The Collector dined on fresh sardines 

 "brought by rail, 80 mile3 inland, and the inland fish trade carried 

 " by porters, got a great impetus." The fishermen were also advan- 

 taged by employ in landing grain. 



South Canara. — The sea fishermen profited by the increased 

 sales offish, though the article was cheap, but they lost, owing to 

 the high prices of rice and other necessaries of life, so that on the 

 whole they were not more prosperous than ordinarily, hut were 

 perhaps less pinched than others of the poorer classes. 



60. I take the general result of this to be that they saved them- 

 selves and aided their neighbours. There was the same result 

 when I was Collector of that District myself in the scarcity in 

 1867. It is reported thai Pilchards were more than usually 

 plentiful 1 can state from my own knowledge that they came in 

 the same unusual numbers in 1SG7. 



61. Thus we have briefly two districts from which come reports 

 unfavourable to the usefulness of sea fislieries during the famine, 

 and ten districts from wdiich the reports are favourable. Of these 

 ten two may be eliminated on the ground that the welfare of the 

 fishermen is attributable rather to the grain trade than to fishing, 

 the remaining eight can report more or less favourably, some very 

 favourably. 



i'iL'. The curious statement coming from Tinnevelly, Madura, 

 and Malabar, that there were less fish in the sea that year, is met 

 by the exactly opposite experience in South Canara. I presume 

 that the scarcity, or plenty of fish, was in no way influenced by 

 the drought on land, but resulted from the habits of migratory 

 fish. 



63. On the whole, I think, the Indian experience during the 

 famine, sufficiently neutralises the fears to be entertained from the 

 experience in Ireland, and that if our Indian experience is so far 

 favourable even with the present appliances, and almost utter 

 absence of salting, much more favourable results maybe looked for 



