( 5 ) 



piscine inhabitants are peculiar, or have habits and means 

 of support differing from what obtains in those residing 

 entirely or nearly so in the rivers of the plains. During the 

 cold season, these rivers, unreplenished by rains or melting 

 snows, become in places exceedingly small. The beds of hill 

 streams are more or less restricted into one or more sharply- 

 defined channels, frequently passing over considerable heights, 

 whilst they have become widened by casual changes of force 

 and direction, insufficient, however, to form, lakes or even 

 tanks. The wider or larger these rivers are, which pass over 

 vertical falls of a given depth, the greater are the chances of 

 fish being able to ascend. Many of the species which in- 

 habit these regions are provided with an adhesive sucker, 

 placed behind the lower jaw or on the chest, in order to 

 enable them to retain their hold against rocks, and thus pre- 

 vent their being washed away. 



VII. In rivers destitute of Alpine sources, as the Ner- 

 H in rivers destitute of Aipiue budda, Kistna, Godaveri, and those 



sources - taking their origin in the Western 



Ghats, Nilghiris, and other hill ranges, where snow but rarely 

 reaches and never remains for months, we have a very 

 different state of affairs. Amongst these must also be class- 

 ed the sub -streams or affluents of the larger snow-fed rivers ; 

 and it is in these places, where the water is warmer, that 

 most of the hill fishes, excepting many of the loaches, breed, 

 llivers unreplenished by melting snows are naturally destitute 

 of the daily rise and fall throughout the hot months which is 

 perceived in snow-fed ones. In the rivers of the Malabar Coast, 

 most have their rise in the Western Ghats, receiving the full 

 force of the south-west monsoon, which, commencing in 

 June, rarely continues beyond three months, and it is only 

 during this period that we see those sudden rises and 'falls 

 which enable breeding-fish to ascend to the hill ranges, for 

 the purpose of depositing their ova in localities suitable for 

 the rearing of their young. After the monsoon is over, the 

 waters gradually subside, and the breeding-fish descend to 

 the plains, leaving many of their young to be reared in the 

 small pools remaining in the hill streams. 



VIII. The rivers of the plains of India are, of course, 



chiefly the continuation of those de- 

 Rivers of the plams of India. ,? ,1 i -n i 



scending from the hills ; but even in 



those having Alpine sources, the daily rise from melted snows 

 becomes less and less apparent the further they are from their 

 sources. These rivers may be divided into those (as the 



