( 6 ) 



Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra and Irrawadi) which have 

 always a fair supply of water in them : and others (as the 

 Sone, Godaveri, Kistna, Cauveri, &c.) that become com- 

 paratively dry in the hot months, in some of which this defi- 

 ciency is increased by water being abstracted from them by 

 works of irrigation. Their relative value as fisheries de- 

 pends on several causes some natural, others artificial. 

 During certain seasons of the year, as in the height of the 

 rains, and in those with snowy sources in the hot months, 

 these rivers form impetuous torrents, absolutely precluding 

 fishing being carried on, excepting at their edges. 



IX. Throughout the cold months, and generally until the 



HOW during the dry months setting-in of the south-west monsoon 



in the majority of the rivers of j[ n j une rivers are at their lowest, 



India, the waters shallow until , ., . , . , .,, 



only a succession of pools exist, whether examined in hill ranges or on 



connected by a larger or smaller the plains. Thus, in the hill streams 



stream, and here the larger fish . jl ..-,. > . , . , , 



must continue until the river in the J&ingra District (S66 para. 



rlses - 80), as the cold months commence, the 



amount of water shallows until there appears a succession of 

 pools united by a more or less insignificant stream ; to these 

 places all the fish that do not descend to the plains resort. In 

 the cold months, they take refuge at the bottoms and 

 under rocks, and are not easily netted, but as the 

 warmer weather sets in (unless the river is snow-fed), 

 easily fall a prey to the fisherman as the water steadily 

 decreases. The same thing occurs throughout the length and 

 breadth of Hindustan: thus on the western coast of India, about 

 August or September, as the south-west monsoon decreases, 

 the rivers gradually diminish in size until the downpour of 

 rain commences in June the succeeding year. As they sub- 

 side, pools are left, in which the larger fish congregate. 

 " Though there may be many pools in a river, there are only 

 a few at intervals of four or five miles that are specially 

 resorted to by the larger kinds of fish. These are generally 

 the deepest and longest ; they are sometimes as much as 

 twenty feet deep and a quarter of a mile long. They are 

 generally cooler, from being overshadowed by trees, and 

 more or less overhung with rocks. Their very depth also 

 would keep them cooler than the wide shallows extending 

 for miles together, and in the height of the hot season, of a 

 few inches only in depth, under a tropical sun."* 



* H. S. Thomas, Esq., on " Pisciculture m South Caiiara," p. 4 



