( 58 ) 



"When these fixed nets have fairly-sized meshes their 

 use does not call for notice, except so far as to deprecate 

 their employment in weired rivers not far below those con- 

 structions. But in some 'of these fixed nets the size of the 

 meshes is so minute that no fish can pass ; there it stands 

 immoveahly fixed across a whole water-way capturing every- 

 thing, as the water is literally strained through it. The 

 meshes have been described as so minute that a big black- 

 ant could not pass, or that they would arrest a tama- 

 rind or a mustard seed, and several Europeans observe 

 on their being about the size of mosquito curtain net. 

 Thus (p. xiii) an instance is adduced in the Panjab of 

 how a whole drove of mahaseer were captured by fixing 

 a net across a river and dragging another down to it, which 

 caused wholesale destruction, and as a consequence there was 

 little or no rod-fishing that season. In fact, this mode of 

 capturing all the fish in certain portions of rivers is common 

 in India. In Amritsar, the moveable net is stated to be 

 dragged as much as a mile to the fixed one (p. xxv) : at 

 Mettapolliam, in the Coimbatore district of Madras, an 

 identical plan used to be pursued. In the Broach ColJec- 

 torate of Bombay (p. xliv), nets are fixed across the stream 

 shaped like a wall : some have a bag in the middle. In 

 Hatnagiri (p. liv) the practice of throwing nets across 

 creeks and rivers has done much to dimmish the number of 

 fish. In the Central Provinces at Jabalpur (p. cxxiv), two 

 large nets are taken towards one central point, towards 

 which the fish are driven by beating the water and noises 

 of all sorts : or on a moonlight night a net is fixed 

 across a stream and the fish driven into it (p. cxxiii). 

 Even the greatest adherent of " communal" and prescrip- 

 tive rights, or for permitting unlimited massacre of small fish, 

 must admit that a net which will arrest the spawn of a frog, 

 permanently fixed across a whole water-way, down which the 

 fry must descend with the receding floods, before they can 

 obtain access to a river, can hardly be conducive to the 

 prosperity of a fishery. But as it may be suggested that 

 surely such wholesale destruction cannot be going on un- 

 checked in many places, I must here advert to where such 

 practices are in vogue, and for this purpose, it will only be 

 necessary to refer to a few of the appended reports. There 

 is hardly a district in India (Sind, portions of Burma, and 

 parts of the Panjab excepted) where these fine-meshed nets 

 are not employed as fixed engines. Likewise, as the floods 



