XVI 



opposite Haripur in the river Ban-gunga, one was dragged. The fish 

 were all driven into a corner, and there they swarmed ; round hand-nets 

 were used to catch them. Some four or five maunds were taken in a 

 very short time ; any number of nets were produced immediately they 

 were asked for, but all, except hand-nets, had 1 J inches between knot 

 and knot of the meshes. Drag-nets are prohibited, but steps should 

 be taken to preserve these pools. Would propose keeping a watchman 

 at this place out of the license fees, which should be raised to Rs. 20 per 

 annum, the number of fishing days to be restricted, as well as the amount 

 captured on any one day. Each Deputy Commissioner should be left to 

 his own devices to stop the destruction of fish. Arrangements should be 

 made to bring the fish to market, which now is never done. By-and- 

 bye we should find out what succeeded and what failed, and be able 

 to frame some defined rules for the district. It is in the dry months 

 that fish are destroyed, and in the early rains, rarely in the winter, when 

 they take to the bottom and under the rocks, and are not easily disturbed. 

 From March to July poaching goes on to the greatest extent. There 

 are no difficulties in regulating the size of the mesh of nets. When 

 licenses are granted the nets have to be produced; 1J inches is consi- 

 dered a very good size for the minimum : it certainly should not be less. 

 Small ' chilwa' nets might be allowed in streams never frequented 

 by the larger kinds of fish. So few fish are brought into the markets 

 that no measures are necessary for prohibiting the sale of the fry. 

 Would like to have a licensed fish stall under the supervision of 

 Government officials at each chief market town, and take such steps 

 from time to time as may be necessary for preventing the sale of fry. 

 No objections exist to stopping fishing during the breeding season, 

 except for special purposes under a special license. The zemindars do 

 a great deal of mischief in the early part of the rains by bringing the 

 fish into side streams and then draining off the water and leaving them 

 on dry ground ; young and old are caught in this way. The system 

 of poaching fish and game wholesale should be made a penal offence, 

 and district officers will soon find that other measures can be dispensed 

 with. There are still abundance of fish in all the chief rivers, the 

 Bias, Ravi, Chaki, Ban-gunga, Auvale, Niggul, and some others ; but 

 doubtless measures are necessary to prevent the population from reckless 

 systems of netting them. These measures must be, partially, a system 

 of Government preserves, such as was always in force in the time of the 

 Rajahs, partly by giving licenses to monopolists to supply the market, 

 and partly by licenses for fishing with small nets for home consumption 

 and not for sale. 



31 . The Officiating Commissioner of Hissdr (January 16th, 1872,) sug- 

 Hissdr DwirionAnswersof g ests wire gratings at the top of the first fall 

 the Officiating Commissioner a ud in the canal to arrest the downward progress 

 Deputy Commissioner. O f ] ar g e ft^ if practicable in an engineer- 



ing point of view; if not, that fish-ladders should be placed at the canal 

 falls. He continues with reference to constructing fish-ladders at weirs 

 spanning rivers : " I took up this suggestion some time ago when Deputy 

 Commissioner of Delhi, and ascertained from the Superintending Engi- 

 neer of the Agra Canal, that the construction of a fish-ladder would not 

 cost more than Rs. 800 or Rs. 1,000. If it is found, when the weir in 



