Ixxxvi 



Considers that the shad do not get up the river as they used! 

 to do before the irrigation weirs spanned them, since which period fish 

 have decreased in the rivers above these constructions. When fish 

 can neither ascend on account of the weirs, or return to the sea cm 

 account of the shallowness of the river, they are generally caught in 

 the pools. It is all fish that comes to the fisherman's net. He would 

 consider it a most unwise proceeding to return the small fry on which 

 he makes a good and immediate profit. The size of the mesh employed 

 is very small, but regulating it would cause great dissatisfaction. The 

 Collector (March 27th, 1872) reported, " small fish are caught in baskets 

 and screens at the rapids below waste weirs and sluices, and larger 1 

 fish are caught with the hook. In the small rivers, channels, and 

 tanks, the water left in the pools in the dry season is baled out and 

 the fish caught." 



165. The Collector of Madura (dated December 18th, 1869) 



observes that the tanks and rivers are dry for 

 ** the greater part of the year Fish are take, 



without regard to age ; nets with meshes of 

 all sizes are used. Were the minimum size regulated, one year's notice 

 would be necessary. The Acting Collector (May 17th, 1872) reports 

 that breeding fish and very young ones are destroyed to a great extent ; 

 all are caught that can be caught, in nets with meshes of all sizes and 

 by placing baskets in streams. No regard is had to season or age. 

 The ordinary mesh is rarely below half an inch in circumference, but baskets 

 and other arrangements for capturing the smallest fry are freely 

 employed. In fisheries rented out, the size of mesh of the nets might 

 be fixed ; in other places legislation would be necessary, but in tanks and 

 channels that are dry during the greater part of the year the destruc- 

 tion of the fish could not be prevented. Proposes the size of the mesh 

 to be one inch between knot and knot. Mr. Nelson observes " that the 

 repair of tanks, or, at all events, the more important ones, seem to have 

 been executed by Government, and to have been paid for out of the 

 proceeds of the fishery of the tanks when drying up. A letter dated 

 1713 states that the fishing of a single tank produced occasionally 2,001 

 crowns, and that sums so realised were invariably applied to the execution 

 of repairs." 



166. The Acting Collector of Coimbatore (May 7th, 1869) stated 



a considerable destruction of small fry, chiefly 

 of ^e Gendai, Barto, take, plaee ; poisoning 

 the water is carried on ; fry are caught m 



wicker-work traps, and by the erection of dams across shallow waters. 

 Owing to the constant netting, fish are driven from their natural feeding 

 grounds to seek shelter in deep holes to obtain protection from the 

 ravages of the net. " The erection of dams and poisoning of the 

 streams should be peremptorily forbidden, the size of the meshes should 

 be regulated, and an annual close time allowed." Subsequently, the A cting 

 Collector (December 20th, 1870) reported that the fish have increased 

 since the construction of irrigation weirs across the rivers, which are 

 believed by the fishermen to have multiplied the fish [this is evidently 

 a misapprehension ; doubtless the fish are checked in ascending and 

 descending, so that at such places, owing to the existence of an obstruc. 



