CX1X 



caught in the rains chiefly by nets, hooks, jhinkars, and bamboo derias. 

 The nets which have meshes of a very small size are dragged across 

 the water. Dhimars do not usually use hooks, but in the larger rivers 

 during the monsoons they not unfrequently place a rope across the 

 stream, the rope having hooks with different kinds of baits at a distance 

 of about a cubit apart attached to it, and resting upon pumpkins, they 

 examine it every few hours. Weirs are stretched across water-courses. 

 The Goonds are reputed to poison fish ; in fact they are destroyed indis- 

 criminately at all times of the year, including the breeding season. 

 The smallest sized mesh in use takes five meshes within one inch, but there 

 would be considerable difficulty in regulating it, unless the police force were 

 augmented : however, were it regulated, would propose three-fourths of an 

 inch between each knot. No valid objections exist against prohibiting the 

 sale of fry in the bazars, the supply being above the demand. The Collector 

 of Wardha answers, that breeding fish and young ones are destroyed to the 

 same extent as in the rest of India, being captured most readily during 

 the breeding season. The breeding fish often linger in the pools before 

 the rains commence, and there fall easy victims to all sorts of people. The 

 smallest size of the mesh used is between one-fourth and one-tenth of an inch 

 square, but even cloths are extensively employed ; the only difficulty in re- 

 gulating the minimum size in future is " that another class of poor people 

 would be pestered with orders and regulations, which they and their neigh- 

 bours would not understand." " If any regulation is considered necessary, 

 it should be a simple prohibition to use cloths or nets of a smaller mesh 

 than three-fourths or one inch square for the capture of fish/'' Prohibiting 

 the sale of fry would be useless ; " if the mesh of nets is regulated, and the 

 rules really enforced, there would be no necessity for it ; if nets are not in- 

 terfered with, the fry will be caught and disposed of privately, as the greater 

 portion is now/' The Collector of Balaghat replies, that breeding fish and 

 young ones are destroyed to a great extent, mostly in the rains, by means of 

 nets with very small meshes, in the rivers, smaller streams, rice-fields, and 

 tanks. Fine bamboo-matting is also used, as well as sticks and cloths. 

 The smallest meshes of nets are less than one-fourth of an inch ; regulating 

 their size would be useless, no orders could be carried out, and would not 

 recommend prohibiting the sale of the fry in the bazars. 



259. The Deputy Commissioners' answers of the Jabalpur Division 



are amalgamated. In Jubalpur fish are said to 



Opinions of the Deputy Com- b e taken all the year round regardless of season. 

 SiSn rS f ^ Jubalplir Breeding and immature ones are destroyed to a 



great extent in Mandla and Seoni, but not so in 



the Sagar District. In Damoh it is considered that breeding fish are not des- 

 troyed wholesale during the hot season. Spawning fish appear to be gener- 

 ally taken whilst migrating up stream in June or July for breeding pur- 

 poses, and the fry in September or October whilst attempting to pass from 

 the shallows where they are bred to the deeper water. The modes arc 

 thus described in the Seoni District. " Every little streamlet is dammed 

 up, and the fish are baled out in thousands, by people standing in the 

 water. Those escaping this attack are caught in the woven bamboo 

 weirs of the dam. In some of the wilder parts of the district, the 

 poisoning of stagnant pools, and of temporarily dammed water, is 

 resorted to in the hot weather. Not only are all the fish in the pool 



