clxvii 



and perhaps an equal number shot by the thakoors." In the dry season, 

 as the rivers become low, fish in the pools sustain injury from crocodiles, 

 otters, &c. The A ssistant Commissioner observed in a memorandum : 

 " The river-fish enjoy comparative safety from the Dheemurs (fishermen) 

 whilst they are in the deep pools of the big 1 rivers, but are a prey to 

 crocodiles, otters, &c. During- the rains they run up the tributaries to 

 spawn, and a great number meet with destruction on their return down 

 to their permanent haunts, not only by nets, but other contrivances 

 by which they are shut up in small pools of the tributaries, and 

 subsequently destroyed wholesale by the drying up of the pools, 

 netting, or even poisoning them. The lakes in this district have not 

 been allowed hitherto to run dry, and the only destruction committed 

 on fish is in the rainy season, when, they run up the feeders of the 

 lakes, and go down the escape-weirs, when of course none of these 

 can escape destruction one way or the other. Tons of the smaller 

 description of fish are killed during the rains when they try to escape 

 out of the lake, but their preservation, I think, is not of much 

 consequence." For the river-fish, a close season, from June 15th to 

 October 1st, is proposed, when net-fishing should be prohibited ; also in 

 the rocky pools of the smaller rivers to which they resort for breeding 

 purposes. During- the rest of the year, the minimum size of the mesh 

 of nets might be limited to 1J inches between each knot. The following 

 is a list of the principal fish found in the rivers and lakes of Bundle- 

 cund : " Mahaseer" (Barbus tor], " Kursowur" (Labeo calbasu), "Bissar" 

 (Cirrhina mrigala), " Rahoo" (Cirrhina rohita), " Bawus" (Catla 

 Buchanani} , " Koorsa" or " Khoorsee" (Labeo curchius), " Sinia" or 

 " Phubs" (Surpoothee, Beng.) The above not living on their kind. 

 "Sour" or " Gujal" in Bengal, " Sourlee" (Ophiocepkalus) , "Pareen" 

 (Wallagoattu^ commonly known as the river shark, " Tengra" a siluroid 

 (probably (Macrones aor, but " Tengra" is a common term for a siluroid) ; 

 "Lambur" (Rita), " Galur" or " Golalee" (Barilius), " Pupta^ 

 ( Callichrous) , "Butala" (a carp), "Buchooa" (Pseudeidropius.) The 

 foregoing are said to live on their kind. 



333. The Officiating Commissioner of Allahabad (August 7th, 

 1872) reported: "All castes eat fish except 

 Brahmins, Banias, and a few of the Tha- 

 koors. Shiahs reject scaleless fish, as prohibited 

 in the Koran, but it is not a popular food, and appears to be sought for 

 chiefly by the poor, as it is cheaper than any other kind of animal 

 food. There are none who practice fishing- exclusively as a calling." " The 

 supply is fairly equal to the demand/'' " There is no close time, and 

 no size or condition of fish is spared; the spawning-fish and the 

 smallest fry are alike caught ; there are nets used with meshes small 

 enough to retain the smallest." "Every imaginable kind of ^ net, 

 trap, and snare is used. Waging war against such fish-destroying animals 

 as crocodiles appears to me absurd. It would be equally, or more 

 advisable, to proscribe frogs and paddy-birds which eat the spawn and 

 young fry, and probably destroy far 'more fish than the crocodile; and 

 further, I have no doubt at all but that a general destruction of 

 crocodiles would directly frustrate the end hoped for by their destruction. 

 Their very presence in numbers, it being- given that they live on fish, 



