clxxxi 



nets with minute meshes, and the same is also reported from Hooghly. 

 The observation of the Commissioner of the Rajshahye Division is doubt- 

 less applicable to the whole province, " there can be no doubt that the 

 destruction of small fry must be enormous, not only in rivers, but in 

 every paddy-field of Bengal." 



350. Fry are not wastefully destroyed, state two of the re- 

 porters, (1) because they are eaten ; (2) be- 



Stocking ponds with fry. cause they are only taken to stock ponds with, 

 and not as food. First, whether killing fry 



of fish as an article of consumption is waste, or a beneficent arrangement 

 of nature to limit a superabundance of food in localities where the supply 

 does not equal the demand ? is such a matter of opinion that arguments 

 seem uncalled for. Secondly, as regards young fish in the Burdwan District 

 not being captured for food, the modes employed contradict this, as well as 

 the numerous fishermen engaged in the trade, even did the native officials 

 not distinctly observe that a considerable amount of small fish are trapped 

 in the irrigated fields, * * and this species of fish is consumed. Next, 

 it is urged that only those which die in transit to ponds, whither they are 

 being taken, are sold or used as food, is so utterly opposed to the habits of 

 the natives that it cannot be seriously entertained. Lastly, as regards 

 stocking ponds with the fry of valuable sorts of fish during the monsoon 

 months. This is extensively practised in Orissa, Bengal, and the North- 

 Western Provinces, and without detailing each local plan, I may as well 

 here give a brief summary of the modes employed. Tanks which are 

 yearly stocked with fish belong either to private parties who purchase 

 the young fish wherewith to stock them, or else to fishermen who rent 

 lese pieces of water, and themselves stock them with fish. The species 

 iken for this purpose are the more valuable sorts of carps, as the Catla, 

 irious Labeos and Cirrhinas, all of which are asserted not to breed there, 

 it is simply done for a supply of food, and never for breeding pur- 

 ges. Some of these tanks are perennial, others yearly dry up, whilst 

 lose which do not communicate with rivers are best suited for this 

 )urpose. Sometimes heavy freshes or rains occur after ponds have been 

 stocked, and as the surplus water flows off, these young fish are carried 

 dth it, and this may occasion the necessity of re-stocking two or three 

 imes in one year. At Cuttack the fishermen having collected the fish, 

 )rt out the desired species, and the rate at which they were disposed of 

 for stocking purposes was one rupee an earthen pot or /iandi-fu\\, and 

 lis was computed to hold from two to four hundred small fishes. At 

 lasur some of the owners of private tanks permitted me to net them 

 order to examine their contents, the fish being subsequently returned 

 the water ; here the cost of the young fish was the same as at Cuttack, 

 >ut each handi was computed to hold only 200 fry, and less trouble was 

 :en in selecting the species. Near Allahabad the young fish I found 

 rere sometimes kept a week or so before being sold ; thus those which 

 iad been injured or were sickly died off. Small fry of some of the carps 

 idiciously placed in ponds about June attain about ten inches in 

 mgth by the succeeding January, and it is at this period that netting 

 le stock-ponds usually commences; some owners do it every two or three 

 lonths, others only once a year. In ponds that yearly dry up, as they 

 to get very shallow, they have a dam thrown across the middle, 



