14 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



children. However, philosopher as he is, he leaves posterity 

 to take care of itself, and so long as he can earn a rupee by 

 supplying the market in the present, is heedless whether he 

 may earn only a fourth as much in the future. Besides, he 

 argues that if he himself were to abstain, his fellows pro- 

 bably would not do so, but taking advantage of his absten- 

 tion, would poach upon his preserves. Lastly, the patriarchal 

 Government does not forbid the destruction of game at any 

 time, nor does it admit that a wholesome and strength-giving 

 article of food is year by year becoming more and more 

 difficult to obtain, except by the comparatively rich. 



The same may be said of the wholesale destruction of the 

 fry of fish, now permitted with impunity, to the steady dimi- 

 nution of the most esteemed portion of the Bengalee's daily 

 diet ; accordingly, while the population steadily and rapidly 

 increases, articles of food, the most nourishing, become scarcer 

 and dearer for want of a simple enactment, which would 

 preserve them for the benefit of the people. 



Fine and well-flavoured fish ascend the many great rivers 

 of Bengal in myriads, to spawn in the smaller streams and 

 marshes during the height of the rainy season. The fry, 

 when about the size of gudgeons, retire with the falling 

 waters in October and November, at which time, and even 

 later, they are caught and killed by the million in nets and 

 traps, set- at the mouths of the outfalls of every lake and 

 marsh in the country, and in weirs constructed across the 

 smaller rivers and rivulets. Many kinds, if spared, would 

 grow to ten, twenty, or even forty and fifty pounds in weight, 

 and these, or, at least, many of them, grow rapidly, and 

 multiply marvellously. 



It may be an open question whether the protection of 

 game during the breeding season, and its great increase, 

 would or would not compensate for a corresponding additional 

 loss of certain grain crops ; but the reckless destruction of 

 the fry of large fish simply causes a diminution of a valued 

 article of food without any compensating advantages, so far 

 as can be seen. 



