317 

 THE MAKING OF A HIMALAYAN TROUT WATER. 



BY 



G. C. L. Howell, F.Z.S., Director of Fisheries, Punjab. 

 ( fVith Plates ui, B and C and a Map) 



I have been asked by the Editor to give some account in these pages 

 of the introduction of Brown Trout into the head waters of the Beas River. 

 The object in writing is to let prospective anglers to know what to expect : 

 and (perhaps) to give a few hints as to what to aim at and what to avoid 

 in trout culture in India. The paper ought by rights to have been written 

 by Mr. Mitchell whose work in Kashmir has been of much longer duration 

 and on a far bigger scale than our efforts in the Punjab. But he, the 

 Editor tells me, declines to write. Perhaps the mistakes in this paper will 

 fire him with the determination to correct his pupil. I am indebted to 

 Lt.-Col. R. H. Tyacke for the photographs and to Mr. Charles Lee for the 

 sketches which accompany the paper. 



The River and its Tributaries. 



" You may keep on breeding trout by the thousand, but you will have no 

 more good trout in the water than you have homes for." Thus wrote 

 Francis Francis in 1883. And he divides "homes" into "houses and 

 homes," and "nurseries." The map gives some idea of the extent of 

 water now in process of stocking. The photographs give a very good idea 

 of its tempestuous character. The novice is apt to think that trout will not 

 dwell in water like this, that they will be " washed away." The fisherman, 

 who knows Norway or Switzerland or The Rockies, or the New Zealand 

 Alps, knows that behind every stone in a glacier fed stream is a stronghold 

 where a lusty fish can lie and wait for his dinner to be washed down to 

 him. These eddies and the great cavities under water-worn rocks are the 

 "houses and homes" for adult fish: and there you will get good trout 

 provided always that the waters contain food : and provided (above all) 

 that nurseries are not lacking wherein the fry can lie in early summer, till 

 they are ready to fend for themselves in heavier water. That the Beas is 

 well provided with such nurseries will be shown hereafter, also that there 

 is no danger of the fish starving for want of natural food. 



The true source of the Beas is in the glacial lake known as Beas Kund 

 at the head of the Solang Valley fed from mighty glaciers which hang on 

 the sides of an amphitheatre of peaks running up to 20,000 feet in altitude 

 and formed by the junction of the Bara Bagahal and Mid Himalayan 

 ranges* For the first 13 miles of its course the summer temperature of the 

 water never rises above 46° F. Below this the temperature rises to a 

 maximum of 56° F. atSultanpur which is only 4,000 feet above sea level, and 

 knows air temperatures of close on 100° F. The sward of the banks is well 

 timbered with alder : much of the course is in summer pure cascade : but 

 at intervals the bed widens, or is divided up by islands into what might be 

 called (by comparison) " flats." Still men who essay to fish the Beas must 

 be men who have learnt, or are willing to learn, the art of fishing " white 

 water" if they would make big baskets. With some of the tributaries it is 

 different. The lower two miles of the Beas Rikki, for instance, the 

 Sarbarri, the Upper Sainj, and the Tirthan and the Bathad Brook are 

 comparatively quiet waters on which any man who understands Irish or 

 Welsh or Scotch mountain streams should be able to kill fish. Stranger 

 names are always rather a nuisance, so in the Map I have numbered the 

 " reaches " of trout water so far stocked. They are : — 



I. — Beas Kund to Palchan with about 6 miles of fishable water. 

 II. —(Beas Rikki) Rahla to Palchan with about 2 miles of fishable water. 



