384 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [2] 



extending his range to better fishing-grounds, or exporting his spoils to 

 distant markets. Consequently, the basis for navigation and commerce 

 may reasonably be supposed to have been laid by man pursuing the 

 finny tribes for the purpose of obtaining them for food, or conveying 

 them dried or cured as an article of merchandise to transmarine coun- 

 tries. The very history of sea fisheries, which have been free to all, 

 seems to point out that, as man increases in numbers, inshore captures 

 of fish becomes insufficient for his requirements ; or else that continuous 

 fishing may diminish the supply, rendering it equally necessary that 

 the fisherman's occupation should be extended to more distant localities. 



A.— FEESHWATEE FISHEEIES. 



Freshwater fisheries differ in many respects from marine ones ; and 

 we are all aware that, wherever any quantity of fresh water exists in 

 the East, there we are almost certain to find fish ; and this from a sea 

 level to nearly the summit of the highest mountains. As a natural re- 

 sult, fishing is had recourse to, in various ways, in rivers, irrigation 

 canals, lakes, tanks, ditches, inundated fields, and swamps. The impor- 

 tance of such fisheries is not solely in a ratio as regards their product- 

 iveness, but also in accordance with the character of the adjacent peo- 

 ple as to whether they are or not fish consumers ; while the sparseness 

 or the density of the population has also to be taken into account. 



Where no regulations are in force for the protection of inland fish- 

 eries, and should other circumstances be equal, that country or district 

 which is most densely populated by man will be least so by fish. In- 

 dividuals would rather live by fishing than by agriculture, because the 

 trouble of capturing the finny tribes is less than that of tilling the soil. 

 It becomes simply catching food, without a thought respecting future 

 supply. Fish have been endowed with certain means of increase and 

 protection ; the number of their eggs may be enormous, while some forms 

 keep guard over their eggs and likewise over their fry, in order to 

 afford them protection from their enemies. 



As, however, man increases, watery wastes (wherein the fish had been 

 protected by gras's, reeds, bushes, and the roots of trees) become drained 

 and cultivated ; predaceous man increases his means of destruction ; an 

 augmented population, possibly assisted by the unscrupulous manufac- 

 turer or miner, pollute the previously wholesome water, and a diminu- 

 tion of the finny tribe becomes apparent to the investigator. 



With an increasing fish -eating population an increased supply of fish 

 thus becomes a self-evident necessity, and this must be provided for by 

 augmented captures or higher prices ; the latter acting as a check on the 

 poor, by more or less placing it out of their reacli. This latter result 

 may, consequently, eventuate in gradually diminishing the physical 

 strength of the people. For a greater supply must be had from one of 

 two sources, either from fisheries which previously have been insuffi- 

 ciently worked, or by overworking such ns exist, by means of capturing 



