388 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 



their destruction. Persons may be watching to intercept them, engines 

 or traps may be fixed in their course ; or, should any breeding fish suc- 

 ceed in effecting their ascent, means are taken to insnare them on their 

 return, while the fry are destroyed in enormous quantities — a proceeding 

 which has been declared not to be waste because they are eaten. 



Then there are tanks, some of which are, others are not, in connec- 

 tion with running water. Should they entirely dry up during the hot 

 months, only such fish as bury themselves in the mud will survive to 

 the next rainy season. As a rule, the owner of a tank, if it is employed 

 also for fish-culture, leaves one portion (the deepest) in order to retain 

 sufficient water to keep the finny residents alive, while, if very hot, 

 boughs of trees or tatties are placed over this locality to mitigate the 

 heat. 



I shall now pass on to consider the fishes inhabiting the fresh water 

 of India, Burma," and Ceylon. They may be divided into (1) those which 

 enter from the sea for breeding or predaceous purposes, and (2) such 

 as, more or less, pass their lives without descending to the salt water. 

 The first class I do not propose giving any detailed description of, unless 

 casually remarking upon such when the breeding of fish or the fisheries 

 come under review. 



Varieties of freshwater fish. — An exhaustive account of all the strictly 

 freshwater forms would doubtless be interesting scientifically, buthardly 

 so to the fisherman or general reader ; consequently I shall restrict 

 myself to observing that the fisheries alluded to contain about 369 spe- 

 cies, appertaining to 87 genera. Of the spiny-rayed, or Acanthoptery- 

 gian order, we have 19 genera, the members of which are most numerous 

 in the maritime districts and deltas of large rivers, while their numbers 

 decrease as we proceed further inland. Few are of much economic 

 import^ce, if we except the common goby, spmed-eels (Mastacembelidce), 

 the snake-headed walking-fishes {Ophiocephalidce), and the labyrinthi- 

 forin climbing- perch and its allies.* 



Of the sheat-fish, or scaleless siluroids, we have 26 genera. The mouths 

 of these forms are provided with sensitive feelers, which, serving as 

 organs of touch, assist them while seeking their prey in turbid waters. 

 All that are of sufficient size are esteemed as food, although, owing to 

 their j)ropensity for consuming unsavory substances, their wholesome- 

 ness appears, at times, to be questionable. The next 3 genera, gar-pik(^ 

 (Belone), Oyprinodon, and Haplochilus, are of but little value, but the 

 35 genera of carps and loaches are of the greatest possible consequence, 

 affording a large amount of food to the pox)ulation of the country. The 

 remaining 4 genera, consisting of the curiously flattened Noto;pterus and 

 3 forms of eels, are of but little mercantile imi)ortance. 



* These air.breaMaing fislies are of great economic importance; thus, when poisonous 

 ingredients are washed into rivers, on the first burst of the monsoon, the fishes die, 

 unless they are direct air-breathers, taking in atmospheric air direct, when they are 

 often able to exist until the poison has passed down stream. 



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