[21] THE FISHERIES OF INDIA. 403 



j With sorrow the disciple took the priest at his word, and for three 



I days refrained from fishing, giving his preceptor merely vegetables for 



his diet. On the fourth morning, when the same fare appeared, the 



ponghee observed, "My son, when you fish the river, does your net 



extend all across, permitting no fish to escape ; or is a portion of the 



; river free for those which select to pass to one side?" "Not all, across, 



but only one-third of the way," he answered. "Well then, my son," 



said the priest, "I have been seriously considering the subject, and have 



; arrived at the conclusion that, if you leave room for the fish to ascend or 



descend the stream, and they will not avail themselves of it, but rush 



, headlong into the net, the fault is theirs and not yours. Even Guadama 



blessed the hunter who met him when he was hungry and supplied 



him with venison. This was accounted as a meritorious act, although 



he must have killed a deer to obtain it. So go, my son, and procure 



me some fish, for I am hungry." From that day the priest consumed 



his fish in quietness, and refrained from inquiring from whence it had 



i been procured. 



I Supplies to the marlcets. — Investigating how the local markets were 



; supplied with fish up to 1S73, the replies from native officials gave the 



i following results. In the Panjab one in ten markets was sufficiently 



supplied ; in the northwest provinces, one in three; in Oudh, one in four. 



, In Bombay the amount was stated to be insufficient in all, and the same 



; reports came from Haidarabad, Mysore, and Coorg. In Madras, near 



the sea, the quantity of fish was sufficient, but only in one in ten of the 



. mland markets. In short, merely one-tenth of the bazars were reported 



as fully supplied with' fish ; and of this tenth one-fifth obtained them 



from the sea-coast. 



B.— SEA EISHEEIES. 



Fisheries, to a more or less extent, exist in the Indian Ocean, as well 

 as up the mouths of the larger rivers, in backwaters and estuaries, while 

 parallel to certain places, especially along the coasts of the Madras 

 Presidency, vast mud banks are present in the sea, having such a thin 

 consistency that many kinds of fish are able to obtain abundance of food 

 there, as well as a suitable locality in which to deposit their ova. The 

 most casual observer cannot fail to perceive how numerous are the vari- 

 eties and vast the number of the finny tribes in the seas of India, but 

 from some cause — whether due to the legislative enactments and local 

 obstructions, or to native apathy and imi)ecuniosity — the harvest has, 

 up to within the last two years, been comparatively untouched ; an enor- 

 mous amount of food still remains uncaptured, while famines'are dev- 

 astating the contiguous shores. 



Want of space must be my excuse for not entering upon the various 

 forms of fishes which populate the seas of India, and I pass on to their 

 economic uses, for their well-stocked fisheries should be exceedingly 

 vp-luable, as affording an inexhaustible supx)ly of animal food, not only 



