10 MALAYAN FISHES. 



Within the writer's memor}' the main rivers of the West coast 

 were fine clear streams. The waters provided irrigation for the 

 rice fields and contained quantities of fine edible fish. These rivers 

 are now thick turbid streams oarrving a heavv burden of slime and 

 silt. 



We have probabl^y one hundred difl'erent species of Carp a;lone, 

 besides dozens of species of Catfish and many fine fish belonging to 

 the families Ospheomexidae, Xotopteridae, etc.. etc. Catfish can 

 exist in slime and silt though it is questionable whether they can 

 thrive, but Oarp certainly require clear water to Ijreed in. 



One of our Carp the Kelah {Barhus sp.) has lieen described 

 by Swettenham as the finest fresh water fish he ever ate in the East, 

 and the Kalui (Ospliromeiuis olfax) is so highly esteemed that 

 several attempts have been made to introduce it into France, and it 

 has been acclimatised in Mauritius, Australia and parts of India. 



Tin mining is necessary and some pollution of the rivers is 

 unavoidable, but there have been many cases where carelessly con- 

 structed dams have broken and a turbid flood of slime has been 

 allowed to pour direct into the rivers for months while leisurely 

 repairs are being made. Tliough much of the damage done in the 

 past is irremediable, let us hope that a more general recognition of 

 the value of the fresh water fisheries will result in a fair measure 

 of protection in the future. There are still rivers whi-eh can be 

 saved. 



By saving our fresh water fisheries we shall save, incidentally, 

 our rice-fields, for Eice and Fish in addition to being the two 

 staple foods of the country are inseparable. Wlien you destroy one 

 you destroy the other. 



Where you can grow rice you can catch fish aiid where you can 

 no longer catch fish you cannot grow rice. 



To explain : the mining silt which pours into the rivers gradual- 

 ly raises the bed of the stream and so causes a rise in the water 

 table. A rise in the water table limits the area of drainatole land, 

 and drainage is as necessary to a rice field as irrigation. So the 

 area which can be planted with rice becomes smaller and smaller 

 until eventually the water table is so high that the river channel 

 can no longer carry off storm water. The resultant floods depo.-it 

 a layer of slime and silt on the rice fields and comjjlete the work of 

 destruction. 



Fish cannot breed in the rivers polluted with .^lime and silt, 

 so the Fisheries and rice fields perish simultaneously. In our 

 policy of construction and development these facts should not be 

 lost sight of. 



There is yet another point which has received no attention and 

 that concerns anadromous Marine fishes which enter river? to 

 spawn. Among these fishes the principal one is the Shad (Teru- 



