App. E. Coffee pulping injurious to fish. 281 



destroy all fish in the river for many miles. The river 

 being within Coorg limits, the co-operation of the Super- 

 intendent was sought and readily given. The result, how- 

 ever, was not quite as conclusive as could have been wish- 

 ed; for, in a subject altogether new to them, native ob- 

 servers failed to appreciate sufficiently the necessity for 

 painstaking accuracy, and the conclusions at which dif- 

 ferent Amildars have arrived, are consequently somewhat 

 contradictory. It is to be regretted also that European 

 owners of coffee estates bordering on the river abstained 

 from communicating their experience. The only means 

 of testing the matter which remained to one kept by other 

 duties more than 50 miles away at the time the river was 

 befouled, were not neglected. A few handfuls of pulp 

 were obtained, crushed, and soaked till fermented, and 

 healthy lively fish were then put into the water. The 

 invariable result was their speedy death. Even without 

 this experiment it would have been a fair conclusion that 

 water so befouled as to coat the stones of the river with 

 a glutinous slime would similarly coat the gills of the fish; 

 thereby stop their respiration, and kill them by suffoca- 

 tion. Considering the coffee and the piscicultural inte- 

 rests involved, it may be well to place this matter beyond 

 a doubt by more local observation than has been practic- 

 able in the present season ; though there really seems no 

 sufficient cause for hesitation in accepting the conclusion 

 that pulp-water is eminently destructive to fish for many 

 miles down the river, and that too in their very spawn- 

 ing grounds. 



