286 Fry in rice jields. App. E. 



change, and the regularity of the change, the Canara 

 rivers have an advantage over the rivers of England. 



30. But while providence has thus beautifully ar- 

 ranged to shield the fry from their voracious parents, 

 they are by that very arrangement placed entirely at the 

 mercy of short-sighted man, and the necessity for prohibit- 

 ing all closely-woven cruives can scarcely be too strongly 

 insisted on. 



Fry in Eice Fields. 



33. But the beautiful arrangement spoken of in para- 

 graphs 27, 28, and 29 lays the tiny fry at the mercy of 

 improvident men in yet another way. While the south- 

 west monsoon prevails, the ample rain-fall on this coast 

 supplies abundant water for irrigational purposes, and 

 the rivers are the while too turbulent to be diverted. 

 But as the dry season commences, and water is wanted 

 for the irrigation of the second crop of rice, the rivers 

 have settled down to more manageable proportions, and 

 near their sources it becomes an easy matter for the farm- 

 er to collect the boulders in the stream, lay them in a line 

 across it, and after filling in the interstices with shingle ■ 

 from the bed, to stop the whole with clay and bushes from 

 the banks. A temporary and inexpensive, yet effective, 

 dam is thus run up annually by every farmer who has 

 ground conveniently situated for irrigation. Though it 

 is completely swept away by the first flood in the next 

 south-west monsoon, it lasts throughout the hot weather, 

 throughout the lifetime of the fry, and the river or rivulet 



