X 



40 Remarks on a Lake in the District of Bassein. [No. ] ? 



banks, without any material break in its uniformity of outline, its origin 

 may be attributable to a gradual subsidence of the substratum, or a 

 slip of the lower-lying beds of the tertiary shales and clays upon which 

 the lake rests. It is certainly the fact that the water of the lake 

 when relieved of the surcharge from the river has a different 

 colour (dark opaque olive) from that of the river when uninfluenced 

 by the efflux from the Irrawaddy, and its properties are such as to 

 cause the fish in it to attain a larger size and greater degree of 

 fatness than those of either river or lakes in the vicinity. It may be 

 concluded therefore that at a period perhaps coeval with that of the 

 river itself, the springs which now feed the lake broke through the 

 superior beds, leaving the present circular depression with its Island 

 as one of those eccentric feats of nature usually classed as phenomena, 



As a " preserve" for fish to which their natural instincts would 

 direct them for purposes of spawning and breeding, it will be seen that 

 the lake is eminently adapted ; and I am informed by the villagers 

 who reside on its banks that after the rains of the monsoon have filled 

 the water-courses, and the " Dugga" has become swollen and rapid, 

 the fish seek the still waters of the lake in vast numbers, making their 

 entrance through the small channel and shallow water at its southern 

 entrance, where the land is low and swampy ; this entrance is left open 

 until the fish have passed through, it is then closed during the height 

 of the waters ; and on the]r subsidence, when the channel has become 

 too shallow to admit of the fish escaping, it is again opened. 



Under the Burman Government, this lake had a far-famed celebrity 

 from the abundance and excellence of the fish caught on the occasion 

 of the annual drawing of its bed during the full moon of June ; on 

 which occasion, traders from Ava, from Prome, and the larger towns 

 on the Irrawaddy, assembled to make their investments in smoke-dried 

 fish cured on the spot, while the fish-dealers from Bassein, and other 

 towns on the lower streams, as at present obtains, purchased the fish 

 alive, and transported them in bamboo cages immersed in the water, 

 from which they were sold still in a live state ; owing to the profits 

 realized in this trade, the competition for the purchase of the fish 

 at the lake became so great, that it was not unusual to make advances 

 several seasons previous to the completion of the contract. 



So valuable a source of revenue to the Burmese Government as 

 this fishery afforded, was not allowed to escape easily ; accordingly the 



■asm 



