38 INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. 



From the information collected between 1869 and 1873, 

 it appeared that the fisheries in our Indian Empire in olden 

 times were royalties, mostly let out to contractors, who 

 alone in their respective districts possessed the right to sell 

 fish, while they, as a rule, permitted the people, on pay- 

 ment, to capture sufficient for their households. It was, in 

 fact, a licence on payment, resumable at will. Remains of 

 this custom still exist in Lahore, while the leasing of 

 fisheries is even now in force in many portions of India. 

 Along the Himalayas, in the Kangra and other districts, 

 the petty rajahs adopted a different method. To some 

 persons they gave licences to supply the fish markets, of 

 which they virtually made them monopolists, while others 

 obtained licences for fishing with small nets for home 

 consumption, but not for sale. In Burmah, under native 

 rule, a similar plan was carried out. There were no free 

 fisheries ; but inhabitants had the privilege — or perhaps 

 right — to fish for home consumption on the payment of a 

 fixed annual sum to the contractor for the district in which 

 they resided. It is believed, under native rule, the erection 

 of fishing weirs was permitted in several of the streams in 

 the Himalayas, but not to the extent that they are at the 

 present day. In some districts landowners even now raise 

 an income from the fisheries, claiming a third of the 

 captures or a certain amount of money. Some of cur 

 officials consider that, as Government has permitted indis- 

 criminate fishing, the exercise of long practice has converted 

 such into a communal right. 



As British rule has gradually superseded that of the 

 native princes, so the modes in which fisheries were leased 

 has become widely different, and in permanently settled 

 estates, unless a stipulation to the contrary exists, they go 

 with the land. In some localities it has been decided that 



