44 INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. 



lets into the river ; across each opening nets are stretched, 

 or a weir of grass constructed, and every fish which has 

 wandered up becomes a certain prey to the fishermen. 



Fixed engines constructed of non-elastic substances are 

 still more destructive to fish than are such as are made 

 of net, and which are more liable to be injured. Their 

 forms are exceedingly numerous, their sizes infinite, while 

 the interstices, between the substances of which the weirs or 

 traps are composed, appear everywhere much the same, 

 whether examined in the ghats of Canara, the Yomas of 

 Pegu, the Himalayas, or on the plains of India or Burmah. 

 Still, local influences must occasion certain modifications, 

 while some are solely employed for taking large fish, others 

 for fry, and a few are employed for both. In hilly dis- 

 tricts, as the monsoon floods subside, and the impetuosity 

 of the mountain torrents has decreased, they can be erected 

 without being liable to be washed away. Up the hill 

 streams (as I have already observed), some of the most 

 valuable of the carps ascend to breed, but now there are 

 but few that are not weired, and the parent fishes have the 

 greatest difficulty in reaching their spawning grounds. 

 Some, however, surmount the obstacles which oppose their 

 ascent, a few deposit their spawn ; this completed, the rains 

 are now passing off, the force of the current lessening ; and 

 these parent fish commence descending, trying to regain 

 their low country rivers. I omit in this place how spearing, 

 snatching, or snagging, netting, and angling are carried on, 

 only referring to how fixed engines are employed. Weirs 

 are now erected every few miles, through which the waters 

 of the hill streams are literally strained, while each is fitted 

 with a cruive or fishing-trap. The probabilities are that the 

 great majority of the mahaseer which reach the rivers of 

 the plains are the last year's fry that have fortunately 



