5 8 INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. 



across, but only one-third of the way," he answered. " Well, 

 then, my son," said the priest, " I have been seriously con- 

 sidering the subject, and have arrived at the conclusion that, 

 if you leave room for the fish to ascend or descend the 

 stream, and they will not avail themselves of it, but rush 

 headlong into your net, the fault is theirs and not yours. 

 Even Gaudama blessed the hunter who met him when he 

 was hungry, and supplied him with venison. This was 

 accounted as a meritorious act, although he must have 

 killed a deer to obtain it. So go, my son, and procure me 

 some fish, for I am hungry." From that day the priest 

 consumed his fish in quietness, and refrained from inquiring 

 from whence it had been procured. 



Investigating how the local markets were supplied with 

 fish up to 1873, the replies from native officials gave the 

 following results. In the Punjab one in ten markets was 

 sufficiently supplied, in the North-West Provinces one in 

 three, in Oudh one in four. In Bombay the amount was 

 stated to be insufficient in all, and the same reports came 

 from Haiderabad, Mysore, and Coorg. In Madras, near 

 the sea, the quantity of fish was sufficient, but only in one 

 in ten of the inland markets. In short, merely one-tenth of 

 the bazaars were reported as fully supplied with fish, .and 

 of these one-fifth obtained them from the sea-coast 



Fisheries, to a more or less extent, exist in the Indian 

 Ocean, as well as up to the mouths of the larger rivers, in 

 backwaters and estuaries ; while parallel to certain places, 

 especially along the coasts of the Madras Presidency, vast 

 mud-banks are present in the sea, having such a thin con- 

 sistence that many kinds of fish are able to obtain abundance 

 of food there as well as a suitable locality in which to 

 deposit their ova. The most casual observer cannot fail to 

 perceive how numerous are the varieties and vast the 



