INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. 25 



increase. Means of carriage generally improve with time, 

 and should neither regulation nor care of the fisheries be 

 attempted, disastrous results must eventually be arrived at, 

 unless the finny tribes by means of artificial propagation 

 are kept up to the required numbers. Fish appear to have 

 but few friends but many enemies, and investigations as to 

 their condition but too frequently end in giving increased 

 licence to their captors. We see interested parties and 

 philanthropists (so-called) exclaiming against the hardship 

 to the poor in not allowing every available fish to be 

 secured. The majority of our law-makers are content to 

 allow the fish to shift for themselves, and to leave the 

 fishermen to be controlled simply by their own consciences. 

 To-day's market it is hoped will be supplied, sufficient for 

 this season it is believed may be obtained, so to-morrow's 

 wants are left to be met as they can, until the time arrives 

 when depletion of fisheries becomes obvious, when, if the 

 fault cannot be laid upon meteorological or other conditions, 

 something has to be attempted. 



The fishermen of the fresh waters of India and Burmah 

 are divisible into two main classes — first, such as follow this 

 calling as their sole means of livelihood ; and, secondly, 

 such as engage in it only occasionally, and as a subsidiary 

 occupation. Who, then, are these Indian fishermen ? Here, 

 even within the limits of a single, or at least of a few 

 generations, great innovations have crept in, for in the time 

 of native rule, fishing was in the hands of distinct castes, 

 but now it is only here and there that one comes across 

 some remnants of these people, living in small communi- 

 ties, and frequently in the greatest poverty. At Comba- 

 conum, in Madras, there is a tradition that the fishing 

 castes resident there were originally brought from Conja- 

 veram as palanqueen-bearers ; while, at Broach, in Bombay, 



