24 INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. 



thought respecting future supply. Fish have been endowed 

 with certain means of increase and protection — the number 

 of their eggs may be enormous, and sufficient to counter- 

 balance natural waste. The operations of man, however, 

 are in excess of natural waste, consequently such a destruc- 

 tive agency requires to be kept in some check. In India 

 certain forms of fish keep guard over their eggs, and likewise 

 over their fry, in order to afford them protection from their 

 enemies. 



When man increases, watery wastes (wherein the fish 

 had been protected by grass, reeds, bushes, and the roots 

 of trees) become drained and cultivated ; predaceous man 

 increases his means of destruction ; an augmented popu- 

 lation, possibly assisted by the unscrupulous manufacturer 

 or miner, pollute the previously wholesome water, and a 

 diminution of the finny tribe becomes apparent to the 

 investigator. 



With an increasing fish-eating population, an increased 

 supply of fish is a self-evident necessity, and this must be 

 provided for by augmented captures or dearer prices, the 

 latter acting as a check on the poor, by more or less placing 

 it out of their reach. This latter result may, consequently,, 

 eventuate in gradually diminishing the physical strength of 

 the people by decreasing their food, a proceeding which will 

 scarcely bear examination. It is clear that a greater supply 

 must be met from one or two sources, either from fisheries 

 which previously have been insufficiently worked, or by 

 overworking such as exist, by means of capturing, for 

 present use, those which ought to be left for a future season. 

 Even if the extent of the water is so great, and the con- 

 tiguous inhabitants so few, that this result need not be 

 anticipated for several generations, still, populations under 

 good systems of government have a natural tendency ta 



