Barhus. INDIAN CYPRINID^. 339 



wholesome, and nutritious food. These fishes are, however, peculiar to remote 

 unpopulated districts where no attempts are made to cure them, they are 

 consequently lost to the wants of other places where an unlimited demand for 

 dried fish must prevail at all seasons, but particularly during the rains and hot 

 weather, when fresh fish become scarce. 



There can be no doubt that if some relaxation of salt duties could be 

 made in favour of those who would embark in such a business, a profitable 

 and useful trade might be established to a far greater extent than we can at 

 present form any notion of. The season for fishing is short, and without the 

 means of saving more than can be consumed when fresh, the fishermen have 

 nothing to stimulate them to any exertion beyond that of earning during their 

 brief season, a sufficient sum to support them during the rest of the year. 

 Had the fisherman the means of preserving the results of his labor, his chief 

 market would commence when the fishing season ends, and his industry would 

 then become a permanent benefit to himself and to the country at large. Sea 

 fisheries would be of still higher importance, although neither should be neg- 

 lected.* The cold season, from November to February, is the time at which 

 fishes are chiefly taken ; the waters being then low the fish are confined to 

 narrow channels, and are often completely cut off from the larger streams and 

 left in pools, in which they are easily secured. When passing Solano Mookh 

 with the Assam deputation in January, I saw boats laden with most of the 

 five kinds of Barbels just described, from one to two and a half feet in length ; 

 but as Suddyah, the nearest market at which they could probably be disposed 

 of, was thirty miles distant, and a strong current to be opposed in reaching 



* The attention of tlie Royal Asiatic Society was directed to this subject in April last, by my 

 friend Dr. Cantor, whose opportunities of making himself acquainted with the subject during the 

 time he was employed with Capt. Lloyd in the Sunderbunds, should render his opinions of consi- 

 derable weight. Since then the discovery of isinglass in a large PolynemuSj which frequents the 

 estuaries of the Ganges in shoals every cold season must, if thoroughly established, be the means of 

 opening a new and inexhaustible branch of trade in a quarter where it was little expected. 



