458 INDIAN CYPRINID^. 



portance as in India, where most of the domestic animals which in Europe 

 afford the principal food, as the ox, swine, poultry, &c. are rejected by a 

 large proportion of the people. 



Throughout the Mysore country, as well as in many of the western pro- 

 vinces, large tanks or reservoirs occur, many of them from three to thirty miles 

 in circumference, and being indispensable for irrigation, may be supposed to 

 be nearly universal in all populous districts not watered by rivers. These re- 

 servoirs are considered by the Hon'ble Colonel Morison C. B.* as among the 

 greatest national monuments to be found in India 



They are capable, according to Buchanan,f of supplying water for from 

 eighteen months to two years, and thus of maintaining the surrounding 

 crops should no rain fall within that period. 



They are drained by an ingenious system of sluices and aqueducts of the 

 most simple, but complete construction, which afford a perfect control over the 

 distribution of the water. During the dry season they are all pretty much 

 exhausted, and may, if necessary for repairs, be left perfectly dry. This would 

 afford an excellent opportunity for destroying crocodiles and all the various 

 destructive fishes, sparing only the more profitable kinds, which are limited to 

 two or three species only ; and by repeating this operation for several seasons, 

 or as often as may be necessary, all but those we wish to propagate would 

 soon be exterminated. 



By a wise law of nature, the carnivorous animals of every class are less 

 prolific than the harmless, and may therefore be the more easily subdued. 

 Nearly all the destructive fishes are viviparous, bringing forth compara- 

 tively few young ; whereas, the more profitable kinds, or those which should 

 be the object of our care, are all oviparous, and bring forth their young from 

 spawn. 



* To whom I am indebted for many particulars regarding them, 

 t See his Journey in Mysore. 



