SCIENCE.-Supplement. 



FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1886. 



FISH AND FAMINE IN INDIA. 



Famine seems to threaten with destruction the 

 people of no part of the world so often as that of 

 India ; and the query has often arisen in the mind 

 of the writer why the fish-food of that great em- 

 pire was not utilized in its prevention to a greater 

 extent. The vast peninsula of Hindostan is sur- 

 rounded by tropical seas ; its shores are low, and 

 indented by lagoons ; its interior is penetrated by 

 great rivers ; its list of edible fishes is an exceed- 

 ingly long one. It would seem as though more 

 accoimt ought to be made of this food-supply 

 than appears to be the case. 



Fishermen have formed a separate caste in India 

 from earliest times. Originally it was subdivided 

 into those who pursued their calling in the open 

 sea, and those who fished inland waters ; but 

 now this distinction is lost in most districts. The 

 remains of a patriarchal organization of the caste 

 — in whose history many figures prominent 

 politically may be recalled — still exist, for the 

 fishermen acknowledge several hereditary chiefs, 

 each of whom exercises priestly control over a 

 wide extent of coast, and is a final referee in all 

 caste or family disputes. Subsidiary to them are 

 lesser chiefs over groups of villages, and elective 

 headmen presiding each over a single hamlet. 

 These chiefs decide disputes, are present at mar- 

 riages and religious ceremonies, often arrange the 

 work of the village, collect government dues, and 

 receive fines and fees, much of which the lower 

 officers must pass on to their superiors. 



The general degeneracy of the sea-fishing in- 

 terest caused the Indian government recently to 

 set on foot an investigation, which was placed in 

 the hands of Dr. Francis Day, who recounted his 

 results in an intelligent paper read before the late 

 fisheries exhibition in London. It appears from 

 this that the key to comparative prosperity or 

 misery among this class of the population is found 

 in the word 'salt.' The only object of getting 

 sea-fish, which go in schools, and may be captured 

 in large quantities at a time (beyond the trifle 

 able to be consumed fresh on the shore), is to pre- 

 serve them for subsequent use. This can be done 

 by drying, which is an uncertain way, and results 

 in greater or less putridity, or by the use of salt. 

 Salt has not only been made from sea-water by 

 native methods since ancient times, but in certain 



regions of the coast, as in western Madras, saline 

 earths are found which form an imperfect sub- 

 stitute. 



Former British rulers placed a heavy tax not 

 only on the importation and manufacture of good 

 salt, but even taxed the collection of the poor 

 salt-earth : these impositions varied in different 

 districts, and in some have been removed. Sur- 

 veying the whole seacoast, it is now seen that 

 wherever salt was dear, except in a few places 

 supported by a brisk local demand (as in the 

 vicinity of large cities), the fish-curer's trade was 

 destroyed, and hence the fishermen were greatly 

 depressed, decreasing in numbers, and seeking to 

 become boatmen or sailors ; that fish salted with 

 taxed or monopoly salt was simply a luxury for 

 the rich, and valuable as an export, so that the 

 poor had to consume their fish putrid, or save it 

 for a short time by immersing it in sea- water and 

 drying in the sun ; and that which is prepared 

 with the salt-earth keeps badly, and predisposes 

 the consumer to disease. The unmistakable re- 

 sult of this tax has been to discourage and 

 lessen, if not wholly to ruin, a large proportion 

 of the food-producing population of the empire. 

 Moreover, it has brought about not only this 

 special harm, but harm to the general public, 

 whose food-supply is thus not only greatly di- 

 minished, but is put at an abnormally high price, 

 since all the fishermen have now sunken into the 

 hands of the money-lenders to whose advances of 

 capital they owe their ability to do any thing 

 at all, and to whom the whole catch must be 

 turned over as soon as taken. 



The fresh-water fishes differ in many respects 

 from marine ones. Wherever any quantity of 

 fresh water exists in the east, fishes are certain 

 to be found, all the way from sea-level to near 

 the summit of high mountains. In India this 

 is particularly true, and the people fish in rivers, 

 lakes, irrigation canals, tanks, ditches, swamps, 

 and inundated fields ; and, as fisliing is a less 

 laborious occupation than agriculture, the pursuit 

 is in high favor in those ease-loving latitudes. 



In olden times, under native rule, the fisheries 

 were held as royalties, and mostly were let out to 

 contractors, who retained the sole right to sell 

 fish, but issued licenses, on payment, permitting 

 families to catch for their own use. Remains of 

 this custom, in one form or another, still exist. 

 Along the Himalayas, in the Kangra and other 

 districts, the petty rajahs adopted another plan. 



