186 MALAYAN FISHES. 



Within the writer's memory the main rivers of the West coast 

 were fine clear streams. The waters provided irrigation for the 

 rice fields and contained quantities of fine edihle fish. These rivers 

 are now thick turbid streams carrying a heavy burden of slime and 

 silt. 



We have probably one hundred different species of Carp alone, 

 besides dozens of species of Catfish and many tine fish belong nj_' to 

 the families Osi-iiitoMKNii>AK, Xotoi'TKRidak. etc. etc. Catfish can 

 • \:>; in slime and silt though it is questionable whether they can 



One of our Carp the Kelah (Barbus sp.) has been described 

 bv Swettcnham as the finest fresh water fish he ever ate in the East, 

 and the Kalui (Osphromenux olfax) is so highly esteemed that 

 several attempts have been made to introduce it into France, and it 

 has been acclimatised in .Mauritius. Australia and parts of India. 



Tin mining is necessary and some pollution of the rivers is 

 unavoidable, but there have been many cases where carelessly con- 

 structed dams have broken and a turbid flood of slime has been 

 allowed to pour direct into the rivers for months while leisurely 

 repairs are being made. Though much of the damage done in the 

 past is irremediable, let us hope that a more general recognition of 

 ■ fisheries will result in a fair measure 

 There are still rivers which can be 



you destroy the other. 



Where you can grow rice you can catch fish and where you can 

 no longer catch fish you cannot grow rice. 



To explain : the mining silt which pours into the rivers gradual- 

 lv raises the bed of the stream and so causes a rise in the water 

 table. A rise in the water tahle limits the area of drainaMe land. 



area which ^can be planted with rice beeomer&maHer and -mailer 

 until eventually the water table is so high that the river channel 



Fish cannot breed in the rivers polluted 

 so the Fisheries and rice fields perish simu 

 policy of construction and development these 

 lost sight of. 



There is yet another point which has recei 

 that concerns' anadromous Marine fishes wli 

 spawn. Among these fishes the principal one 



