The. Bombay fisherman's mooring anchor is generally of stone, from 4 to 5 feet in length, four sided and pyratnidal, the apex cut off. At base it is from 6 to 8 inches square, and from 4 to 6 at top. Through the top is a hole, through which a cable or hawser passes. Near the base are two holes at right angles to each other. Through these pieces of wood are thrust, correspondine. to the prongs or flukes of the anchor. The whole weighs from 80 to 150 lbs., according to the size of the vessel, and answers very well the purposes intended..
The Bombay fishermen are a strong-made race of men, and are the only labourers in India amongst whom a great degree of obesity is observed. They are much given to the use of intoxicating drinks. A set of boats and nets belong to a dozen or so of fishermen, one often advancing the capital required to be contributed by the others ; the capture is divided amongst them on their reaching the shore, and is immediately taken charge of and carried to market by the women, who carry their baskets ou their heads. The men, when so em ployed, carry theirs in baskets swung at the opposite ends of a bamboo across the shoulders. The women who carry the fish to market are commonly followed by ten or a dozen crows, who constantly watch for anything that may escape, every.now and then making a, dash at the basket itself.
Southern dndia.—On the sea-coasts of the S. of India, Murmna maculata, B. Ham., Ophiocephalus striatus, Bloch., 0: marulius, Buch., O. gachna, Buck., Wallago (Silurus) attu, Bloch., W. Malabarici, Cur. et Val., Hemibagrus (Bag,rus) .punctatus, Jerdon, Hypselobagrus (Silurns) cavasius, Buch., E. inaidiatrix, Mach., Atherina Forskalii, Puppell and species of Ambassis,Polyneums,Heinimuiphus and Chretodon aro dried and largely exported tc the interior. Of the better known salt-watei fishes of a wider geographical distribution, such, for instance, as aro valued IU3 articles of food, at the three distant points, Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, the market of tho first is the least rich in varieties, in consequence of its greater distance from the sea. Tho abundance of the supply, how ever, makes up for what it wants in variety, and the large detnand for fish affords a livelihood to gri.sat numbers of fishermen, who every night spread their nets in the river and in the salt-water lake. The Lates nobilis, different species of Polynetnus, and tho Mugil corsula, daily cover the tables of Europeans, who will more readily recognise these fishes under the names of the begti or cockup, sudjeh, Lapel (mango fish), and the Indian mullet. At the Sandheads are to be found some of those delicious fishes which are more fatniliar to the residents of Madras and lionibay,—for instance, the Indian soles, the roll fish, and above all the black and white pomfrets and the bummalo or Bombay duck. Of these, the Indian mullet is the most widely distributed, being common in the Straits of Malacca, the Bay of Bengal, the Persian Gnlf, the Red Sea, and also at the Cape of Good Hope.
The Sunderbuns sea. fishery is carried on to a very small extent, chiefly because the distance to Calcutta is too great to allow of the carriage of fish in a fresh state. The only class of fishermen who have sea-built boats inhabit villages situated near the entmnce of the Hoogly. Their chief and most profitable employment consists in attending with their boats on the shipping entering and leaving the river, for which they receive 16 rupees per diem. Whenever this employment fails, they resort to work with their nets, which they drag during high water along the coasts of the Sunder buns. Two or three times are, generally speaking, sufficient to load a boat with fishes and shell-fish, a truly prodigious quantity being brought up in a few hauls. The larger portion of the fish are gutted and sun-dried. Tho Polynemus suliali or saccolih enters the mouths of the Ganges in shoals. The kharmh, or Indian mackerel, a species of Scomber, is rather uncommon in that estuary ; but from the Burmese coa.st great numbers in a dried state are annually imported into Bengal. The cartilaginous fishes abound in numbers and species, and are remarkable for their wide geo graphical distribution. The sharks enter the rivers to a considerable distance from the sea, and shark skin is used by the native workmen for polishing wood and ivory, while the shark fins are largely exported to China.
The bazars in Calcutta are always stocked with an ample supply of dry fish, which is consumed partly by the European and native shipping of that port, and partly by the poorer classes of Bengal and the Upper Provinces. ,Cargoes of this article are annually imported by ,the Burmese and Arabs. These dried fishes consist chiefly of the bummalo, which sells in Calcutta at the rate of four or five rupees a hun dred, in Indian mullet, the sudjeh, the begti, and the kharrah or Indian mackerel. The demtuid for dried fish exists along the coasts of the Peninsula. At Bombay large quantities of the buininalo aro. consumed and exported. At the inouths of the Indus the fishery is extensive ; and sonie fish sounds are there procured from a Sckena, but they may also be those of other fish, as tho fish maws are very different in form from the isinglass sent front Bengal. Dr. M'Clelland in his paper called attention to tlie very important subject of increasing the supply of fish in the 1 interior of India. Wherever there are any largo pieces of water for the purpose of irrigation, as in the Peninsula of India, these he conceived might ' support quantities of fish, if proper kinds were selected, and pains taken to destroy tho injurious animals, in the season when tho water is suffi ciently low for tho purpose. He also suggested that at the different sanatoria which have been established in the mountains, it would be desirable and easily practicable to form rivaria, which would at all times yield a supply of fish. This xnight be done by damming up a portion of some of the valleys through which the mountain streams pass.