All with ineffable longing are waiting their Invader, All, with one varying voice, call to him, Come and subdue; Still for their Conqueror call, and but for the joy of being conquered (Rapture they will not forego) dare to resist and rebel; Still when resisting and raging, in soft undervoice say unto him, Fear not, retire not, O man; hope evermore and believe." of а Let this veritable fairy tale of science tell its own story in conclusion of the wonders it has worked, and which in truth read more like some fable of the 'Arabian Nights' than the dry record Government department. The record is a professional one, but it needs no professional knowledge to understand the evidence of "direct money returns," or of a clear surplus of receipts over expenditure down to the end of 1894 of 284 lakhs of rupees. Whereas in the twenty years preceding the construction of the works the yearly revenue of the Godavery district had dwindled from 21 to 17 lakhs, in the twenty succeeding years it rose by steady yearly increments to 88 lakhs of rupees. During the same period it is officially recorded that the imports were increased tenfold, the exports twentyfold. Whether the rapid increase of population, which is one of the consequences of English rule, is an unmixed blessing to India may be questioned; but we cannot omit from the list of the fruits borne by this great work that a gradually dwindling population of 560,000 has been transformed to a population of over 2 millions, showing a density greater than that of Belgium, the most populous country of Europe. The area of irrigated land rendered safe for a yearly crop has been increased in the same period, and by the same means, from less than 150,000 acres of precarious cultivation to near 700,000 acres on which the crops are grown "with almost absolute certainty." While for communications, in lieu of mere rough and devious footpaths, the delta has been furnished with 500 miles of navigable canals and an equal length of roads constructed from local funds, raised through the prosperity of the country. In the words of the 'District Manual,' with which the record is brought to a close "Famine is unknown. It is the garden of the great Northern provIts revenue is more elastic than it has ever been-its population ince. has more than doubled-its commerce has flourished, and its trade has developed to a marvellous degree, and it may be confidently asserted that it is in as peaceful, happy, and prosperous condition as any part of her Imperial Majesty's dominions." "That these results," adds the writer, "are largely due to the great Engineering works of which this history treats is not open to question." One word more of the hero of this memorable episode in the making of India. It is a strange thing that, for all his triumphant justification by the inexorable logic of results, the name of Arthur Cotton is to this day regarded in influential quarters as that of a "visionary." "His estimates are not to be trusted," they say, "his figures are too large," "the scale of his plans too heroic for practical adoption. He deals in nothing less than millions." But, in the name of common-sense, in what else should he deal, with an area to provide for like that of India? And what are his millions to those which crowd the columns of our daily Famine reports at this moment? millions of rupees thrown into the breach, like the stone into the Godavery, and millions of famished people barely rescued from death by starvation at an unheard-of cost. If ever there was an authority who has proved his right to be heard on such a subject as this, assuredly it is Arthur Cotton. And the fire of this fruitful genius is not yet extinguished. It is only four months since the old lion was roused to write to the 'Times' by the sight of this very record of which we speak, and which must have brought to him as pure a pleasure as was ever vouchsafed to a devoted and too little understood public servant. Very pithy and characteristic is his comment on the situation, in a letter published in the 'Times' of the 1st February last, and of which an extract may fitly be given here: "Surely," he writes, "this is an amazing lesson at this moment. The remedy now proposed for the famine is to spend 45 millions sterling on railways, but the question is not one of carriage for corn, but of corn for carriage. "The railways will not produce a grain of corn, and consequently the world is being searched for grain to import. "This sum would irrigate from the great rivers, which never fail, many million acres, producing in rice sufficient for two persons per acre, besides providing some thousands of miles of steamboat canal, carrying so cheaply as really to meet the needs of India with its long distances. "At present the Government irrigation works in all water 11 million acres, applying to the land about 3 per cent of the rich water of the great rivers, containing abundance of all the food which grain crops require beside moisture, and the remaining 97 per cent are annually carrying to the sea, and so to waste, hundreds of millions of tons of water and plant food for want of which hundreds of thousands will now perish. "If one-fifth of the money expended upon the small branch lines of railway had been expended upon irrigation works scattered over India, there is every reason to believe there famine at this time. The great rivers in the worst years bring down abun would have been no deaths from dance of rich water for food for hundreds of millions more than the present population. "I should remind readers that the statements I have given above reentirely free from estimates, being specting the Godavery district are purely facts brought forward in the Madras Government report." There are those who think so bare a statement of the truth to be injudicious, but there is a time to speak as well as a time to be silent, and unquestionably now is the time to speak the whole truth on this momentous subject. Nor is there any conceivable reason for silence. At this moment, in his ninety-fourth year, we do not doubt that the writer of this letter could draft for our Indian authorities, if they would have it, such a programme of hydraulic works for the whole continent-so comprehensive, so well thought out, so entirely to be trusted-that it might be accepted on his ipse dixit. The skeleton of such a plan might indeed be formed from his extant writings on the subject-writings which we feel confident will one day be estimated at their true value. And so we come back in the end to the point from which we started. For, while India sits wringing her hands in despair, weeping for the dead and hopeless for the future, somewhere in the folds of the Surrey hills there lives a venerable old man who even yet knows the secret, and for love of India would gladly impart it, if she would only listen, of spinning water into gold, and cinders into cornfields, and ropes of sand into strings of pearl. A CLOSE-TIME FOR TROUT IN SCOTLAND. BY SIR JAMES FORREST, BART. Stewart in his 'Practical Angler' states that "he is not worthy of the name of angler, who cannot in any day of the month (June), when the water is clear, kill from fifteen to twenty pounds weight of trout in any county in the South of Scotland." The largest basket, however, of which any mention can be found comes from the Meggat water: "It has been recorded,' says the author of the 'Border Angler,' 'that a late famous Peeblean angler captured nearly 100 lb. in it with the worm in one day; and many anglers have often, long before the day was done, found their baskets all too small for the captives of their rod and of their line in the Meggat." ALL classes of Scotsmen from the peer to the peasant, from Shetland to the Solway, are devoted disciples of Izaak Walton, whether their object is the capture of the lordly salmon in the pool, or the luring of the more humble trout from the tiny streamlet. But the law does not lend the same protection in the one case as in the other. The salmon is protected by innumerable Acts of Parliament, Scots and British; for upwards of five centuries he has been the peculiar favourite of the law. The trout in Scotland, however, has been practically left to work out his own salvation for himself; and the result has been his gradual deterioration both in numbers and in size. It is a matter of common knowledge that troutfishing in Scotland has gone down greatly of late years, though it must be admitted that it is not easy to prove the fact, owing to the scarcity of genuine records of takes. Perhaps the most detailed account of sport in the old days is to be found in Dryden's Hints to Anglers.' He gives part of a season's fishing in 1858 on the Gala, Ettrick, Leader, and Tweed in nine days in June of that year he killed with worm sixty-seven dozen of trout, weigh-coorse a bet, we took the census owre ing 177 lb. Further he says: : "The largest number of trout I believe which I ever made was in the Leader in the spring of 1840 with fly. I did not note either the number or weight, but I filled three large baskets. They took the fly readily, even when the dressing was nearly worn off it. In the Gala, in the month of June, I once killed 51 lb. weight a statement which I can prove by the testimony of credible witnesses." The Ettrick Shepherd in the 'Noctes' says of that once famous river "Anither day, in the Meggat, I caucht a cartfu'. As it gaed down the road, the kintra-folk thocht it was a cartfu' o' herrins-for they were a' preceesely o' ae size to an unce-and though we left twa dizzen at this house, and four dizzen at that house, and a gross at Henderland, house, and a gross at Henderland, on countin' them at hame in the kitchen, Leezy made them out forty dizzen, and Girzy forty-twa-aught; sae a dispute ha'in' arisen, and o' again, and may these be last words I shall ever speak, gin they didna turn out to be Forty-Five." that there cannot now be said to be any one in Scotland "worthy of the name" (to use Stewart's words) "of angler." The reasons given for this falling off are various. One of the commonest is that of the pollution of the rivers, owing to sewerage and manufactories. Certainly a great deal of harm has been done in this way to the trout; but it is doubtful if the damage has been as much as might have been expected. It is very seldom that one sees a dead trout in a river. That would be chiefly in the summer-time, when one could hardly help seeing them if they were poisoned. The fact is that pollution does not so much kill the fish as drive them down to the bottom, where, as a rule, they won't take. Still, good baskets are made even in polluted waters. For instance, in the Mid-Lothian Esk, where the papermakers work their own sweet will under the controlling hand of the law, it is not an uncommon sight to see in a heavy spate the angler landing a number of trout just below the mills. The modern system of drainage, too, is blamed, to a certain extent, for the deterioration of the trout. It is obvious that the rivers in Scotland are now much less regular in size than in the old days. At times they are too small, and at others too full; and in spates the natural food of the trout is apt to be carried down, and thus the trout have not sufficient sustenance to thrive on as in the earlier days. The amount of water, too, is much less in many of the streams, owing to the water having been taken from them for the purpose of the water-supply of the larger cities. That is very much the case in Mid-Lothian and Peeblesshire; and the new Talla Scheme for Edinburgh may damage the tributaries of the Tweed. Another cause for the gradual deterioration in the number of the trout caught by individual anglers is to be found in the overfishing that takes place, especially in the streams in the South of Scotland. That is due greatly to the increase of late years in railway facilities. But the chief reason is that there is no proper protection for trout afforded by the law, and this ought to be rectified as soon as possible; otherwise there will soon be no trout left for anglers to capture. In England and Wales the capture of trout and char is prohibited from the 2nd of October till the 1st of February, except in Norfolk and Suffolk, where, under a local Act, the Conservators have fixed the close-time, for nets only, from the 10th of September till the 25th of January, and on the Thames, where the close-time runs from the 11th of September to the 31st of March. Further, the local Boards of Conservators have, by an Act passed in 1876, the power to vary the close-times for trout and char to suit the requirements of their respective districts, provided that such close - time does not commence earlier than the 2nd of September nor later than the 2nd of November, and is not less than 123 days. In addition to this, there is a further protection to trout in England from the fact that in most of the streams a limit is put on the size of the fish, below which they cannot be taken. And there is a still more important aid to the protection of the trout in England in the fact that all packages containing trout or char must, between the 3rd of September and the 1st of February, be distinctly so marked. In Ireland, too, the trout is under the protection of the law. The close - time for salmon applies also to trout. The netting close-time must never be less than 168 days, and neither salmon nor trout can be sold in Ireland in the close season. The close-time for rod-fishing varies in the different districts. In the Dublin district it is three months, while in other districts the period is longer. Further, by the Pollen Fishery (Ireland) Act of 1881 a special close-time for pollen is fixed. But what is the case in Scotland? There is no close-time in Scotland for trout or other freshwater fish. They can be, and are, killed and sold all the year round, whether in season or out of season, and thousands of pounds of unseasonable fish are sent off during the winter months from the Tweed and other Border streams to glut the London market. The only protection that trout receive by the law in Scotland is afforded by the Fresh-Water Fishery Acts of 1845 and 1860, which are directed against netting, double or crossline fishing, fishing by set lines or otters, burning the water, pointing, striking the fish with any instrument, or putting into the water any substance destructive to the fish. Even Further, section 18 of the Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act 1868 makes it illegal to use any fish-roe for the purpose of fishing, or to buy or sell or have in possession any salmon - roe. these enactments, however, unfortunately, are practically a dead letter, as the poacher, in divers ways, manages to ply his nefarious trade with practically no chance of detection. One of the most common means of capturing the trout is the use of the net; and, as the law now stands, it is almost VOL. CLXI.NO. DCCCCLXXX. impossible to put a stop to this practice in the winter months. Even water-bailiffs can do nothing to prevent this, as they have no power of search for trout; and as there is no restriction in the sale of trout in November, December, and January, the result naturally follows that what is taken thus illegally by the net finds a ready market. The extent to which netting is carried on in the Teviot at the present day may be imagined, when I state that the Hawick Town Council, as recently as the 11th of May, resolved to stake the burgh waters to prevent such netting. Further, the poacher catches innumerable trout by means of salmon - roe. In the months of October, November, and December they kill in the Tweed and its tributaries all the spawning trout which congregate in thousands at the back of milldams, or rest at the sides of strong streams and pools. On a good fishing day you may see dozens of men and boys fishing, and catching fine trout pretty nearly every cast. These so-called anglers never move more than a few yards down, and as fast as they pull one trout out another comes in to rest on its way to the spawning - grounds. These poachers soon fill their enormous baskets, made for the purpose to hold 2 or 3 stone-weight or even more. If any one is seen coming along during the operation, a whistle or sign is passed along, and the roe, which is generally carried in the angler's mouth, is knocked off the hook and a worm put on. It is thus most difficult to detect this illegal method of capturing the trout; and the poacher, as a rule, comes off scot-free. There have been various attempts of late years to improve 3 N |
