No. 3 (1920) 



INSHORE FISHING EXPERIMENTS 



117 



A short note of all the above regarding their structure and 

 operation is given below: — 



The cost of a big canoe ranges from Rs. 200 to Rs. 800 (pre- 

 war), and Rs. 250 to Rs. 1,000 (present rate), and that of a small one 

 from Rs. 150 to Rs. 300 (pre-war) and Rs. 300 to Rs. 450 (present). 

 Canoes are made from either Aynee (Malabar), Cheene, Punna, 

 Pine or Mango-wood of which one made of Aynee is considered to 

 be the strongest and hence the costliest. The big canoes are 28 

 to 34 feet long while the small ones are 12 to 15 feet long. 



(i) Paithu Void. — This is a large seine net operated from two 

 big canoes. It appears in the following three forms, differing from 

 each other only in the number and nature of the thread used and 

 slightly in size: — 



(a) Naria Void. — This is a cotton seine with a wide mouth 

 to which is attached a double armed, big meshed, coir rope net 

 'Thattu," which serves only to frighten the fish into the bag net. 

 The pre-war price of a Naria Vala was Rs. 100 to Rs. 150, the present 

 price is about Rs. 225. The bag itself is 7 to 7^2 fathoms long 

 from the apex to the periphery and 25 fathoms along the latter. 

 Roughly about 140 skeins of thread (numbers 10 and 20) will be re- 

 quired for making one Naria Vala. It is made up of several pieces 

 with 50 meshes each. The apical part of the net is called 

 "Vattam," the peripheral margin/' Naria Vala " and the interven- 

 ing part "Adi Vala." The number of net pieces and ply and 

 the nature of the thread used in the various parts are given 

 below : — 



About 40 skeins of thread are required for Vattam and Adi 

 Vala and 100 for Naria Vala. Along a fourth of the upper part 



