CXC11 



purse-net attached to a circular frame ; chabi-jal, a net attached to a 

 pyramidal frame- work of two bamboos, which, crossing one another at the 

 summit at right angles, are bent down into a pyramidal form at the 

 base of which the net is affixed. The traps are as follows : — ghoonee, 

 very common ; ara, aishta, polu, aud barh are also bamboo traps. 

 In the Hooghly Collectorate, the Tehsildars report perhaps 3,000 fisher- 

 men by profession, but all classes catch small fish : the castes are Man- 

 nah, Patoo, Mullik, Bang, Koormee, Teor, Jellya, Mulla, Pode, Noda, 

 Barrik, Santra, Khora, Mai, &c, but the Jellya are the true fishing 

 caste. The markets are fairly supplied; the fishermen, however, try to 

 keep up the market price by limiting the supply. Nine-tenths of the 

 population eat fish, the amount of which in the waters is station- 

 ary. Very small fish are taken during the rains both for eating and 

 stocking ponds ; the smallest sized mesh of nets employed is such as peas 

 can go through. Fish are trapped in the irrigated fields during the rains. 

 The following traps are used: — ghoonee, ara, and aishta; also eleven 

 forms of weirs. 



360. From Assam no returns have been received ; the following 



appeared in the columns of the Englishman of 

 Observations from Assam. J u l y 5th , 1871j respecting this division : - 



" There is a system of wholesale poisoning and trapping fish, which aims 

 at the destruction and extermination of the species." The writer goes 

 on to describe how some pools are poisoned, others dammed, and the fish 

 harpooned; how streams are embanked, and wicker traps employed, with 

 a scarcity as the^result. 



