CXC1X 



375. Secondly, moveable engines. These, again, are of two sorts : 



(1) those constructed of bamboo, rattan, 

 Moveable fishing engines em- reec ^ or SO me such substances ; (2) those in 



ployed in the fresh-waters of ^ form of ^ RaUan Qr bamboo netgj 



gyan, have each piece fixed to its neighbour 

 by grass or fibre in the place of string-, the interstices being of various 

 sizes, from 1 '^th of an inch to 1 inch. Yindoons, or a species of lave-net, 

 of an elongated triangular shape, made of closely woven bamboos and 

 affixed to a long pole, is employed to clean out all small water-courses 

 of the fry of fish ; it is pushed along them and raised every now and 

 then, as it usually is as wide as these channels ; fry are easily captured 

 thus. Another and larger form is dragged by bullocks or pushed by men 

 through the haunts of the fry ; it lets none escape ; for, as it goes through 

 the muddy water, the weeds, &c, choke up all the interstices, so not the 

 smallest fish can pass. There are other descriptions, but the principle is 

 identical not to allow anything, except water, to pass. (2) Those in the 

 form of nets are also variously constructed, but it is in the free fisheries 

 more especially, that I witnessed the most minutely meshed nets em- 

 ployed. Mek-kwoon or Umbel is a form of net which has very small 

 meshes; it is about 12 feet long, having a bamboo along either end, 

 whilst one side is attached to a boat, so that it can be lifted like a board 

 affixed by a hinge. The boat is moored broadside on, in an appropriate 

 situation, the fish, mostly fry, are frightened to above where it is placed, and 

 all the fisherman has to do is to raise the net, when the fish fall into the 

 boat. Purse-nets ai'e used, fixed or moveable, in the small water-courses. 

 I went the whole length of that portion of the Irrawaddi which is in 

 British territory, either in steamer or country boat, up the Pegu River to 

 the town of that name, across by boat to Sittoung, and down again to 

 Moulmein. Wherever I went I found small meshed nets being em- 

 ployed by the villagers to obtain fish for their own consumption, and 

 as they had no interest in the leased fisheries, whilst fry are most easily 

 captured, these they were destroying wherever they had the chance. 

 Near Rangoon, nets, 30 feet long, were being dragged along the sides of 

 the Irrawaddi in the haunts of the fry, the mesh of which was -, 8 D ths of an 

 inch in circumference. I counted 15 such in use at one time and on one 

 bank of the river between Rangoon and the sea. Nothing escapes 

 them, nothing is returned to the river, and thus excessive injury must 

 be caused. AtProme I saw two women fishing with a short drag-net, the 

 meshes of which were T 8 (jths of an inch in circumference. I took some 20 

 of the young of the " Nga-hoothans," Labeo calbasu, out and weighed 

 them; they just turned the scale at £ an ounce, whilst in a few months more 

 each individual fish should weigh, if alive and well, | a pound. The same 

 long drag-nets as observed at Rangoon were being used all along the British 

 portion of the Irrawaddi ; also numerous other forms of fine meshed 

 nets and minutely woven baskets. But not only here were the fry 

 being destroyed wholesale by those who were permitted to fish without 

 payment, but also in every other portion of Burma which I visited; 

 and this is a second reason why I consider that, even if the Chief 

 Commissioner was correct in stating that no wanton destruction takes 

 place in the province, he must have admitted a wasteful one, had he 

 time to investigate the subject. 



