jumped overboard to hold the mouth of the hag so as to allow the 

 pressure of the water to spread it open to its full extent. The 

 two 25-pound stone weights were then tied to each end of the bottom 

 line at a distance of about W feet apart. Each of these stone 

 weights was provided with a retrieving line, the free ends of which 

 were held by a man in each of two bancas anchored at the opening of 

 the bag. In laying out the bag under adverse fishing conditions 

 such as lack of current or when it had to be payed out with the 

 direction of the current, stone weights or anchors tied to the 

 closed end of the bag were employed to keep it distended. 



When the bag was finally set, fishermen in two bancas, 

 each carrying one wing, set out to a distance of about 46 fathoms 

 from the bag e-nd about the same distance apart. The wings were 

 payed out until the school of fish was impounded in the enclosure 

 formed by the two wings of the bag. The length of wings payed out 

 was governed by the topography of the ground, especially the nature 

 of the coastline. One wing might be considerably shorter than the 

 other as long as the fishes could be impounded with the aid of 

 natural factors such as irregularities of the reef. 



With the bag and wings all set and the fish impounded, 

 the fishermen boarded another set of two bancas and peddled for 

 the open edge of the trap toward the tip of each wing.. Equipped 

 with water goggles and a pendant (scarellne) they jTimped into the 

 water and swimming in the form of an arc or semi-circle, they began 

 to drive the fishes from this wide, open area towards the mouth of 

 the bag by making as Jiaich commotion as possible by jerking their 

 scarelines up and down. Sometimes they had to dive in order to 

 prevent fish from escaping from the enclostire. When at a short 

 distance of about 30 feet from the mouth of the bag, from foxir to 

 six men boarded the two bancas previously anchored at this spot and 

 hauled in the two stone weights attached to the bottom line of the 

 bag. In the meantime, the rest continued to drive the fish into 

 the bag. 



Once the bottom line was lifted to the surface the fishes 

 were comt)letely impounded in the bag. All fishermen helped in the 

 hauling, the work being done in between the two bancas. The catch 

 was then brailed out into another banca by means of large dip nets, 

 the latter banca taking the catch to tne mother ship anchored not 

 far away. Here they were unloaded on deck for sorting and finally 

 stored in the hold in alternate layers of crashed ice. Meanwnile, 

 the rest of the fishermen busied themselves in hauling in the wings 

 preparatory for another operation. 



In some instances the wings were used to drive the fishes 

 into the bag by pulling them toward each other, thus obviating the 

 work of swi:nming end driving them with the scarelines. 



?0 



