1918.] N. AxNANDALE: F/.s7( of the Iiile Lnl-e. 61 



arch above and tied together with twine. A third bamboo passes 

 transversely through holes in their free ends. The net itself is bag- 

 shaped, and has a small mesh of about 12 mm. It is made of cotton. 

 A long rope is fastened to each of the lower angles of the framework. 

 Two boats have to be used in fi.shiag with this net. A man stands 

 upright in one of these boats holding the top of the framework in his 

 hands, he plunges it downvv'ards and throws the two ropes across to 

 two men in the other boat. They haul in the ropes until the net is 

 horizontal and the two boats are close together. The bag is then 

 emptied out into the second boat. The contents consist of a mass 

 of weeds, with Carp, Notopterus, Barhus sarana, Ophiocephalus striatus 

 and any other fish that may have taken shelter among the weeds. 



The Sin or dip-net is of various sizes, and may be either square 

 or oblong. It is used mainly for catching the herring-like Barhus sted- 

 manensis, and the sprat-like Barilius, both open-water fish. The mesh 

 is naturally smaller for the latter than for the former. The net is fas- 

 tened at its four corners to two stout bent pieces of bamboo which are 

 crossed above and temporarily tied together with string. A longer 

 straight bamboo is tied above them as a handle. The net is allowed 

 to sink into the water where a shoal of fish is seen, and rice-chaff is 

 sprinkled on the surface above it. The fish come to this, thinkino- 

 it to be some kind of food, and the net is drawn up from below them. 

 The large dip-nets worked with a windlass that are often seen in 

 Travancore, on the Tale Sap in Peninsular Siam and in many parts 

 of China are not used on the Inle Lake. 



The cast-net is used rather in canals and flooded rice-fields than 

 in the lake itself. It does not differ in construction or method of use 

 from nets employed in other parts of the East. 



Fishing Enclosures. 



I did not see real stake-nets of any kind in use on the lake, but 

 driftnets are sometimes used in connection with large enclosures (pi. V. 

 fig. 3). These are made in the following manner : — Masses of living 

 weed {Cei-atoph)jUum) are collected in boats and allowed to dry. Thev 

 form a felted substance of some strength. AVith this walls are built in 

 the lake round areas often of large size. They reach from the bottom 

 to well above the surface of the water and are fixed in position by long 

 bamboo poles driven through them into the mud of th:^ bottom. 

 Small holes are made in the walls at intervals a short distance below 

 the surface and the mouths of conical fish traps made of bamboo (see 

 above) are fixed in the holes. The bottom of the enclosed area is 

 then systematically stirred up by means of bamboos and the fish are 

 driven out into the traps. The nets are suspended in the air on 

 bamboos above the walls of the enclosures to catch those fish that 

 ma}^ attempt to leap out. 



Hooks and Lines. 



The revenue department of Yawnghwe recognize several dift'erent 

 kinds of methods of using fish-hooks, but I have little information as 

 to the methods except that both fishing-rods made of long reeds and 



