62 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vol. XIV, 



long lines with many hooks are used. A common bait for large fish 

 such as O'phiocephcdus .striatus is a small living Notopterus. The cost 

 of the monthly licence for the use of different kinds of fishing lines varies 

 from one to four annas. 



Fish-Sfeaeing. 



The most profitable and one of the most heavily taxed methods of 

 fishing is that of spearing (pi. VI. figs. 1, 2, 3). The spears are of two 

 kinds, one (pi. VI. fig. 4) with two prongs and one with five (pi. VI, 

 fig. 5). The former is used for spearing Carp and all other fish except 

 eels, it is called kyin or Tchyin. The monthly license for its use costs 

 four annas if it is used by day, but one rupee if it is used by night 

 with a small fire in the front portion of the boat. An accessory fre- 

 quently employed with this type of spear is a large conical frame made 

 of strips of bamboo bound together with ratan and sufficiently long 

 to reach the bottom of the lake. It has a small hole at the top and 

 is without a bottom. This contrivance is let down over fish in the 

 water and they are then speared through the hole at the top. 



The spear with two prongs is only used in catching the eels Amphi- 

 pnous cuchia and Monoptenis albus. It is of much less importance 

 than the one with five prongs. It is named shin-su. 



The construction of the two kinds of spears is essentially the same 

 but that of the shinsv is somewhat simpler than that of the kind with 

 five prongs. Its shaft is made of a slender bamboo about 5 feet long. 

 The two prongs, each of which has a single barb on the inner surface, 

 are apparently cast in one piece with a spike at the base, which is in- 

 serted into the tip of the shaft. They are fixed in position by means 

 of some kind of resin and the tip of the shaft is strengthened by a copper 

 band hammered tight round it. The prongs are of course of iron. 



The shaft of the five-pronged spear is longer and more slender and 

 is formed of the stem of a stout reed covered with thitsi varnish. The 

 five prongs are all in one piece and each has a single barb ; they are 

 bound to the shaft by thin twine or cotton thread covered with resin 

 or ihUsi varnish. The shaft is sometimes as much as 12 feet long. 



Chief Edible Fish of the Lake. 



In the systematic part of this paper I have stated briefly, in dis- 

 cussing each species, its economic status. It may be convenient here 

 to summarize what has been said on the subject : at the same time 

 I wish to say a little more about the dried whitebait that is so charac- 

 teristic a product of the Yawnghwe State. 



All the species commonly sold in the market are abundant, a fact 

 probably correlated with the comparatively small number of species 

 represented in the lake. There are no really large fish in the Inle 

 Lake and several of the species certainly do not attain the size they 

 attain in the lowland waters of Burma. This may be due to the lack 

 of a sufficiently abundant supply of nitrogenous food or to other 

 causes of like nature. Some of the fish of the lake are always very 

 spiall, not growing more than an inch long. The great majority of th(? 



