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TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



[Vol. VI. 



down in parallel order to the number sometimes of ten or twelve. 

 Immediately facing the row of basket entrances a large beam F, hewn 

 on the upper side only, partly floats on the water and is partly 

 supported on the forks of piles driven in the bed of the river. 



Fig. 76. 



So much for the apparatus. Now as to its working. The fish, which 

 is constantly following its way up stream finding any further progress 

 impeded by the staking across the river G, remains there almost station- 

 ary during the day feeling shy of the nazrwat traps prepared for its 

 capture at night. So it frequently happens that within the space inter- 

 vening between the complete and the partial weirs large numbers of the 

 fish have congregated ere the sun sets. Therefore natives, manning as 

 many canoes as are available, drive it by dint of noise and by well 

 directed strokes in the water, first into the corral A,D,F, and then to the 

 cylindrical baskets wherewith it is secured. Then, at a given signal, one 

 man from each canoe jumps on the beam F, and lifts up the entrance end 

 of the baskets as a precaution against the possible egress of a few fish, 

 while his partner returns by canoe to the opposite end of the trap to 

 empty it of its contents. A lid or door a there prepared on the top side 

 of the trap facilitates that operation. The lifting up of the 'kuntzai at 

 the entrance extremity is the work of but a moment, inasmuch as it 



