( «3 ) 



state of these small fixed engines iu India — these deviees so 

 destruei.ive tliat the British Parliament alknved fourteen days 

 for tlieir removal ; these traps wlueh were deemed a piihlio 

 nuisance that any one may destroy ? Why, these eontrivances 

 are spoken of as communal and ])rescriptive rights, and their 

 ])roliibitiou an interference with ])rivate property I I have 

 already pointed out liow universal is then- use, and will now 

 adduce a few examples of how they are used. In Bombay, fish 

 iu Nasik (p. xlvii) are "caught in shallows, small pools, and 

 irrigating channels, by nets, baskets, or funnel-shaped wicker 

 traps, placed where there is a current of water " : iu Puna 

 (]). xlix), baskets are placed in openings constructed in arti- 

 lieial dams which are roughly thrown across streams." Iu 

 llatnagiri, that " banks are formed to make the fish pass 

 througli narrow channels : nets are employed, also baskets, 

 and bag-like nets" (p. xliv). In Madras, the Revenue Board 

 suggest (p. Ixxii) that these traps should only be prolul)ited 

 in rivers declared to be taken under Government conservancy. 

 In Kurnal (p. Ixxxiv), the minimum mesh of the nets is 

 given at |th of an iuch between each knot, but of the oodu- 

 In, or tra[)s of wicker work, the interstices are of infinitely 

 smaller dimensions, and these are placed in the smaller irri- 

 gation channels (p. xcvii). In Tinncvelli, baskets and traps 

 are used, whereby large numbers of fish ai'e taken in a most 

 imfair and destructive manner, and (p. Ixxxvi) that small fish 

 are caught in baskets and screens at the rapids below waste 

 weirs and sluices. In Coimbatore (p. Ixxxvi), fry are caught 

 in wicker-work traps. In Malabar, baskets are placed in small 

 streams in such a way as to secure every fish in them. In 

 South Canara (p. Ixxxviii), there are bamboo labyrinth weirs 

 to entrap fish going up stream, and bamboo labyrinth weirs 

 to entraji them going down stream, and these arc set in every 

 tempting run, all other ways being stopped. At each drop 

 from rice-field to rice-field the cultivator places a basket 

 made of finely split bamboos, having a wide mouth, a nar- 

 row neck, and a wide bottom : it lets the water pass, but 

 stops every single fry. In Mysor (p. cvi), the native oflicials 

 of the Astragam Division report that during the rains large 

 quantities of fish are taken in baskets pre^jared for this pur- 

 j)ose, which arc made Avith the fronds of the cocoanut palm : 

 these have large open mouths, Avliilst their floor is covered 

 hy means of lattice-work of strings ; they are placed against 

 a cvuTcnt of water, which, rushing in, ])asses througli the 

 iuterstices, leaving the fish deposited in the basket, in the 



