CXCYUl 



even to permit tlieni to pass. (2) SecoiKlly, traps of innuinerable 

 descriptions and raiuiuture weirs were permitted in every small stream, 

 irrigation channel or water-way to entrap breeding-fish ascending or 

 descending, and so finely constructed that even the fry could not pass. 

 This destructive mode of fishing was said to have been the subject of a 

 tax by the native Government, but made free about 1863. If ever there 

 was a mode of fishing employed calculated to ruin fisheries, it is this 

 kadone, so properly proiiibited in Great Britain. I found agricultur- 

 ists with as many as GO and 80 traps in their possession, and working 

 them daily at every small water-way where ingress or egress for fish 

 could occur. These traps were termed ki/a, whether in the shape 

 of a horn or a shoe, and were extensively employed in jxiddy- fields. 

 Weirs in streams sometimes had a platform, khonsin, thus constructed : 

 a bamboo fence was fixed entirely aci-oss a stream or water-way, reach- 

 ing some feet above its surface, except in one spot, where it was cut 

 down either to the level of the water or three or four inches above it. 

 Thus, a fence entirely bars the stream, except where the free gap exists. 

 Now a platform is constructed of fine bamboo, having raised bamboo 

 walls on three sides, and this platform just fits the gap already described. 

 In the dry season, as October, when the iisli, which have bred, and their 

 fry are descending, this platform is fixed below the opening; in the rainy 

 season, as they aro ascending, it is fixed above it. This platform touches 

 the water, or nearly so, at the gap, and here its wall is absent, so that fish 

 reaching a weir which has only a gap in its middle jump at that spot, 

 but only to full on the platform. In some places weirs are not permitted 

 to go quite across rivers, because such impedes navig-ation, and this 

 open spot, as far as the river's bank, is studded with reeds, which makes u 

 noise as the water passes through them, thus frightening the fish to the 

 opposite side whei-e the weir with a gap exists ; thoy jump at tlie lowest 

 part, and ai-e safe on the khonsin. Oooasionally a tsaiula is construct- 

 ed : a number of stakes are driven into the bed of a river in a V shape, 

 the apex of which is a rattan net that is raised every few minutes by 

 means of I'opes running over drums and worked on a stage erected for 

 the purpose. Another very common mode of capturing fish by the aid 

 of a tank is as follows : should one exist near a paddy-field, or some 

 water-ooui"se well stocked with fish, or up which they proceed to deposit 

 their spawn, it is just what is desired, and the time of year for working- 

 it is the rainy season. A shallow channel is cut from the tank, leading 

 into an enlarged space about three feet deep — a stew, in short ; from this 

 the channel is continued into the paddy-field or place where the breed- 

 ing-fish are known to be. In this outer channel, or just external to the 

 stew, is a small weir permitting fish to go up, but preventing their return. 

 Water from the tank is made to flow down the new channel through tin 

 stew, and so on to the fishes' haunts. Breeding-fish finding this nico 

 stream press up it, pass the weir, but become prisoners in the stew, from 

 whence they are removed next morning by a hand-net. Traps in tho 

 form of long conical baskets or cages wei-e also used in rivei-s, and other 

 contrivances were everywhci-e employed to take both breeding-fishes 

 and fry; and observing this being carried on with impimity, founded one 

 of my reasons for believing the Chief Commissioner had been mistaken oi 

 misinformed when stating that fish were carefully preserved iri the province 



