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state of these small fixed engines in India these devices so 

 destructive that the British Parliament allowed fourteen days 

 for their removal ; these traps which were deemed a public 

 nuisance that any one may destroy ? Why, these contrivances 

 are spoken of as communal and prescriptive rights, and their 

 prohibition an interference with private property ! I have 

 already pointed out how universal is their use, and will now 

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

 in 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 " : in Puna 

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

 ficial dams which are roughly thrown across streams." In 

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

 through 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 prohibited 

 in rivers declared to be taken under Government conservancy. 

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

 given at f th of an inch between each knot, but of the oodu- 

 lu, or traps of wicker work, the interstices are of infinitely 

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

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

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

 unfair 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 entrap them going down stream, and these are 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 officials 

 of the Astragam Division report that during the rains large 

 quantities of fish are taken in baskets prepared for this pur- 

 pose, which are made with the fronds of the cocoanut palm : 

 these have large open mouths, whilst their floor is covered 

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

 a current of water, which, rushing in, passes through the 

 interstices, leaving the fish deposited in the basket. In the 



