( 66 ) 



Board except casting-nets from their proposed regulations, 

 overlooking the fact that if such are not open to supervision, 

 a number may be joined together, and thus constitute a legal 

 net. In Haidarabad several casting-nets are used joined 

 together to stop up a stream, whilst others are employed 

 above the obstacles (p. cxii). In the Central Provinces 

 (p. cxxiv), pandi, or the smallest cast-net, is ordinarily about 

 15 feet long, weighted with iron : when it is considered 

 desirable to net a considerable breadth of stream, several of 

 these nets are used fastened together, making one very long 

 net : in this almost every kind of fish is caught. Another 

 plan of using casting-nets is, for several fishermen to 

 surround a pool, each armed with one, and they throw them 

 all together, so few fish have a chance of escape. A species 

 of lave-net is also used and in various ways ; their plan of 

 construction is in a triangular frame. In Sind, the fishermen 

 floats down the Indus on a gourd or hollow earthen pot, and 

 this net is let down below him : as a hilsa fish, ascending up 

 the muddy stream, strikes against the net, it is made to con- 

 tract like a purse by means of a string the fisherman holds 

 in his hand. These lave-nets are usually constructed of very 

 minute meshes, and employed at the sides of rivers, ditches, 

 irrigation channels or inundated spots where fry are feeding, 

 and the current is not strong, and here the poor people destroy 

 a few thousands for a single meal (pp. Iviii, cxxiii, cxxiv). 



LXX. Nets, or rather moveable contrivances of inelas- 

 Composed of inelastic mate- tic substances, are more freely em- 

 ployed in some districts than in others. 



In Orissa, a salwua or putti consists of very fine split 

 bamboos, bound together by means of grass, the interstices 

 between each piece being equal to fth of an inch or less. 

 This putti is about five feet high, and is in the shape of a 

 regular wall-net. It is taken to a tank, and placed in the 

 water in a V-form, whilst the fishermen on either side 

 extend themselves outwards, and by beating the water drive 

 the fish into the enclosure. The two ends are now brought 

 together, and the fish penned into a small space. The sides 

 are advanced nearer and nearer until they almost touch, and 

 the fish are removed by a hand-net, or by the hand alone. 

 Besides this, there are contrivances for a single person to 

 use ; thus, a peculiar form is cone-shaped, open at both ends ; 

 this is thrust down in muddy water in places where fish 

 resort to, and the enclosed fish removed from the upper 

 opening. It is used in the Panjab (pp. xxii, xxv), in the 

 Central Provinces (p. cxxiii) in fact, throughout India and 



