VOL. XVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 413 



only to watch the falling away of the water, but likewise to take care that no- 

 body presume to fish in the lake when it is full of water, that being forbidden. 



The first pit, called Maljoberch, is only a depression of the bottom, without 

 any holes in it ; but there grow much grass and weeds, and many fish are 

 caught there. Three days after the water begins to ebb, this pit is emptied. Of 

 this the parish clerk of Seedorf gives notice by tolling a bell, and all the inha- 

 bitants of the town, old and young, men and women, lay aside all other busi- 

 ness and go to fishing, quite naked as they were born, without any regard to 

 modesty or shame. The fish they catch they divide in halves, one part they 

 give to the prince of Eggenberg, as the lord of the manor, the other half is 

 their own. The pit Velkioberch is emptied the third day after Maljoberch, the 

 manner and right of fishing as in that. Four hours after this, the pit Kamine 

 begins to empty ; here they generally fish with a trawl, as in several other pits 

 of lesser note, having first purchased leave of the lord of the manor. Here, 

 as also in the pit Sueinskajamma, which sinks one hour after Kamine, are many 

 fish caught, and abundance of large crabs, but they are lean and of no good 

 taste. The fifth pit, Vodonos, dries five days after Kamine. In this and the 

 other pits which follow, they fish with a long net or sayne. Here they can have 

 no more than five or six hawls, by reason of the great swiftness with which the 

 water runs away at the holes in the bottom, which is such that a horse can 

 hardly keep pace with it, and carries away the fish with great violence under the 

 earth. Sometimes when the fishermen are not nimble, they can scarcely get 

 two hawls before the water is gone. The pit Louretschka evacuates a day and 

 a half after Vodonos ; the fishing is after the same manner, and the same cau- 

 tion necessary, because of the sudden recess of the water. The water leaves 

 the pit Kralouduor 12 hours after Louretschka, and 3 days after that the pit 

 Rescheto. In this latter, in the year l685, after ihe lake had been some years 

 without being dry, there were taken at the first hawl 21 carts of fish, at the 

 second 17, and at the third 9. The pit Ribeskajamma falls dry at the same 

 time with Rescheto, which is that next to it. In this pit they fish under 

 ground, which is a curiosity not unpleasant, and differing from all the rest. 

 For there is in the bottom a great hole in the stone, by which men may easily 

 go down with lighted torches, as into a deep cistern ; and there is under ground 

 a large cavern like a vault, the bottom or pavement whereof is as it were a sieve 

 full f)f little holes, whereby the water runs away, leaving the fish dry, where 

 they are caught. The pit Relhje is empty 2 hours after Ribeskajamma, and is 

 of no great consequence for fish. An hour after this, the pit Sittarza, and in 

 5 or 6 hours more Lipauza falls dry. 



