ee aa mar eC Ul 
NOTES ON THE FRESH-WATER FISHES OF INDIA. 469 
material ; and (2) those made of split bamboo, rattan, reed, grass, 
or other more or less inelastic substances. Large drag-nets, 
having fairly-sized meshes, are used mostly during the dry months, 
and employed for the purpose of obtaining fish from pools in 
rivers into which they have retired awaiting the next year’s floods. 
But the movable nets which occasion the most damage are those 
with small meshes, and principally employed for taking the fry of 
the fish as they are first moving about; they may be cast-nets 
with fine meshes, wall-nets dragged up small watercourses, purse- 
nets similarly used, and even sheets may be thus employed. In 
some places several cast-nets are joined together to stop up all 
passage of fish along a stream, while others are employed above 
this obstacle; or several fishermen surround a pool, each armed 
with a cast-net, and these they throw all together, giving the fish 
but little chance of escaping. In Sind the fishermen in certain 
suitable localities float down the Indus upon a gourd or hollow 
earthen pot, while the net is let down beneath them; as a Hilsa- 
fish, Clupea ilisha, ascends up the muddy and rapid stream, it 
strikes against the dependent net, which is made to contract 
like a purse by means of a string that the fisherman holds in 
his hand. 
Irrespective of the modes already detailed as in common use 
for capturing fresh-water fishes in India and Burma, there are a 
number of what may be termed minor plans likewise in force. 
Sheets have already been remarked upon as employed for taking 
the fry which have ascended small watercourses or are found in 
shallow water, while they may be also used as dip-nets, being sunk 
in an appropriate place, and raised by strings attached to the four 
corners as soon as the little fish have been enticed above; or on 
the sheet bushes may be placed: here the fry seek shelter from 
the rays of the sun, and the whole concern is lifted bodily up. 
A little grain or bread is likewise found useful as a bait. ‘I'wo 
pieces of rattan may likewise be employed, crossing one another 
in the middle, where they are tied together; the ends are then 
bent downwards in the form of two arches. Here a net is attached, 
and this the fisherman presses down upon the fish, which are then 
removed by the hand. In some places they may be so absolutely 
frightened as to permit themselves to be readily taken; thus ropes 
to which at intervals are attached bones, leaves, stalks of kurbi or 
jowaree, or pieces of solar (pith), or small bundles of grass are 
