ESTUARY FISHING IN WESTERN INDIA. 



Ml 



9. "Pag " ("TH). The well-known circular cast net with lead sinkers, in the 

 use of which the native is so expert. The mesh never exceeds f". 



The outward appearance, particularly of the stake nets just described, is 

 well known to all who are familiar with the Bombay coast. But this familiarity 

 conveys no conception of the extent to which these stake nets are actually 

 used. There are, for instance, usually three and often five lines of stakes 

 for the use of the " Bhoksi " net, from the mouth of the Revdanda Creek at 

 Korlai to the entrance of Ramraj Creek, a distance of 3 miles and 3 furlongs, 

 so that the entrance to this Creek — one of the finest in the Konkan — may be 

 said to be effectively barred. Now, it is a peculiar and unfortunate thing 

 with migratory fish — as indeed it is with many wild animals in the case of 

 paths — that a majority take a more or less definite line in ascending and 



Photo H- 

 descending a Creek. This line is not always at the deepest point, nor is it 

 always across, as one might think, the shortest cut. But the particular linei 

 which the majority of fish prefer to take, for reasons best known to themselves 

 in a broad Creek, is perfectly well known to the local fishermen, and it is 

 towards these points that they naturally concentrate their energies. The 

 " Koiis" are very zealous in the matter of the retention of positions for 

 staking the Creek's length within their village limits. These positions have 

 been recognized among them from time immemorial, and the right, I find, is 

 almost invariably hereditary. The owner is at liberty, however, to sell his 

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