336 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETEDSTOLOGY [Bdll. 137 



Tenn. D. I. Bushnell, Jr. (1930, pi. 1) has described and figured traps 

 of this kind at the falls of the James River, Richmond, Va., and near 

 Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock, and Dr. Douglas L. Rights 

 (1928, pp. 8-9, 18-19) mentions several along the headwaters of the 

 Yadkin in North Carolina. 



Lawson (1860, pp. 260, 339) observes that sturgeon were sometimes 

 caught by means of "nets at the end of a pole," likening the method 

 to the way in which pike were taken in Europe. 



Byrd observed this method minus the pole, and wrote a description : 



In the Summer time 'tis no unusual thing for Sturgeons to Sleep on the Surface 

 of the Water and one of them having wander'd up into this Creek in the Spring, 

 was floating in that drowsy condition. 



The Indian, above mentioned, (an "Occaanechy"), ran up to the Neck into the 

 Creek a little below the Place where he discover'd the Fish, expecting the Stream 

 wou'd soon bring his Game down to Him. He judg'd the Matter right, and as 

 Soon as it came within his Reach, he whip't a running Noose over his Jole. This 

 waked the Sturgeon, which being Strong in his own Element darted immediately 

 under Water and dragg'd the Indian after Him. The Man made it a Point of 

 Honour to keep his Hold, which he did to the Apparent Danger of being drown'd. 

 Sometimes both the Indian and the Fish disappear'd for a Quarter of a Minute, 

 & then rose at some Distance from where they dived. At this rate they continued 

 flouncing about, till at last the Hero Suffocated his Adversary, and haled his 

 Body ashoar in Triumph. (Bassett, 1901, 248-249.) 



The "net made of silk grass" recalls the nets found in use by De 



Soto's men on the Mississippi. Smith also speaks of fish nets, and 



Strachey thus describes their manufacture : 



They have netts for fishing, for the quantity as formerly brayed and mashed 

 as our's, and these are made of barkes of certaine trees, deare synewes, for a 

 kynd of grasse, which they call pemmenaw, of which their women, betweene 

 their hands and thighes, spin a thredd very even and redily, and this threed 

 serveth for many uses, as about their bowsing, their mantells of feathers 

 and their trowses, and they also with yt make lynes for angles. (Strachey, 

 1849, p. 75.) 



That the Cherokee had no nets until supplied by Europeans, as 

 Timberlake implies (Williams ed., 1927, p. 09), seems incredible. 



The net at the end of a pole used in retrieving fish from their weirs 

 which Strachey mentions in another place is, of course, that to which 

 Berkeley refers (Strachey, 1849, p. 68). Nets were well known to the 

 Chitimacha Indians, at least in later times, and we may turn to Adair 

 again for further information on this subject. 



There is a favourite method among them of fishing with hand-nets. The 

 nets are about three feet deep, and of the same diameter at the opening, made 

 of hemp, and knotted after the usual of our nets. On each side of the mouth, 

 they tie very securely a strong elastic green cane, to which the ends are fas- 

 tened. Prepared with these, the warriors a-breast, jump in at the end of a long 

 pond, swimming under water, with their net stretched open with both hands, 

 and the canes in a horizontal position. In this manner, they will continue, 



