1864.] RemarJcs on a Lake in the District of Bassein. 



41 



, 



V, ' 



sum of 60 viss of silver or about 6000 tickals 

 annually was exacted as a Royal tax from the 

 " Pay linen" or hereditary chief of the lake, who 

 exercised sole authority over the villagers employ- 

 ed in the fishery, and, with his subordinate 

 officers, formed an establishment separated in its 

 interests from all other administrative proceed- 

 ings. The conditions of the payment of this 

 amount of tax were, however, favorable to the 

 villager, as he was exempt from all other process 

 of taxation, and in proportion to his means had 

 a right of investing his capital in the general 

 working of the fishery, the purchase of material 

 for weirs, traps, nets, &c. in proportion with which 

 amount so invested, he received a share in the 

 out-turn at the end of the season. 



Writing this memo, on the Jake itself, I have 

 been witness to the process of drawing it, so as 

 to enclose the fish within a small space from 

 which they are taken out and sold, and, as I am 

 not aware of any other fishery in Burmah in 

 which the work involved is so extensive, I shall 

 endeavour to give a brief description of it. 



On the cessation of the rains of the S. W, 

 monsoon, when the water of the lake has attained 

 its lowest level, a fixed weir is placed across the 

 lake at its shallowest part (marked A on the 

 sketch,) and another at the point B ; a drag net of 

 reeds and grass strongly constructed with the 

 M toughest jungle creepers, forming from its great 

 I length of about J 800 cubits a deep concavity, 

 ' and sweeping the bed of the lake, is then placed 

 across, inside of the weir at A, and gradually moved round the lake 

 in the direction of that at B ; the process of dragging the frame is 

 performed by floating capstans worked by stout hawsers of jungle 

 rope attached to the ends of the frame, which by this tedious process 

 is carried forward during three months at about 45 fathoms each 



a 



M 







