INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. 43 



here given show (1) the size of the mesh in a drag-net em- 

 ployed during the rains in Orissa. As the water subsides 

 and the fishermen are able to wade up to their waists, the size 

 of the mesh is increased (No. 2) ; and as the waters begin to 

 clear, No. 3 comes into use ; and in the cold months No. 4. 

 Young fry commence moving about at the first freshes. 



The fixed engines employed in India and Burmah (see 

 Plate I.) are mainly divisible into two forms — (1) those 

 manufactured of cotton, hemp, aloe fibre, coir, or some such 

 material ; and (2) others constructed of split bamboo, rattan, 

 reed, grass, or some more or less inelastic substance. Those 

 which are manufactured of elastic substances include all 

 stake-nets, but when the meshes are of a fair size, they are a 

 legitimate means, when properly employed, for the capture of 

 fish, but are occasionally to be deprecated, especially when 

 used solely to take such as are breeding. But in some of these 

 implements the size of the mesh is so minute that no fish 

 are able to pass. There it stands, immovably fixed across 

 an entire waterway, capturing everything, the water being 

 literally strained through it. In one instance, in the Punjab, 

 a whole drove of mahaseer were observed to be captured 

 by natives fixing a net across a river, and then dragging 

 another down to it, thus occasioning wholesale destruction,, 

 and ruining the rod-fishing for the succeeding season. This 

 plan is a very common procedure throughout India, as is 

 also constructing earthen dams across streams, leaving a 

 channel or opening through their centre, where a purse-net 

 is fixed, and arrests every descending fish. The largest 

 numbers are taken towards the end of the rainy season, for 

 as the waters fall, countless lakes and pools of all sizes are 

 formed on the low lands in the vicinity of rivers. These, 

 which during the floods were lateral extensions of the 

 stream, now become lakes, having one or more narrow out- 



