INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. 45 



escaped destruction during the dry months, and with the 

 first floods have obtained a free passage, due to the 

 standing weirs having been swept away. Wicker traps are 

 likewise constructed across convenient rapids ; here few fish 

 can pass without entering, while these are examined twice 

 daily. Or should there be no rapids, such are artificially 

 formed by laying large stones in a V shape across a stream, 

 while at the apex of this a trap is fixed. Or a mountain 

 stream is conducted down a slope over a large concave 

 basket, so that all descending fish are pitched into it, and 

 speedily suffocated by the rushing water or other falling 

 fish, which act like a succession of blows, preventing their 

 ever rising again. Hill streams in some places, as in the 

 Doon, are frequently diverted for the purpose of taking 

 the fish. From March to the commencement of the rains, 

 streams are dammed and turned. In these mountain 

 districts the torrents, where they burst from the hills, form 

 three or four beds, all of which are full during the rains, 

 but subsequently only one. One year one of these beds 

 will be used, another year another bed, and so on. The 

 poachers select a spot where the stream and an old bed 

 are in close proximity : both have good pools in their 

 course. They fix their nets across the stream about a mile, 

 or even more, below the selected spot, first nets with large, 

 and subsequently those with small meshes. These nets 

 are kept to the bottom by means of heavy stones. When 

 the nets are ready they dam up the stream and open 

 a water-way into the old bed. The force of the water soon 

 cuts a deep channel for itself, and thus the late bed of the 

 river is left dry except in the deep holes, while all fish 

 attempting to come down stream are stopped by the net. 

 Large fish are carried off, the fry are left to die as the 

 pools dry up. This process is repeated lower down the 



