150 R. H. MATHEWS, 
insufficiency of water. The average height of the walls 
varied from two to three feet. They were about eighteen 
inches wide at the base, and the top was surmounted by a 
single course of stones. 
During the early spring months of the year, or at any. 
time when there was a fresh in the river, the fish travelled 
up stream in immense numbers. The stone pens or traps 
had their open ends towards the direction from which the 
fish approached. The aboriginal fishers, men and women, 
were on the look out, and as soon as a sufficient number of 
the finny tribe had entered the labyrinth of traps, the open- 
ings were closed up by means of large stones which had 
been placed alongside ready for use. If the opening was 
too wide to be thus blocked up by stones, a number of 
natives posted themselves across it to prevent the egress 
of the fish. The natives next entered the pens and splashed 
the water with their hands or feet, thus frightening the 
fish into the smaller enclosures, where they were more 
easily caught. Any unusually large fishes which might be 
in the ‘‘haul,’’ were killed as speedily as possible, because 
they at once commenced swallowing the smaller ones 
collected in the pens. These “‘big-fellow fish’’ were 
generally speared by the young men, as they first entered 
the enclosures, before they had time to do any damage. 
It appears from the foregoing description that the fish, 
in coming up the river, were intercepted by the outliers or 
‘‘wings’’ of this maze, which stretched from bank to bank; 
they entered the larger enclosures, from which they were 
chased into smaller and smaller pens, much in the way that 
sheep are driven into “‘ catching-pens”’ at shearing time, 
or cattle into the “killing yard.’’ In driving the fish 
through the different yards, some were killed by spear or 
club as opportunity offered, going along, but on arrival at 
the smallest pens all the fish were caught and killed. The 
