722 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
In fishing around clusters of rocks the natives ‘generally surround the rocks 
with a gill net, which is held to the bottom by means of leads or pebbles attached 
to the lower line, while the upper line is supported at the surface by pieces of wood 
of the hau ( Hibiscus tiliaceus) and kukui (. Aleurites triloba ), which are very light. 
The fishermen dive down to the bottom, inside of the net, and drive the fishes from 
the crevices of the rocks, to be enmeshed as they dart away in all directions. In 
this kind of fishing nets about 55 feet in length and 7 feet deep are used, two or 
more nets being laced together if greater length is desired. 
Gill nets are also used at times along the beaches on the leeward side of the 
islands, where the surf is not heavy, the same as seines. Two men take hold of one 
end of a long net and wade out from the s shore in a straight line for a considerable 
distance. The land end of the net is held by a man on the beach. After they have 
gone out a sufficient distance, the two men make a big sweep to one side and then 
pull their end of the net to shore a short distance from the other man. The net is 
then carefully drawn in, like a haul-seine, until it comes out on the beach, fish and 
all. These nets are usually 20 fathoms in length, 9 feet deep, with 2-inch mesh, and 
are fitted with leads and corks. Several of them are usually joined together. No 
boats are employed in this mode of fishing. 
In fishing for ula (crawfish) the same style of net, with a 7 -inch mesh, is frequently 
set around a rock or cluster of rocks in the early evening and allowed to remain 
there all night. As the ula come out to feed during the night they become entangled 
in the meshes of the net. Another method is to join a number of nets together, 
putting in the center the net with the smallest mesh. These are then placed on two 
canoes, which are rowed to the usual fishing ground, which is generally not far from 
the shore. One man stands upright in order to see the schools of fish more clearly. 
As soon as a school has been sighted the boats are paddled to seaward of it and then 
in opposite directions, the nets being paid out as they go. After thus sweeping- 
some distance the boats return to shore, when the net is hauled in and the various 
sections removed, like a seine, until the fine-meshed part is about 50 feet from the 
beach. The fishermen then spring into the water and draw the two ends together, 
making a circle, which is further contracted by removing more sections from the 
ends of the net, until the fish are inclosed in the fine-meshed portion. At certain 
fisheries the net is then anchored and the fish allowed to remain in it until they are 
wanted for shipment, when they are removed l>y means of a small seine, swept 
around inside of this improvised pound; and when the fish have been bagged in this 
they are removed by small dip nets. The principal species taken are the oio (lady 
fish, kala (hog-fish), nenue (rudder-fish), and large awa-kalamoho (milkffish). 
In a variation of this method the boats carry the nets in a circle, one boat pass- 
ing within the course of the other when they meet, and continuing until there is a 
coil of netting around the fish. The purpose of this is to insure the capture of the 
fish in outer rings of the coil if they escape the inner ones, and when the trap has 
been thus set the fishermen jump into the inner circle, and, by beating the water 
with their canoe poles, frighten the fish into the nets, where they are enmeshed. 
Sometimes the net is dropped in a half circle, with a man at each end to hold it 
thus. Other fishermen then make a wide sweep to the opposite side of the opening, 
from whence they advance, beating the water violently with their arms to drive the 
