730 
BULLETIN OE THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
each other, when it is secured in this position. A rude sort of bag is thus formed 
at the gathered end. In operating the net the two ends of the sticks at the bag end 
are held in one hand and the flaring end is pushed around stones, etc. , in shallow 
water, thus scooping up the fish, papai, and opae. By lifting the flaring end out of 
the water the catch falls back into the bag, from whence it is easily removed with the 
hand. This net is quite generally used around the leeward side of Oahu. 
CAST NETS. 
The east net (upena poepoe) is a comparatively recent introduction in the islands, 
having been brought in by the Japanese about ten years ago, so it is reported, 
although this is somewhat doubtful. The nets, which are circular, average about 25 
feet in circumference and have l|-inch mesh. They have leads all around the sides 
and are made generally of No. 10 cotton twine. They are worked from the shore. 
Unlike the fishermen in the United States, the Japanese hold no part of the net in 
the mouth, but manipulate it entirely with the hands. About two-thirds of the 
outer edge is gathered up and the net is thrown with a sort of twirling motion, 
which causes it to open wide before it touches the water. The leads draw the outer 
edg’es down very rapidly, and as they come together at the bottom the fish are 
inclosed in a sort of bag. The net is then hauled in by means of a rope attached 
to its center, the weight of the leads causing them to hang close together, thus 
preventing the fish from falling out as the net is hauled in. The fish are shaken out 
of the net by merely lifting the lead line on one side. 
BASKETS. 
With the exception of those for catching opae (shrimp), the Hawaiians use few 
baskets (hinai), this form of apparatus belonging principally to the South Sea 
Islanders. 
In opae fishing two varieties of baskets are used. One, the hinai opae, some- 
times called apua opae, looks somewhat like the coal-scuttle bonnets in vogue some 
yeas ago. It is woven from the air roots of the ieie ( Freycinetia arboreci). This 
basket is employed for catching shrimp in the mountain streams, and the work is 
generally done by women, who hold the basket in one hand, a short stick in the 
other, and, moving in a crouching position through the water, drive the opae from 
under the rocks, etc., to some place where the grass, ferns, or branches of trees 
droop over on the water. The opae take refuge in or under this vegetation, and the 
fisherwoman, placing her basket under the leaves, lifts the latter out of the water, 
when the opae drop off into the basket, from whence they are removed to a small- 
mouth gourd, which the woman has been dragging behind her in the water by a 
string tied to her waist. 
Another method of fishing in the streams is to take a fairly deep basket with a 
large mouth, and, putting this in a favorable spot in the water, build a mud wall on 
both sides of it extending out a short distance. The fisherwoman then goes a little 
way upstream, and bv beating the water drives the opae into the basket, which she 
removes and empties, then going on to another place and repeating the operation. 
