FYKE NETS AND FYKE-NET FISHERIES. 
301 
Various qualifying names are applied to fykes in different localities, depending 
on peculiarities of construction, the fish and other products caught, etc., as “ pound 
fyke,” “ drop fyke,” “ shad fyke,” “eel fyke,” “terrapin fyke,” and other designations 
which will be referred to under each State. 
This net is usually known as the hoop net in Upper Canada and as the fyke net 
in Lower Canada; by the French inhabitants of Canada it is called the verveux. 
In the countries of northern continental Europe the name applied to the fyke net 
is the equivalent of the English word rush, and refers to the material of whicji 
this or similar nets were originally constructed. The word can evidently be traced to 
the Goths, in whose language it appeared as raus , while in Anglo-Saxon it was risk, 
and in modern times it exists as reuse and fischreuse in German, ruse in Low German, 
ruse in Danish and Norwegian, rysja in Swedish, rysa or ryssa in Finnish, and versha in 
Russian. These names are used alone or in connection with other descriptive words. 
In Prussia the name fisclisack is applied to a typical fyke net having wings. 
In the fisheries of the Adriatic sea the fyke net is known as the cogolo, and forms 
an essential part of a number of fishing devices, some operated like seines or beam 
trawls and others stationary. 
The Portuguese name for fyke net is botirdo. A form of fyke resembling an eel 
pot is called a muzuar. 
Fykes in France are known by a number of names. The most commonly used 
designation is verveux or vervier , equivalent to the English hoop net; guideau is a 
modified fyke ; among other local names are loup, renurd, quinqueporte, queue, manche, 
sac, and cache. 
THE PRINCIPLE OF THE FYKE NET. 
The fyke net, as used in this country, is a passive form of apparatus of capture, 
the principle of whose action depends on the funnel-shaped entrance. The fish, led to 
the mouth of the net by various devices, pass through the funnel into the body of the 
net, and are usually unable to escape, owing to the narrowness and position of the 
aperture. In the efforts to escape, the fish go through the remaining funnel or funnels 
and ultimately congregate in the last pocket, from which they are taken at intervals. 
The fyke net has been aptly compared in its action with one of the common mouse 
or rat traps in which the animals caught are retained alive. The principle has a wide 
application and at the present time is extensively employed in nets used for the cap- 
ture of various animals. In the fisheries it is seen in the pound net, lobster pot, eel 
pot, trap net, some forms of weirs, etc. It finds a varied representation in the fishing 
devices of many countries, particularly in China, where it is applied to a great variety 
of nets, some constructed of twine, others of bamboo splints. 
The action of the fyke net is facilitated by the well-known habits of most fishes 
when in a confined space — an apparent aversion to make a sharp turn and a tendency 
to wander around with their heads closely applied to the netting, by which they are 
led into the succeeding funnels and seldom brought near the only possible way of 
escape suspended in the middle of the compartment. 
