FYKE NETS AND FYKE-NET FISHERIES. 
355 
The ingenuity of the oriental mind has produced a marvelous variety of fishing 
apparatus ; especially in China and Japan is there a bewildering multiplication of forms 
of nets, among which the fyke is well represented, either as a simple type or in combi 
nation with other kinds of apparatus. Bamboo is the material from which a great 
many nets, especially the more primitive ones, are constructed, but twine is also in 
common use in most localities. The absence of printed information in the English 
tongue precludes more than the mere mention of a few facts on this subject that have 
been incidentally collected. 
A form of beam trawl employed in Japan for the capture of lobsters has, for the 
most essential part, a simple fyke net. The entire trawl is about 30 feet long, of 
which the fyke proper constitutes somewhat less than half. The mouth of the trawl, 
which is about 10 feet wide, opens into a compartment formed by netting above and 
on the sides and by the bottom of the sea below; the upper edge of this inclosure is 
buoyed by corks or wooden floats; and the sides are kept on the bottom by means of 
weights. The compartment tapers until it becomes 5 or 6 feet wide, when it joins the 
hoop of a fyke net. The fyke consists of a single hoop, a funnel, and a bag which 
tapers to a rather sharp point. The hoop is iron below, a break in its continuity 
being supplied by a large weight retained by a rope. The funnel terminates in a 
square aperture, kept open by lines running to the bag. 
Figures of three forms of Chinese fykes are given (plate xci). These are selected 
from a large number of illustrations to show the different applications made of the 
fyke principle. The simplest form has already been referred to (page 303). It con- 
sists of a bag-shaped net distended by one hoop and provided with a single funnel 
(fig. 1). The combination of three such simple nets, with the addition of certain acces- 
sory parts, constituting a kind of fyke entirely peculiar to this country, is represented 
in fig. 2. This is called by the Chinese san-yen-Mo. It is described as follows: 
The san-yen-kao is composed of 3 fyke nets, having an opening of 3 feet in diameter and a length 
from 4 to 5 feet; there are iron weights holding the ends of these pock ts, which open into a thread 
net with rather large meshes. This latter is held up by two stakes from 5 to 10 feet in diameter and 
4 to 5 inches in thickness, which are driven into the ground at a distance of 12 to 14 feet from each 
other. On these two supports and above the thread net is fixed a plank 3 feet wide, covered with a 
white varnish and half submerged in the water. On the sides of this apparatus are two trellised 
inclosures in bamboo, which are used to prevent the fishes from escaping at the sides. The san-yen-kao 
is placed in rivers or in lakes, in pairs not far from each other, and is visited several times each 
day. — (La Pisciculture et la Peche en Chine. Par P. Darby de Thiersant. Pa n ' 
An example of a style of fyke used in falls, in swift currents, or i.,- $ae mouths of 
lagoons or rivers left partly dry by the tide, appears in fig. 3. The bag is long, 
narrow, and fusiform, and has a small entrance g uarded by a funnel. Wings of various 
shapes and materials are provided, and serve to direct the current of water and with 
it the fish. The bag is kept distended by the force of the current. The particular 
style figured is known as a tcna-Tcao , and is placed at the mouths of lagoons and lakes. 
