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BULLETIN No. 3. 
FISHING APPLIANCES OF CEYLON, 
By Joseph Peaeson, D.Sc, F.R.S.E., F.L.S. 
THE following notes, which do not claim to be complete, 
have been brought together in the course of fishery 
investigations in Ceylon extending over a period of ten j'ears. 
In all 150 different types of appliances have been examined, 
and, doubtless, a large number still remain to be described. In 
an investigation of this nature one is immediately struck by 
the multiplicitj' of names in different districts for what may be 
regarded as the same kind of net. But there is always some 
difference, however slight, between these differently named 
appliances. Occasionally, the difference lies in the nature or 
quality of the thread, sometimes an alteration in the size of 
mesh or in the dimensions of the net are considered sufficient 
grounds for the establishment of a new name. It has even 
been found that when the use of a certam named net is prohi- 
bited in a district the fishermen wiU make some slight modifica- 
tion of the net to justify a new appellation, and then will 
proceed to evade the law. There is little or nothing worthy of 
special note in the fishing implements of Ceylon. They are 
almost invariably primitive, and, with few exceptions, similar 
appliances are to be found throughout the world. Such 
things, for example, as the casting net, gill net, line and hook, 
fishing by torch light, and spearing are almost universal, and 
even such complicated and apparently highly specialized 
implements as the kraals or jakottuwa, so common in our 
backwaters and estuaries, have their exact counterpart in 
many comitries. 
The nets have been classified according to their method of 
use. A rigid classification is, however, impossible, as nets 
are frequently used in different ways on different occasions. 
A gill net, for example, may be used on one occasion as a fixed 
net and on another as a seine net. 
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