METHOD OF FISHING. 139 
are also excellent preserves, in which fish may be 
kept securely till wanted for use. Each enclosure 
has its distinct owner, whose right to the fish 
enclosed is always respected. Most of the fish 
from the lake are taken this way. The net and 
the spear are occasionally employed, but here the 
line is rarely used. 
They have a singular mode of taking a remark¬ 
ably timorous fish, which is called au or needle, 
on account of its long sharp head. The fishermen 
build a number of rafts, which they call motoi; 
each raft is about fifteen or twenty feet long, and 
six or eight wide, and it is made with the light 
branches of the hibiscus or purau. At one edge a 
kind of fence or skreen is raised four or five feet, 
by fixing the poles horizontally, one above the 
other, and fastening them to upright sticks, placed 
at short distances along the raft. Twenty or thirty 
of these rafts are often employed at the same time. 
The men on the raft go out at a distance from 
each other, enclosing a large space of water, 
having the raised part or frame on the outside. 
They gradually approach each other till the rafts 
join, and form a connected circle in some shallow 
part of the lake. One or two persons then go in 
a small canoe towards the centre of the enclosed 
space, with long white sticks, which they strike in 
the water with a great noise, and by this means 
drive the fish towards the rafts. On approaching 
these, the fish dart out of the water, and in 
attempting to spring over the raft, strike against 
the raised fence on the outer side, and fall on the 
surface of the horizontal part, when they are 
gathered into baskets, or canoes, on the outside. 
In this manner, great numbers of these and other 
kinds of fish, that are accustomed to spring out of 
