On the Madras side, where a boisterous surf beats for ever on the shore, the fishers use the catamaran and fishing lines, but nets are also largely used; and when shoals visit the c,oast, great bag-nets several hundred yards long are thrown from masula boats. The catamaran of Ceylon and the Coromandel coast carries two and three fishermen, and, with a sail set, they take advantage of the land and sea breezes to fish several miles from land, returning home about sunset. Every river is exhaustingly searched by the nets of the land fishermen.
Further India.—The great Irawa,di river, and the seas in which the Mergui and E. Archipelagos are enclosed, abound in fish, and the Malays shoot their great stake nettings far into the ocean. The shallows between Penang and Province Wellesley are covered with such nets. The wealth of these eastern rivers and seas is boundless.
The fishermen supplying the markets of Penang and Sine.apore arc principally natives of China. Their fishing boats vary from ono to three tons burden ; they are of a slight make, and calculated to ply at but short distances from the shore. They are pulled by oars, find seldom mrry sails. The nets are made of twine, tanned with niangrovo hark. The bamboo fishing-stakes are clumsy contrivances. That they answer well enough in fine weather, is more owing to the riches of the sea and their sheltered position, than to the ingenuity of the contrivance, or the durability of the materials. In nautical skill the Chinese fishermen of the Stmits Settlements aro far behind the Malays. The fishmongers are natives of China, but they form a class far superior to the fishermen. Their trade comprises the branches of fresh fish, dried fish, isin&ss (fish maws), fish roes, red fish, sardines, sharks' fins, balachan, fish manure, and trepang. The fishermen dispose of their boat-loads to the fishmongers, who assort the different kinds in heaps, over which sea-water is continually poured, and from these the daily customers are supplied. Comparatively few varieties of fishes appear on the tables of Europeans, but Malays and Chinese reject but very few kinds. The daily surplus fish aro cured by the fishmongers. The process commences with a partial abrasion of the scales, after which the larger fishes are opened length wise, and gutted. Water is repeatedly poured
over the fishes, till blood and impurities have disappeared, when they are placed in casks .in flat layers, between which is thrown a quantity of salt. In this state the fishes remain from 24 to 48 hours, when they are exposed to the sun, and frequently turned, till they are thoroughly dried. The smaller kinds are not opened, nor are they all salted before drying in the sun. The little care bestowed upon the curing appears, however, to be sufficient for local consumption, and none of the settlements in the Straits export dried fish. The pikul of 133§ lbs. sells from 3 to 7 Spanish dollars, valued at 4s. 6d. ; the catty being 11 lb., of which 100 go to the pikul.
Mr. Crawfurd, after stating that the fisheries of the Indian islands form a most valuable branch of their commerce, and that a great variety of the fish caught are dried in the sun, observes that fish maws, shark fins, and trepang are sent to China in large quantity. The trepang, swala, or beche de-mer, often called sea-slug, one of the tribe of Holothuria, is an unseemly-looking molluscous animal, which constitutes in quantity and value one of the most considerable articles of the exports of the Indian islands to China. There are fisheries of trepang in every island of the Indian Archipelago from Sumatra to New Guinea, and not less than 8000 cwt. were yearly sent to China from Macassax, the price ranging from 8 Spanish dollars per pikul to 20, and as high as 115, according to the quality. The same author states that shark fins are exported to China from every maritime country between the Arabian Gulf and the East Indian Islands. A pikul of shark fins usually sells in China. as high as 32 Spanish dollars or £6, 1s. per cwt. ; which high price makes it evident that they are only articles of luxury for the use of the rich. In the market of Macusar the ordinary price is about 15 Spanish dollars or £2, 16s. 80. per cwt. Fish maws often bring as high fLB 75 Spanish dollars per pikul, or £14, 3s. 6d. per cwt., in the market of Canton.
Fish Traps in the Archipelago are made of basket-work, are baited with small fry, and after wards sunk by means of stones, their position being indicated by long bamboo fishing-buoys.— Earl, p. 37.