are caught by means of weirs and traps fixed in the water. In free river and in sea fisheries, also of considerable importance, fees are levied on nets and fishing implements. On account of the destruction of life involved, the fisherman's occupation is regarded with disfavour by pious Buddhists. But the product of his industry is not rejected or contemned. A great part of the produce of sea and river fisheries is converted into ngapi, specially prepared fish paste with an odour rivalling that of the durian[1], the most popular condiment with all classes of Burmans.
"Cyprinidae and Siluridae compose the great mass of fish in the fresh waters and estuaries of Burma[2]." Colonel F. D. Maxwell, who in 1904 prepared an exhaustive report on the Delta fisheries, enumerates fifty-two kinds, the best known being varieties of goby, butter-fish, carp, barbel, perch, mango-fish, mullet, and pomfret. An extremely delicate and fine-flavoured fish is hilsa (Clupeailisha), caught in tidal rivers and, though rarely, in the Irrawaddy as far north as Mandalay. The multitude of its bones is excessive. In the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy, in the 'Nmaikha and Mali-kha, and in hill streams elsewhere, mahseer are abundant. In remote Putao is magnificent mahseer fishing. The record for that district is a fish of 86 lbs.; the record fish for Burma was caught at Myitkyina and weighed 96 lbs. To revert to the sea, sharks are fairly plentiful, but attacks by sharks are comparatively rare.
Off the coast of Mergui, pearling was practised for many years by the Salôn[3]. Since 1893 it has been pursued by modern methods with mediocre success. A good many pearls are found, but the fishing does not rank high among the great pearl fisheries of the world. Other sea-fisheries afford occupation to numbers of fishermen on this coast; the yield being mainly prawns and shrimps for conversion into ngapi. Green snails and sea-slugs (bêche-de-mer) are gathered and exported to China and the Straits.
