NATIVE ARCHER SHOOTING FISH, BRITISH SOLOMON ISLANDS
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The most ingenious devices in the way of nets are used in different parts of the island. Some are even made of a tough spider’s web; whilst others are almost the same in construction as the English net and, strange to say, are knotted in a similar manner. The hand-net varies in length to about eighteen inches and is made on different kinds of wood, often bamboo. The mesh is small, and the handle is, as a rule, most elaborately carved with representations of sharks, frigate birds, etc., and is made of wood. For ordinary purposes a two and a half inch mesh is used, but a six inch is used on the larger nets for big fish.
A party of natives will often be seen carrying peculiar flat hand-nets made of light bamboo, with an arched top, varying in length to some eighteen feet. Armed with these queer-shaped things they wade out into the shallow water, where they know a shoal of fish is at play, and by pushing their nets before them they form a circle round the shoal and thus have it at their mercy. They are wonderfully sharp in knowing when a school of fish is about, and they show a surprising amount of energy in capturing it.
Dynamite is now frequently used by the natives here as in New Guinea, as they have learned from {118} the traders that it is an easy method of obtaining big hauls, and anything that saves them labour they immediately adopt, as long as it does not interfere with their old customs.
There is another form of fishing which is pretty general all round the coasts of the different islands. Bèche-de-mer, or the Malayan trepang. It is a curious-looking thing like a piece of india-rubber, very tough and flexible, and is found on coral reefs. It has no eyes, nor does it seem to possess any means of getting about. In length it varies from six to twelve inches and is between two and three inches thick.
The natives gather them off the rocks or catch them in very low water; and immediately after they have got a basket full they clean and dry them, and then boil them for about a quarter of an hour. Some are cut open like a herring and smoked over an ordinary wood fire for about a day. The Bèche-de-mer industry is a big one, and Chinamen are very fond of it, as they can make good money by it without a large outlay. Great care has to be taken in storing the fish, as the slightest damp causes them to rot.
Spearing fish from a platform built on piles a little way out to sea is also popular here amongst {119} the boys, and their well-trained eyesight comes into play; having once spotted a fish they seldom miss him with their spear.
