The fishing-boats proceed to sea with the land-
breeze, at an early hour of the morning, and return
a, little after noon, with the sea-breeze. The
principal supply of fish is obtained by drag-nets,
and by traps or snares, consisting of inclosures,
formed with much labour and skill, by driving
stakes or palisades into water of several fathoms
deep, on banks much frequented by fish, and
to which nets are secured. These are to be seen
in great numbers along the north coast of Java,
through the straits of Malacca, and in many other
situations. Fishing with hand-nets is very frequent.
With the hook and line the islanders are less expert
than Europeans, as their tackling is less skilfully
fabricated.
The river-fish of the Archipelago is neither so
good nor so abundant as the sea-o fish, and the fishery
is generally little practised.
In Java, but, I believe, there only, the salt marshes
of the coast have, in many situations, been embanked
for rearing and feeding sea-fish, and these afford
a large supply. I imagine the practice may
have been introduced from China, or some of the
countries lying immediately to the west of that
empire. In these ponds or marshes the fish are
easily taken for use with a hand-net.
River-fish are taken in various ways,—by dragnets,—
by temporary dams of stakes,—and occasionally
they are speared, or stupified by casting
into the water some narcotic plant. *
It is not the practice of the Indian islanders to
eat their fish in a fresh state. It is almost always,
with a view to economy, salted and dried. In this
form it is not only consumed in large quantities by
the inhabitants of the coast, but forms a great article
of internal commerce, and is transmitted, in
the course of traffic, throughout the whole Archipelago.
There is one mode of preparing and using fish,
of so peculiar a nature, but so universally in use,
that it is worth a detailed description. This preparation,
called by the Malays blachang, and by
the Javanese trasi, is a mass composed of small
fish, chiefly prawns, which has been fermented, and
then dried in the sun. This fetid preparation, so
nauseous to a stranger, is the universal sauce of
the Indian islanders, more general than soy with
the Japanese. No food is deemed palatable without
it. That it has peculiar merit is unquestion*
“ They steep the root of a certain climbing plant, called
tuba, of strong narcotic qualities, in the water where the fish
are observed, which produces such an effect, that they become
intoxicated, and to appearance dead, float on the surface of the
water, and are taken with the hand. This is generally made
use of in the basons of water, formed by the ledges of coral
rock which, having no outlet, are left full when the tide has
ebbed.”'—Marsdens Sumatra, p. 186'.