The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-08-11

crowds up the river, and when they halt,
the nets are thrown out, and the oars and
sculls beat the water with loud splashing
noise. After resting in the same place
for ten minutes or quarter Of an hour
they move on again to another station, and
there repeat the beating and splashing.
The noise on the surface Is meant for an
alarm, as in the case of the ish-catcher;
and il is said that this mode Of fishing soon
loads the nets.
Ahother curious method employed by
the Chinese is generally praetised at night,
and depends upon a peculiar power which
a white screen stretched under the water
seems to possess over the fishes, deeoying
them to it and making them leap A
man, sitting at the stern Of long narrow
boat, steers her with a paddle to the mid
die of river and there stops. Along the
right hand side Of his boat q narrow sheet
Of white canvas is stretched; when he leans
to that side it dips under the surface, aud
if it be moonlight night CLEANS through
the water. Along the other side Of the
boat q net is fastened'so as to form bar
rier two or three feet high. The boatman
keeps perfectly still. If another boat
passes by he will not speak; he is only i'm
patient at the slight breaking Of the 81
lence. While he keeps thus without a
sound or stir, the fish, attracted by the
white canvas approach and leap, and
would go over the narrow boat and be free
in their native waters on the other side
but for the screen Of netting, which stops
them and throws them down before the
mans feet.
Every one must have heard Of the fish
ing cormorant, which is actually trained in
China to catch fish. A man takes out ten
or. twelve Of these web-footed birds 10 a
boat, aud, soon as the boat stops, at his
word they plunge into the water aud begin
at once searching for and diving after fish.
They are most diligent workers, for if one
Of them is seen swimming about idly, the
Chinaman in the boat strikes the water
near the bird with the end of long bam-
boo, and not touched, but recalled to 4
sense of duty, the cormorant at once turns
to business again. As soon as fish is
caught word from the man brings the
bird swimming toward him. He draws it
into the boat, aud it drops its prey from
its bill. There is always Il straw or string
tied around the neck, to prevent the fish
from being swallowed, aud this string re-
quires the incest adjustment lest it may
choke the bird--a result which would GER
tainly follow if it slipped lower down on
the neck. The sagacity and workman
like method of the birds are shown when
they get into difficulty. If the fish caught
is too large for one beak to secure, another
cOrmorant comes up to the struggle, and
the two with united efforts bring the prize
TO the boat. On the rivers and canals
near Ningpo, Shanghai, and Foo-chew-foo
the employment Of these birds is by no
means an uncommon sight; but they are
never to be seen fishing in the summer
months, their work being in the winter,
beginning always about October and end
ing in May. The birds have, of course, to
be subjected to system of training, which
is carried on in the cormorant breeding
and fishing establishments, one of which
is at distance of thirty or forty miles
from Shanghai. Chambers Journal.