Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1883-06-07
Peculiar Fishing Devices.

nese are dip-nets, large squares OF
netting extended on framework Of
bamboo, which is weighted and sus-
pended from a pole that has to be al
ternately raised and lowered either
from bank or boat, and brings up
each time all the fish that may have
been passing over it. The casting-net
is very fareiliar, but China is its pc
culiar home; and is there used in
varying sizes by men and children OF
all ages. A more original method Of
capturing fish is that pursued by what
are known at Swatow as "slipper-
boats" These craft are generally
twenty-five feet long and eighteen
inches wide, and they fish in couples,
moored side by side, on bright moon
light nights, their only implement of
capture being white board fastened
along the outer side Of each. This
board catches the bright rays of the
moon, and the fish, who would seem
to be Of con6ding disposition in this
portion of the empire, are said to mis-
take it for water, and to leap from
their native element into the slipper
boats in large numbers. Innumerable
devices of this character peculiar to the
country are here on show in the
\ Chinese annex. This would seem to
be branch of the industry naturally
commencing itself to the minds of a
people who have been universally
credited with more than ordinary
amount of cunning. Their fish traps
are, moreover, manifold and varied,
and of the highest workmanship and
utility. In the British Isles this is a
means of taking fish practically un-
known and Impractical, with the ex-
ception of our stereotyped eel and
lobster pots but the Chinese devote
themselves largely to these stragetic
methods Of fishing, and with an unyary
ing success that nothing but the
boundless fertility of their rivers and
seas could explain or withstand. The
day will perhaps come when Western
ideas will penetrate sufficiently there
to insure the suppression of wholesale
fish poisoning and such like fatal
poaching arrangements for the capture
of small fry as are rather too candidly
exhibited here; but at present we can
only admire, perhaps with a tinge Of
detection, the hundred and one devices
employed in a land where, though
every form Of unsportsmanlike de
strucUion is rampant. the fish supply
seems to remain as abundant and ac-
cessible as ever.
Cormorants are another means en-
ployed by the Chinese on lakes and the
shallower sheets of water for taking
fish. This aquatic species of hawking
is of very old date, and was known
and practiced in England, whittier it
doubtless was imported from the East,
two centuries ago. But it is followed
with success only by the painstaking
Celestial. The birds, which have TO
undergo regular training, are taken
out in a boat, and before the work
commences strap or ring is placed
round each cormorant's throat sufi-
ciently tight to prevent its swallowing
any fish it may catch in its strongly
hooked beal1, but not so tight as to pre-
vent respiration. The dark-winged
fishermen then 60 off and cater for
their master with success and regu-
larity, being rewarded with an occa-
sional fish which they are permitted to
swallow when the strap has been re-
moved. Above all things the Chinese
are a frugal nation, making use of
substances that would meet with Gull
nary contempt in any other country.
The discarded shark represents
to them valuable supply of
food. The fins 60 to form the well
known soup, or are used in the pre-
paration Of gelatine; while the skin,
after being cleaned and prepared,
serves for covering sword handles and
for various other ornamental pur-
poses. Even the cuttle-fsh, a creature
repulsive to fishermen of most other
nations, is the object of careful pursuit
with nets and lines by Chinaman at a
time when other work is slack; and
carefully dried and packed in bales
commands ready sale all through the
fiowery land. The oyster, also, and its
pearl-bearing kindred, the Chinese
mussel, are not merely looked upon as
dainties. Though cultivated with skill
and science as such in the first place
their refuse shells are burnt for lime.
and while still living they are induced
to secrete the hard white substance
which is SO highly valued for it's
beauty and scarcity all over the world.
London Telegraph.