Daily Republican., 1883-07-02
Our Lon don Letter.

LONDON, June ZOtn, l8S3.-N numerous
as are the attractions now being offered
to the sightseeing public at South Ken
sington, there H., perhaps, no depart
luent of the Fisheries Exhibition more
full of interest than th It which the ex
hibitors of the Celestial Empire have
created in their galleries for the aston
ishment and delight of icthyloeists.
Al. original method of capturing fish
is that pursued by what are known at
Swatow as "slipper boats THESE crafts
are generally 25 feet long, and Is inches
wide, and they fish in couples moored
side by side on bright moon.li ght nights,
their only implement ofcapturing being
a 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 confiding
disposition in that portion of the empire,
are said to mistake it for water, and to
leap from their native element into the
slipper boats in large numbers
Innumerable devices of this charac-
ter peculiar to the country are here on
show in the Chinese annex. This
would seem to be u branch Of the indus
u Hh' uldlIy commencing lbSCll W tHC
minds of people who have universally
been 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 unpractised, with the ex
ception of the stereotyped eel and lob
ster pots but the Chinese devote them
selves largely to those strategic methods
of fishing, and with an unvarying sue
cess that nothing but the boundless fer
tility of their rivers and seas could
explain or withstand.
The day will perhaps come when
western ideas will penetrate sufficiently
thereto insure the suppression of whole
sale 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 country where, though
every form of unsportsmanlike destruc-
ton is rampant, the fish supply seems
to remain as abundant and accessible al
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
was doubtless imported from the East,
two centuries ago. But it is followed
with success only by the Chinese. The
birds, which have to undergo regular
training, are taken out in boat, and
before the work commences strap or
ring is placed round each cOrmorant's
throat sufficiently tight to prevent its
swallowing any fish it may catch in its
strongly hooked beak, but not so tight
as to prevent respiration.
The dark-winged fishermen then go
off and cater for their master with
success and regularity, being rewarded
with an occasional fish, which they are
permitted tC swallow when the strap
has been removed. Above all things
the Chinese are frugal nation, making
use of substances that would meet with
culinary contempt in any other coun
try. The discarded shark represents to
them valuable form of food. The fins
go to form the well-known SOUP, or are
used in tie preparation of zeatine
while the skin, after being prepared
and cleaned, serves for covering sword
handles and for various other orna-
mental purposes.
Even the cuttetish. n creature repul-
sive to fishermen Of most other nations,
is the object of careful pursuit with nets
and lines by the Chinese at a time when
and packed in bales, commands n ready
sale all through the tlowery land The
oyster also, and its pearl bearing kim
dred, the Chinese mussel, are not mere
ly looked upon as dainties.
Though cultivated with skill and sci
'ence as such in the first place, their re-
fuse shells are burnt for lime, and
while still living they are induced to So
crete the hard white substance which IL
so highly valued for its beauty and scar
city all over the world. Some of the
shells con caining artiticially construct
cd pearls are shown here in one of the
cases, and though they are no novelty to
the divers alike of China, Ceylon and
Panama, they will doubtless be new to
many.
1t will be observed that some of them
are in the shape of quaint little images
adhering fast to the shell These me-
tallic images have been inserted while
the mussel lived, and finding itself i'll
at ease with the encumbrance, which it
has been unable to eject, the bivalve
has adopted the process which is the
cause Of all pearls, and has silently
covered the Irritating foreign substance
with layer after layer of the white ma.
terial known in the perfect form Of
pearl.
-ASN-
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