Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-07-07
Chinese Fishing Devices.

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Among these are dip-nets, large
squares Of netting extended on a frame
work of bamboo, which is weighted and
suspended from q pole that has to be al
ternately raised and lowered either from
abank or a boat and brings up eachtime
all the fish that may have been passing
over it. The casting-net is very fami1-
lar, but China is its peculiar home, and
is there used in varying sizes by men
and children of all ages. A more orig
inal method of capturing fish is that
pursued by what are known at Swallow
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
moonlight nights, their only implement
of capture being a white board fastened
along the outside of each. This board
catches the bright rays of the moon, and
the fish, who would seem to be of a con-
fiding disposition in this portion of the
empire, are said to mistakei it for water,
and to leap from their native element in
to the slipper boats in great numbers.
This would seem to be a branch of in
dustry naturally commencing itselfto the
minds of a people who have been uni
versally credited with a more than or
binary 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 unknown
and Impractical, with the exception of
u stereotyped eel and lobster pots; but
the Chinese devote themselves largely to
these strategic methods of fishing, and
with an unvarying 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
arrangementsfort the capture of small fry,
but at present we can only admire. per-
haps with a tinge of detection, the hun
dfed and one devices employed in a land
where, though every form of unsports-
manlike destruction is rampant, the fish
supply seems to remain as abundant and
accessible 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 %hawkingis Of very
old date, and was known and practiced
in England, whittier it doubtless was i'm
ported from the East, two centuries ago.
But it is followed with success only by
the painstaking Celestials. The birds,
which have to undergo a regular train
ing, are taken out in q boat, and before
the work commences a strap or ring is
placed around each cormorant's throat
sufficiently tight to prevent it's swallow
ing any fish it may catch in its strongly
hooked beak, but not so tight as to pre-
ventrespiration. The dark-winged fish
ermen then go off and cater for their
master with ucces and regularity, be.
ing rewarded with an occasional fish
which they are permitted to swallow
when the strap has been removed.
Above all things the Chinese are q
frugal nation, making use of substances
that would meet with culinary contempt
in any other country. The discarded
shark represents to them valuable sup.
ply of food. The fins go to form the
well-known soup, OF are used in the
preparation of gelatine; while the skin
after being cleaned and prepared, serve
for covering sword-handles and for vari
Gus other ornamental purposes. Ever
the cutie fish, a creature repulsive t.
fishermen of most other nations, is the
object of careful pursuit with nets anc
lines by the Chinaman at a time whe1
other work is slack; and, carefully driet
and packed in bales, commands a read,
sale all through the Flowery Land. Tn,
oyster, also, and its pearl-bearing kin
dred the Chinese mussel, are not merel,
looked upon as dainties. Though cult
waited with skill and science as such il
the first place, their refuse shells ar,
burnt for lime, and while still living they
ore induced to secrete the hard whit
substance which is so highly valued fo1
its beauty and scarcity all, over tn,
Wnrld.-Lnnd0n TRLenrnnh.