The Press., 1883-07-05
London Letter.

NuM6rOuS dS dro hUUIdCb1Ou6 HOW UC- ing offered to the sightseeing public at South Kensington, there is, perhaps, no department of the fisheries exhibition exhibitors of the Celestial empire have created in their galleries for the astonish- ment and delight of icthylogists. An or iginal method of capturing fish is that pur- sued by what are known at Swatow as skipper boats." These crafts are general ly 25 feet long and IS inches wide, and they fish in couples moored side by side on bright moonlight nights, their only i'm plement 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 confiding disposition in that portion of the empire, are said to mistake 1t for water, and to leap from their native element into the slipper boats in large numbers. ln- numerable devices of this character pe- culliar to the country are here on show ln Chinese annex. This would seem to be 8 branch of the industry naturally commend ing itself to the minds of people who have universally credited with more than ordinary amount of cunning. Their fish traps are, moreover, manifold and varied, and of the highest workmanship and util- ity. In the British Isles this is a means of taking fish practically unknown and un- practiced, with the exception of the stereo- typed eel and lobster pots :; but the Chinese devote themselves largely to these strat- egic methods of fishing, and with an un- varying success that atnothing but the bound, less fertility of their rivers and seas could explain or withstand. The day will per haps come when western ideas will pene- | 4oo,o fo O
 pression of wholesale fish and 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 tinge I of detection, the hundred and one devices employed in a country where, though every form of unsportsmanlike destruction is rampant, the fish supply seems to remain as abundant and accessible as ever.
 l Cormorants are another means employed by the Chinese on lakes and the shallowel sheets of water for taking fish. This Iaauatic species of hawking is of very old date, and was known and practiced in Eng Hand, whither 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 reg ular training, are taken out ln boat, ane before the work commences strap or ring is placed round each cormoran's throa
 sufficiently tight to prevent its swallowing any fish it may catch in it's strongly hook ed beak, but not so tight as to prevent res
 piration. The dark-winged fishermen the1 go off and cater for their master with sue
 cess and regularity, being rewarded witt an occasional fish, which they are permit
 ted to swallow when the strap has been re
 moved. Above all the Chinese are frll gal nation, making use of substances tha
 would meet with culinary contempt in an. other country. The discarded shark rep resents to them a valuable form of food The fins go to form the well-known soup or are used in the preparation of gelatine
 while the skin, after being prepared ant cleaned, serves for covering sword handle and for various other ornamental purposes Even the cuttle-fish, 8 creature fepulsiv
 to fishermen of most other nations, is tn
 object of careful pursuit with nets an' lines by the Chinese at time when othe
 work is slack and, carefully dried ant packed in bales, commands ready sal
 all through the fowery land. The oyster
 also, and its pearl-bearing kindred
 the Chinese mussel, are not merel,
 looked upon as dainties. Though culti
 vated with skill and science as such il I the first place, their refuse shells are burn
 for lime, and while still living they are in duced to secrete the hard white substanc
 which is so highly valued for it's beaut
 and scarcity all over the world. Some o
 the shells containing artifcially construct ed pearls are shown here in one of tn cases, and though they are no novelty t
 the divers alike of China, Ceylon and Pan
 anna, they will doubtless be new to many It will be observed that some of them ar in the shape of quaint little images adhel ing fast to the shell. These metallic i'm ages have been inserted while the musse lived, and finding itself ill at ease with thi
 encumbrance, which it has been unable t eject, the bivalve has adopted the proces which is the cause of all pearls, and ha silently covered the irritating foreign sub stance with layer after layer of the whit material known in the perfect form of pearl