Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-10-17


Among these are dip-nets, large
squares of netting extended on a frame
work of bamboo, which is weighted and
suspended 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 famil-
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 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
moonlight nights, their only implement
of capture being q 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 mistake it for water,
and to leap from their native element in
to the slipper boats in great numbers.
This would seem to be branch of in
dustry naturally commenting itself to the
minds of a people who have been uni
versally credited with more than or
dinary amount of cunning. Their fish
traps are, moreover, manifold and varied,
and of the highest workmanship and
utility. In the British Isles this Is o
means of TAXI ng fish practically unknown
and Impractical, with the exception of
our 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
arrangementsf for the capture of small fry,
but at present we can only admire, per-
haps with tinge of detection, the hun
dred and one devices employed in 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 hawking is ofvery
old date, and was known and practiced
in England, whittier it doubtless was inn
ported from the East, two centuries ago.
But it is followed with success only by
the painstaking Celestials. The birds,
which have to undergo regular train
ing, are taken out in a boat, and before
the work commences q strap or ring is
placed around each cormorants throat
sufficiently tight to prevent its swallow
ing any fish it may catch in its strongly
hooked beak, but not so tight as to pre-
vent respiration. The dark-winged fish
ermen then go off and cater for their
master with success 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
frugal nation, making use of substances
tl,at would moet with culinary contempt
in any other country. The discarded
shark represents to them valuable sup
ply of food. The fins 90 to form the
well-known soup, or are used in the
preparation of gelatine; while the skin,
after being cleaned and prepared, serves
for covering sword-handles and for vari-
GUS other ornamental purposes. Even
the cutie fish, creature repulsive to
fishermen of most other nations, is the
object of careful pursuit with nets and
lines by the Chinaman at time when
other work is slack; and, carefully dried
and packed in bales, commands ready
sale all through the Flowery Land The
oyster, also, and its pearl-bearing kim
dred the Chinese mussel, are not merely
looked upon as dainties. Though culti-
waited 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
its beauty and scarcity all over the
world.-London Telegraph.