Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-07-12

VILLAGE OF ABALoNE FISHERS.
les, for large part Of the product is
dried and sent to the fowery kingdom
for sale, and the Chinese are proverbially
close mouthed about their business.
The two most interesting features Of
the Chinese " long shore industries are
undoubtedly the squid and the abalone
fisheries, both Of which can be observed
in the Bay Of Monterey, which 10 in fact
the center Of the squid business, but not
Of the abalone, the latter being more or
less known to the entire coast Of Califor-
MIA, especially of San Luis Obispo and
Ventura.
On the shores of Monterey Bay, south
Of the old town, are the remains Of the
once fourishing works Of d whaling COM
pany. 1.-THE ground" writes recent
visitor to the place, 'is all 30 saturated
with oil that it gives under foot like a
poor asphaltum pavement on q hot Au-
gust day."
An occasional whale and good many
basking sharks are still tried out for
their oil either here or on the shores of
Carmel bay, six miles walk, and between
the two whaling camps are the Chinese
villages for squid fishing and abalone
catching
On the rounded powders below the
cliff, in the midst Of "unspeakable dirt"
are the Chinese shanties and hundreds
Of drying frames Of pine laths. These
frames are covered for many weeks in
the autumn with the oily squid, fish
about as long as ones hand. They enter
the bay in vast schools and are netted
by tons. They are split and boned, dried
for two days on the frames and then
thrown on the sand to complete the proc
ess of drying. The packing is done by
trampling them close together in great
sacks. Cod and halibut come and go,
but the great schools of squid, which
no American will eat, are the main re-
lance of the Chinese fishing companies
of the region.
The Chinese villages, as seen in the
afternoon from the bay, with their junks
and lateen sailed fishing craft drawn up
on the beach or coming in with their
freight, the widespread nets, the
children in red and yellow, the curious
balconies projecting over the water,
the flags and high scaffolds. and
acres of drying fish, all seem to be
thoroughly Asiatic, aud the Asia also Of
the great Mongolian lowlands of sleepy
rivers and squalid little fishing villages,
such as travellers in China describe.
Sometimes the Chinese build on the cliffs.
but by far the greater part Of their
"camps" are set "between sea and cliff"
and often miles from any town or rail-
road.
There are Italian fishing villages, too,
but these are not unlike such villages the
world over, and they are far less pictur-
esque than those of the Chinese. They
are perhaps seen at their best on. San
Francisco and Tomales bays. The Ital-
ians never go very far FROM their mar
kets, for they aim to supply all the food
fishes and leave the squid and abalones
to the Cinnamon. Crabs and shrimps
are gathered In by Italians, Portuguese
and Cinnamon alike The oyster trade
is in the hands of Italians and Americans,
the latter controlling some of the larger
California companies
But the most curious food product of
the Pacific coast is probably that beauti-
full and useful mollusk the abalone,
which has made many Chinaman rich
enough to return to his native land buy
a rice farm and settle down as the nabob
of his village. The abalone is univalve