Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1908-02-21
Or EdHard's Letter.

| shall have to tell you of the
first thing | saw as came up the
river to Seoul. 1t certainly is the
most interesting thing | have seen
So far. / have often heard of
fishing with cormorants. but sup
posed it vas done with one or two
big birds. | saw one fisherman
handling twelve. and he did it with
dexterity bordering on the marve-
lous. In each boat there were
four men. One handling the
boat while the master stood at
the bow handling twelve birds.
Amidships stood another who
handled four birds while between
these two stood another who made
a noise to keep the birds up to
their works. Each cormorarant
wear at the base of the neck a
loose ring tight enough to prevent
marketable fish from passing below
but loose enough to permit small
ones 70 90 through. rs the ring is
never removed. A round the birds
body is a cord fastened to a bit of
wood. and to this is looped a thin
rein of fibre, twevle feet long. with
so little pliancy as to minimize
the danger Of tangling. When
the fishing ground is reached the
master lowers the twelve birds,
one by one. in the water. and
gathers the reins in his left hand.
manipulating them as occasion re-
quirss with his right The master
is now about the busiest man you
can imagine. He must handle
his twelve strings so deity that
let the birds dash wheresoever
they will. they will neither tangle
nor foul the lines. He must have
bis eyes everywhere and his hands
following his eyes. Specially
must he watch for the moment
when any Of bis flock is gorged so
that he cau lift the bird aboard.
force its bill open and squeeze out
the fish and return the bird to the
water with out interfering with
the work Of the other eleven
which are hustling about in great
activity.
From four to six good sized
fish is q. fair result OF each ex-
cursion of q Single bird, and then
they have TO be relieved Of them
and started over again. This
means an average of a bout $50
fish in hour for each cormorant, or
something like $50 for the bird
for three hours fishing. Every
bird in the flock has and knows
its number, and one of the funny
things is 10 see the quick jealously
with which they insist with cor
morant language and pantomimic
protests on the observance of the
rights attached to their particular
number. Number one is dean
of the CORPS. owing to bis years
of services, and takes first rank,
his colleagues come after him in
number sccordinQ::to their ages,
Number One or "Ichi." as he i:
called. is last to be put in tht
= water and first to be taken out snt
/ fed. and last to be taken the oaske
when the work is over. lchi
when aboard, has the post o
honor on the bow, and the other
come after him along the gunSal
according to number. Ii thi
law of precedence be villated il
for instance. number 4 be put al
ter number 5, or If number
6 be put in the water before mum
Der Z, there follows a riot that is
sight to see and sound to hear.
II As each IGNORANT is taken fror
| the water the master of the boa
can tell from its weight whethe
it has eaten enough small fish
serve as its supper. II it has nc
be makes good the deficiency b
; feeding it with inferior fish wbic
are not marketable. When tb
= boat has 6shed over the pre-al