The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1917-01-12

u-~zISIIING with cormorants is not
N- entirely foreign to the English
people, as early III the seven
tcenth century ii was common
~ done in Old England. where the
master OF corlnorants was one of the
officers of the royal household. In
Japan this way Of fishing has been
practiced merely for economic pur-
poses, not for sporting ones rs it was
in England, say hiyoShi Sakamoto in
an article in Country Life. Its origin
here dates, indeed, from as far back
as eco B. c.; that is conclusiyely
proved by the "uta' composed by very
early japanese poets. In ancient times
civilization came into Japan from
china, but l think this utilization of
,he "feathcred fishers" must have been
exported, on the contrary, to the
middle kingdom, for there is documen-
tary evidence in China to show that it
was first rracticed there early in the
sixteenth century.
In Japan this practice has been safe
ly handed down to the present day,
protected by the law laid down by
Iyeyasu (the first Shotgun Of the
TokGgawa dynasty), that prohibited
anything that would be likely to hinder
the practice of the fishing. There is
another reason why the operation,
though primitive in its way, is still
carried out in our country. The bird
has by instinct the faculty Of choosing
the fish which are the best as table
delicaci,s. The fish caught by the
coriGorant are far more delicious than
those secured BY any other method.
The Imperial household department,
with 4 view to protecting this old
practice Of fishing, pays now . yens
or 20 yen per year as pension to the
professional fishers, and offers them
free access to the dead pine trees in
the imperial forests as Iuel for the
braZiers.
The cormorant is chiefly used in ia
pan to catch ayu (literally, fragrant
fish"), which is a kind of sweet fish,
and is known to ichthyologists rs
plecogiossus altivelis T. and S. Some
of them measure more than n foot in
length, but generally 6 or Z inches.
The season for the fishing IS from May
to October, during which time rivers
are visited by the small migratory
fish. AS to the ayu, Mr.. c. Ingram
states: 'The Japanese epicures praise
the ayu very highly as a table delicacy,
though it rust be admitted that the
@1.slN,{,j ,na1ctn y.Sy1pI1y "
fails to detect its culinary merits; in
fact, when I tasted it l thought it
compared rather ~unfavorahly With the
stnelt, a fish it specifically resembles
am told that a great number Of the
avn caught ii the River Niagara are
sent every summer to the imperial
household through the local governor,
as boiled ayn is one OF The MikadoS
fagcrite dishes.
Birds Not Hard to Train.
The c%orinorant Ghe best species for
the purpose is p~halacrocorax capiilat-
us) is apparently not very hard TO
train. The young bird is caught in
winter, and is said 10 be entirely tanned
III LNO WEEKS. IL ltshtS, liosSN'i, JuSt
two years to enable it to render salts
factory services to the keeper. While
the bird is being tanned the keeper
binds it's beak with a cord, so that 1t
may not hurt him. We learn that 1t
was formerly the custom in England
10 carry the bird hooded till it could
be used for fishing, by which means it
was kept quiet. The operation is
usually carried out on dark nights, rs
the birds can do nc good on bright