616 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



all they could do to avoid being swept overboard. The wind blew Lard and cliilly and the poor 

 fellows were nearly frozen, but they held on to the boat, hoping that succor would come from some 

 source. When it was nearly dark one of the men bade his comrades good bye, and with a groan 

 of despair sank out of sight beneath the waves. The other two held on through that dreary night, 

 but early in the morning another one said to the survivor, 'I cannot hold on; I, too, must go.' In 

 telling it the survivor said, 'I was lying on my breast across the bow and saw him as he sank 

 away far down in the clear, deep waters.'- He said also that soon after his last comrade disappeared 

 the sun came up, and as the sea had gone down the warm rays beating on his back infused warmth 

 and life in him so that he was enabled to cling fast. Aboutl o'clock the schooner Haskell came along, 

 picked him up, and brought himself and the boat into the harbor. A rather singular part of the 

 story is, that after being at the dock for about one mouth, the same boat, with the same man and 

 two others, went again outside to the same fishing ground, and about the same place where she was 

 picked up when water-logged. The fishermen saw a schooner bottom-side up with five or six men 

 clinging to the keel. They immediately went to the rescue and found that it was the Haskell, the 

 identical schooner that had saved this boat and one of the men. She had been herself capsized hi 

 a squall. Her crew were saved by the very boat that had been saved by her. This tale will prob- 

 ably be recalled to mind by some of our readers. 



"There is another kind of fishing that has attained considerable proportions recently that 

 should be noticed, that is the shrimp and sturgeon fishing. A short time ago the shrimp fishing 

 was carried on by white men exclusively. There were about fifteen boats manned by thirty men 

 who made this a specialty. Then shrimps were sold in this city for from 7 to 10 cents per pound, 

 and those who caught them made a good living at the business. Now, however, the entire business 

 is in the hands of the Chinamen, of whom there are as many as fifteen hundred engaged in the 

 trade. Their manner of catching them is simple and effective. The operations of the Chinamen 

 extend all along the bay from Mare Island to Angel Island, wherever there is a flat or level beach. 

 They stick long poles through the water and into the bottom, to which very fine nets are attached. 

 These nets are so fine that they will retain the smallest minnow. They are spread when the tide 

 is at ebb, and arranged with the lead-line on the bottom. When the tide comes in and the water 

 flows against the net it. will form in the center a huge bag and prevent anything from passing 

 through. When the water is slack the Chinamen take up the net and empty all its contents into 

 their baskets. In this manner they make a perfect trap, which, although it catches thousands of 

 shrimp, also destroys a vast number of minnows which would otherwise in time grow up to a 

 proper size for food. The shrimps are then taken ashore and laid on the beach, and the shells 

 are beaten and broken off them with sticks and separated from the meat. The meat is dried in 

 the sun and sold to Chinese cousumers in this city or sent to the interior of the State or Nevada, 

 or wherever there are any Chinamen. The bulk of the prepared shrimps is shipped to China in 

 sacks. Many shrimps are also sold alive to the oyster houses in this city, who, after boiling them, 

 have them set out as lunch for their customers to nibble at while their oysters are being prepared. 

 The shells of the shrimps are preserved by the Chinamen, and after being put into sacks are also 

 shipped to China, where they are extensively used as a fertilizer. Under the Chinese regime in 

 shrimp-catching the price has fallen from 2 to 5 cents per pound. Each Chinaman pays to the 

 owner of his fishing ground a tax or rent of from 50 cents to $1 per month for the privilege of 

 working them. From 700 to 800 tons of shrimps and shells are caught every year in the bay, and 

 the greater part is sent to the Celestial Empire. 



"A great many Chinamen also catch sturgeon by means of a trap that is very destructive to 

 this species of fish and many others. They will select a flat over which the water rushes when the 



