334 Fishes as Food for Man 



fish hook. In general, fishes are caught in four ways by baited 

 hooks, by spears, by traps, and by nets. Special local methods, 

 such as the use of the tamed cormorant * in the ca-tching of the 

 ayu, by the Japanese fishermen at Gifu, may be set aside for 

 the moment, and all general methods of fishing come under 

 one of these four classes. Of these methods, the hook, the 

 spear, the seine, the beam-trawl, the gill-net, the purse-net, the 

 sweep-net,, the trap and the weir are the most important. The 

 use of the hook is again extremely varied. In the deep sea 

 long, sunken lines, are sometimes used for codfish, each bait- 

 ed with many hooks. For pelagic fish, a baited hook is drawn 

 swiftly over the surface, with a "spoon" attached which 

 looks like a living fish. In the rivers a line is attached to 

 a pole, and when fish are caught for pleasure or for the joy of 

 being in the woods, recreation rises to the dignity of angling. 

 Angling may be accomplished with a hook baited with an earth- 

 worm, a grasshopper, a living fish, or the larva of some insect. 

 The angler of to-day, however, prefers the artificial fly, as being 

 more workmanlike and also more effective than bait-fishing. 

 The man who fishes, not for the good company of the woods 

 and brooks, but to get as many fish as possible to eat or sell, is 

 not an angler but a pot-fisher. The man who kills all the trout 

 he can, to boast of his skill or fortune, is technically known as 

 a trout-hog. Ethically, it is better to lie about your great 

 catches of fine fishes than to make them. For most anglers, 

 also, it is more easy. 



Fisheries. With the multiplicity of apparatus for fishing, 

 there is the greatest variety in the boats which may be used. 

 The fishing-fleet of any port of the world is a most interesting 



* The cormorant is tamed for this purpose. A harness is placed about 

 its wings and a ring about the lower part of its neck. Two or three birds 

 may be driven by a boy in a shallow stream, a small net behind him to drive 

 the fish down the river. In a large river like that of Gifu, where the cor- 

 morants are most used, the fishermen hold the birds from the boats and fish 

 after dark by torchlight. The bird takes a great interest in the work, darts 

 at the fishes with great eagerness, and fills its throat and gular pouch as 

 far down as the ring. Then the boy takes him out of the water, holds him 

 by the leg and shakes the fishes out into a basket. When the fishing is over 

 the ayu are preserved, the ring is taken off from the bird's neck, and the zako 

 or minnows are thrown to him for his share. These he devours greedily. 



