1 6 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



. . . part single, or with mate 



Graze the seaweed, their pasture, and through groves 



Of coral stray ; or sporting, with quiet glance 



Show to the sun their wav'd coats draped with gold. " 



The Chinese are pre-eminently a fish-eating people, 

 and the vast demand for fish there can only be supplied 

 by artificial means. The shad is called by the Chinese 

 " sam-li ; ' it is of superior flavour and great size, and is 

 produced by artificial means and conveyed in " congs," 

 large vessels made of coarse earthenware, to all parts of the 

 empire. 



It has been supposed that nearly a tenth of the popula- 

 tion of China derive their means of support from the 

 fisheries. Hundreds and thousands of boats crowd the 

 whole coasts, sometimes acting in communities, sometimes 

 independent and isolated. There is no species of craft by 

 which a fish can be inveigled which is not practised with 

 success in China. Every variety of net, from vast seines, 

 embracing miles, to the smallest hand-filet, in the care of a 

 child ; fishing by night and fishing by day ; fishing in 

 moonlight, by torchlight, and in utter darkness ; fishing in 

 boats of all sizes ; fishing by those who are stationary on 

 the rock by the seaside, and by those who are absent for 

 weeks on the wildest of seas ; fishing by cormorants ; 

 fishing by divers ; fishing with lines, with baskets by 

 every imaginable decoy and device. There is no river 

 which is not staked to assist the fisherman in his craft. 

 There is no lake, no pond, which is not crowded with fish. 

 A piece of water is nearly as valuable as a field of fertile 

 land. At daybreak every city is crowded with sellers of live 

 fish, who carry their commodity in buckets of water, saving 

 all they do not sell to be returned to the pond or kept for 

 another day's service. 



