POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



715 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



A Cod-Monntain in the Sea. The " con- 

 ference" at the Fisheries Exhibition was 

 opened with a lecture by Professor Iluxley, 

 in which he said : " Those who have watched 

 the cod-fisheries off the Loffoden Isles, on the 

 coast of Norway, say that the coming in of the 

 cod, in January and February, is one of the 

 most wonderful sights in the world ; that the 

 cod form what is called a ' cod-mountain,' 

 which may occupy a vertical height of from 

 twenty to thirty fathoms that is to say, 

 one hundred and twenty to one hundred 

 and thirty feet in the sea ; and that these 

 shoals of enormous extent keep on coming 

 in great numbers from the westward and 

 southward for a period of something like 

 two months. The number of these fish is 

 so prodigious that Pofessor Sars tells us 

 that when the fishermen let down their 

 loaded nets they feel the weight knocking 

 against the bodies of the codfish for a long 

 time before it gets to the bottom. I have 

 made a computation which leads to this re- 

 sult, that if you allow each fish four feet in 

 length, and let them be a yard apart, there 

 will be in a square mile of such shoals 

 something like one hundred and twenty 

 million fish. I believe I am greatly under- 

 stating the actual number, for I believe the 

 fish lie much closer. These facts about the 

 cod apply also to the herring, for not only 

 Professor Sars, but all observers, who are 

 familiar with the life of the cod when it 

 has attained a considerable size, tell us that 

 the main food of the cod i3 the herring, so 

 these one hundred and twenty million of 

 cod in the square mile have to be fed with 

 herring, and it i3 easy to see, if you allow 

 them only one herring a day, that the num- 

 ber of herriug which they will want in a 

 week will be something like eight hundred 

 and forty million." 



Copyright in China. A pamphlet on this 

 subject, by Dr. D. J. Macgowan, has been 

 published in Shanghai, and from the copy 

 sent us by the author we extract the follow- 

 ing: "One finds not infrequently on the 

 title-pages of Chinese newly-published books 

 a caution against their unauthorized publi- 

 cation, in some instances threatening the 

 forfeiture or destruction of all blocks that 



may be cut for their printing, showing at 

 once that literary property is liable to be 

 stolen, and that redress is afforded to au- 

 thors thus wronged. The penal code, how- 

 ever, will be searched in vain for an enact- 

 ment on the subject of copyright. Chinese 

 law has never conceived it necessary to speci- 

 fy that particular form of robbery which con- 

 sists in despoiling a scholar of the fruit of 

 his toil, any more than to name the products 

 of husbandmen and artisans as under the 

 protection of law, all alike being regarded 

 as property by natural right. The offend- 

 ing publisher is arraigned and punished 

 under that section of the code which takes 

 cognizance of larcenies of a grave character, 

 the penalty, to which one who prints and 

 sells an author's works without authority is 

 liable, being one hundred blows and three 

 years' deportation. This right of exclusive 

 publication by an author of his works is 

 held in perpetuity by his heirs and assigns. 

 It is not the custom with Chinese authors to 

 make arrangements with publishers, that 

 being undignified. They have their books 

 cut and printed on their own premises, and 

 then sell them to the trade, usually at twice 

 the cost of publication. Manuscript novels 

 and other ephemeral books are sold to pub- 

 lishers, but in such a case neither author nor 

 publisher can prosecute a printer for bring- 

 ing out a rival edition. Among the subjects 

 which this new era brings to the considera- 

 tion of Chinese statesmen, that of interna- 

 tional copyright may be included. Cheng 

 Ch'engchai, an artist and also a poet, has 

 lately published several hundred of his choice 

 pictures, accompanied by stanzas, the fruit 

 of a life of toil. There is some prospect of 

 his literary harvest being blighted by the 

 appearance of his work at four dollars a 

 set the author's charge being eight dollars. 

 The pirated copies come from Japan. In 

 Japan the rights of authors are regarded in 

 the same light as in China, but, as a license 

 must first be obtained before a book can be 

 published, the prevention of copyright in- 

 fringements is more facile there than in 

 China. It is well known that the Japanese 

 Government have long been maturing a 

 copyright law, and the time is favorable, 

 therefore, for these two empires to concert 

 measures for increasing the security of lit- 

 erary property. 



