FISH AND FISHING IN CHINESE WATERS. 655 



the numerous species, and has acquired a dreadful celebrity among the 

 fishing and sailing population. In return, they pursue it with great 

 ardor, and, thanks to its greediness in biting at all kinds of bait, with 

 much success. The meat is eaten with relish, but the cartilaginous 

 fins being much sought for by epicures, are too dear to be within the 

 reach of the common people, and appear, along with bird's-nest soups 

 and trepangs, only on the tables of the rich. The trepang, or holo- 

 thuria, the third favorite viand of the Celestials, along with its con- 

 comitants, the sharks' fins and the bird's-nest soups, bears a very high 

 price. Hardly any amount, even up to its weight in gold, is con- 

 sidered too great to pay for this exquisite dish, which, besides its deli- 

 cate taste, is supposed to have the precious quality of assuring to those 

 who eat it a numerous posterity. The animal, so great is the demand 

 for it, is now rarely found in the Yellow Sea, but those which are 

 consumed in the restaurants of Peking and Canton are brought from 

 Australia and the Marianne Islands, and this fact goes to enhance their 

 price. The holothuria-fishery is, moreover, a very difficult one. The 

 animals live upon the rocks at considerable depths. The fishing is car- 

 ried on by Malays, who go out in April or May in little boats, providing 

 themselves with long rods armed at the end with a sharp hook that 

 fills the office of a harpoon and a dredge. When the sharp-eyed fish- 

 erman discovers a trepang in the depths, he takes his rod and with a 

 dexterous stroke sweeps the animal from the rock and lands it in the 

 boat. The trepang-catchers are, however, much aided by the marvel- 

 ous clearness and smoothness of the water in the regions where their 

 game is found. 



Chinese fishing-nets are made precisely like those used in the 

 West, preferably of hemp ; but, in very large nets, the silk of a wild 

 silk-worm is used, to make them lighter and more manageable, as cot- 

 ton is used by the Dutch fishermen. Before casting a new net into 

 the sea, it is dyed a suitable color. For this purpose, it is dipped into 

 a solution of mangrove-bark, to preserve it from rotting, and is then 

 colored with hog's blood. The new net is then spread upon the beach ; 

 candles are lit, and tapers of paper and incense are burned about it, 

 to secure the blessing of the Queen of Heaven. If the net is of cot- 

 ton, maceration in oil takes the place of the dipping in the solution of 

 mangrove-bark. The harpoons and the hooks are of iron, the lines of 

 hemp, straw, and bamboo-fiber ; and the boat-sails are also generally 

 made of straw or bamboo-fiber, as Western canvases are still beyond 

 the means of the fishermen. 



Six kinds of boats are used, according to the nature of the fishery 

 in which they are to be employed, the largest of which, the ta-tsang, 

 requires a crew of six men. It is fifty or sixty feet long, and, like all 

 the Chinese junks, is flat-bottomed, with square bow and stern. The 

 rudder is rigged in a similar manner to those of our lighters, but is 

 bored with round holes which let the water through and augment its 



