26o The Field NatMi^alist's Quarterly Nov. 



Sometimes two boats will row out with a shallow net 

 several hundred yards in length with floats attached, and 

 gradually approach each other, forming the net into a semi- 

 circle, a third boat with men armed with drums and bamboos 

 scouring the neighbourhood and scaring the fish towards the 

 net by thumping the drums and beating the water with poles 

 as the net is gradually hauled into one of the boats. 



Whilst out one day in a Chinese steam-launch, not far 

 from land, after an hour or more steaming hard we seemed 

 if anything to move backwards, and I suggested to the 

 "captain" that perhaps the screw had fallen off or some 

 other little mishap occurred. He seemed struck with the 

 idea, and diving off the stern, found one of these nets 

 embracing the screw, twisted into a ball which had to be 

 cut away piecemeal. Three or four fine fish were taken 

 from it, alive, and the deHghted crew dined luxuriously, 

 whilst the launch prudently cleared from the scene before 

 the owners of the net arrived. 



Pink or flesh-coloured porpoises, which of course are fish 

 as far as the natives are concerned, are not rare off the coast 

 of South China, and should a junk see one of them crossing 

 her bows, she will alter her course, as the Chinese think it is 

 unlucky or "bad joss" to cross the path of one of these 

 beasts, though should one happen to get into trouble in 

 shallow water with a falling tide, they have no scruples 

 about killing and cutting it up. The pink porpoise is sup- 

 posed to be the abode of spirits of drowned seamen. 



The larger fish are taken by the sea-going junks, but there 

 is nothing remarkable in the means or appliances used, which 

 are akin to Western methods. The fish themselves, how- 

 ever, are many of them extraordinary in size, shape, and 

 colour, and it is worth while taking a stroll through a 

 Chinese fish-market, in spite of the filth and stench which, 

 whether in the form of the incense of joss - sticks or the 

 emanations from the buckets of human ordure used for 

 watering vegetable - gardens, seem inseparable from things 

 Chinese. 



