NATIONALITY AND GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 37 



our maritime laws, it is necessary that the masters should be naturalized when not native citizens. 

 A few years ago, before owners of boats thought well enough of the country to adopt it as their 

 own, rather than be naturalized they would hire some lazy Yankee or Irishman to cruise with them 

 as 'master.' They paid as high as $100 per month, and all that was required of the figure-head 

 was to keep out of the way and furnish his own whisky. But times have changed. They have 

 found that California is not such a bad place after all, and the supply of real masters is now equal 

 to the demand." 



26. THE CHINESE FISHERMEN OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 



FROM NOTES BY DAVID S. JORDAN. 



On the Pacific coast of the United States, and on the banks of rivers on which saltnou can- 

 neries are established, there are about 4000 Chinamen engaged in catching fish, or in fish-dry- 

 ing and fish-canning. Of this number about 403 Chinamen are living in the maritime counties of 

 California and Washington Territory, while the remainder are engaged in the salmon canneries, 

 probably not less than 3000 being employed on the Columbia River, Oregon, and about 600 on the 

 Sacramento and other salmon rivers. 



San Diego County, California. — In San Diego County, California, are thirty-seven Chinese. 

 They settled there about the year 1870, and by the use of very flue- meshed seines have driven out the 

 Italians who were there at the time of their advent. They are divided into eight companies, which 

 are scattered along the coast between San Diego and Cerros Islands. At San Diego all the fisher- 

 men, excepting four Americans and their employes, are Chinamen. Upon their arrival they went 

 to work at catching fish, which they salted and dried; these they shipped to China, their methods 

 of fishing being probably the same as those now in use in China. They seek especially sheltered 

 bays, which they sweep clean with their seines, usually commencing operations in the early part 

 of the night. Some of the Chinamen live entirely on their boats, visiting their houses on laud per- 

 haps once a month. The upsetting of their junks* is a matter of frequent occurrence, the result 

 usually being a reduction in the number of that particular colony to which the junk belonged. 

 The Chinese take risks in stormy weather which no white man in this region would dream of taking. 

 The two colonies here were established with a special view to fishing — one at Roseville in 1875, 

 and the other in the town of San Diego about 1870. The latter consists of about a dozen houses, 

 arranged in two rows, nearly at right angles to each other, while in close proximity are stagnant 

 pools, stands for drying fish, outhouses and piles of rotten fish, and all manner of abominations full 

 of crawling maggots, all of which tend to give the colony an extremely unsavory odor. The head 

 man of the colony furnishes the greater part of the fishing capital, and the fishermen repay him 

 out of the proceeds of their catches. The Chinese of these two colonies use seines, imported from 

 China, about 300 by 10 feet, with a 1-inch mesh. When new these are worth about $100. Along 

 the coast of this county are gathered, principally by the Chinese, about 700 tons of abalones. 

 North of Cerros Island the Chinamen have stripped the whole coast of this shell. Until lately the 

 Mexican Government paid no attention to the depredations of the Chinamen, but now a license 

 of $60 for each boat is charged upon all coming from the United States in search of abalones, and 

 to collect that tax a Mexican consulate has been established at San Diego. The origin of the 

 abalone business was as follows: The Chinese in China dry the flesh of Haliotis (or some other 

 related genus), and, finding that animal in California, they commenced the same industry there 

 about the year 1873. Later, white men began to gather up the shells thrown away by the China- 

 men, and the use of them for ornaments soon created a demand for them. Thereupon the China- 



* This colony in 1881 owned four large junks, besides three smaller boats. 



