COlIPARATrVE STUDY OF SCOMBROID FLSUES. 395 



mot with, but thoso uf Auxts aud Cijhhna niphonhtm jiro ratbor rare. After 

 the publication of the papn", I obtaiuod through tho kinduess of Mr. Gknshichi 

 Yendo a s^x^ar-head, 214 mm Ljug, lacldug a barb, carved from a caudal 

 fu-ray of a tunny. He collected it from a shell-mound of Miyagi-keu. A 

 lai'gc caudal vei't<'br!i, rooontly discovered by Mr. Akira Matsl'MUHA in a 

 sheU-mouud of Ogido, llyukyu, Ijelongs most probably to a species of G7jm- 

 iiosarda. A few vertebrae of Euf/iynnits yaito were also taken from a shell-mound 

 of Iha, Ryukyu, by Piince Kashiwa Öyama. 



In some poems composed in the period of Tempyö-Shühö (749-75fi) and 

 cited in the " ManyCshju ", we leam that the timny was caught at tbit time 

 with six3ars as well as by means of hook and line. In the " Yengishiki", a 

 dassicixl work compiled between 900 — -927, we find names of several kinds of 

 food, prepxred fi'om the mackerel and the stiipcd Ixinito. These products 

 were paid as tiüliute tt) the Imi^rrial court and the Government from several 

 ]/ix>vinces luimd our cosists. In that classical work, names of timnics and seer- 

 fishes ai'e not mentioned, though timnies at least were caught before that time. 

 From the name of " sawara " for our common seerfish, we can guess that they 

 have long been known to us, as tbit name in om- old Language means nanvnv 

 abdomen, aud it is just as old as the name " saba " for the mackerel, meaning 

 naiTow or minute teeth. From the twelfth ceutiuy on, on account of many 

 ware, most industiües werc dLsturljed and retrogi'aded, until peace was restored 

 l)y tlie consolidation of a centinl government in the seventeenth century, under 

 the control of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. From an anecdote, however, we leam 

 tliat an ingenius pound-net was plaimed and oonstnicted in the period of 

 wai-s in a baj- near Seudai by a soldier, who got his idea fi'om tactics in war. 

 The device is a trap, with an elongated poimd, the longer diameter of wliich 

 is at right angles to the course of the leader. The poimd as well as the 

 leadei- have a certain ciuratiu'e, which prevents the escape of fish at the mouth 

 of the pound, and when the mouth is closed, at the l)eut corners of leaders, 

 which ai-e set in different directions. The apparatus first designed for the 

 captm-e of the tunn_A- hjis recently been emploj'ed in many other places for the 

 captm-e of seerfishes, yollow-taiLs, etc-, aud it has proved to be superior to other 

 types, having the longer diameter of the jxtuud in the same direction as the leader. 

 I is real!}- remarkable that a fishing implement invented in the northeastern 



