1,2 



by himself, containing historical and poetical allusions to 

 fishing, which are described in the supplement to the 

 Catalogue. 



It may here be stated that the Catalogue of Exhibits 

 and the List of lights on the Chinese Coast, are specimens 

 of Chinese Customs' publications, printed at the Customs' 

 Press, Shanghai, by Chinese compositors under a foreign 

 superintendent. 



1 2th. Fine Arts. — Reference has already been made to 

 the drawings of fish painted by Chinese artists, and there 

 are other pictures, in the shape of scrolls, showing the 

 various modes of fishing. Such pictures are very common 

 in Chinese dwellings. But the chief decorations of the 

 Chinese Court consist in the allegorical productions of the 

 Chinese artist, Teh-Ah-Kew, whose freehand drawing and 

 brilliant colouring give point to the motto, " Ex Oriente 

 luxr 



13th. Fishes of Commercial Value. — No country shows 

 the commercial value of fish in a stronger light than China. 

 As an almost universal, or at any rate as a widely dis- 

 tributed article of food, fish is a more important staple in 

 China than in any other country, and her exhibits may be 

 considered as indicative rather than exhaustive evidences 

 in this connection. The whole country displays an extra- 

 ordinary development of industry and commerce in marine 

 and fresh-water fish. The latter is cultivated in rivers, 

 lakes, and ponds, and made use of as a common article of 

 food throughout the empire. Fishes of a kind which in 

 Europe are scarcely deemed worthy to be caught, and 

 then for sport rather than food, are in China utilised and 

 form the subject of an extensive commerce as the staple 

 food of a large section of the inhabitants. Even the re- 

 pulsive and hostile shark of the Western Nations becomes 



