&c., &c. Williams, in his ' Middle Kingdom,' designates 

 the bamboo as the national plant of China, and says : — 

 " It furnishes the bed for sleeping and the couch for re- 

 clining, the chopsticks for eating, the pipe for smoking, 

 and the flute for entertaining ; the chair to sit upon, the 

 table to dine from, food to eat and fuel to cook it with, are 

 alike derived from it ; ' the ferule to govern the scholar 

 and the book from which he studies,' the warrant to arrest 

 the criminal, and the rod to punish him, all ' originate here ' 

 — from this magnificent plant, whose graceful beauty when 

 growing is comparable to its varied usefulness when cut 

 down." 



2nd. Nets. — The Chinese nets are all hand-made from 

 hemp, cotton, or silk ; and, after being boiled in a decoc- 

 tion of mangrove bark, are steeped in pig's blood or wood 

 oil to strengthen and preserve them. Silk nets, which for 

 centuries have been used in China, are now being employed 

 in European countries, but for cheapness they cannot 

 compare with the Chinese models. There is an immense 

 variety of nets in use by the Chinese fishermen, and 

 amongst the specimens in the Chinese Collection are 

 several deserving notice, some of them being similar to 

 those used in western countries, such as the dip-net, 

 casting-net, trawl-net, etc. 



3rd. Fishing-boats. — If China contains as many millions 

 of people as there are days in the year, and if at least 

 one-tenth of the population derive their food from the 

 water, necessity will have caused them to invent many 

 ingenious ways for securing the finny tribes (Williams' 

 ' Middle Kingdom.') Among such devices the " Cor- 

 morant " boat (p. 46 of Catalogue) deserves mention as 

 exhibiting in a remarkable degree the shrewdness, skill, 

 and patience of the Chinese fishermen. The " Moonlight " 



