FISHERIES OF AMERICA 151 



vided the depth of water is not too great. 

 What do we find ? In Japan, over three 

 million people subsist on the fisheries 

 that is, thirty times the number engaged 

 in those of Great Britain. Their methods 

 of fishing are extremely varied, and range 

 from the employment of the modern steam 

 trawler as copied from the British, down 

 to the use of tame cormorants and night 

 lights. 1 



The variety of ways in which the Japan- 

 ese prepare the products of their fisheries 

 for the consumer is also astonishing. In 

 addition to the European methods, they 

 retain many of the ways which have been 

 in vogue for centuries; and preserve in oil, 

 spice, and the dregs of sake, a Japanese 

 wine. The fact that -such a huge popula- 

 tion is able to find employment in their 

 fisheries, should awaken us to the possi- 



1 There is a tale of the Japanese fisherman who, hearing 

 that pearls were made by oysters in order to cover over an 

 irritating speck of sand, thought of the idea of inserting a 

 grain into each of the population of his oyster-bed and thus 

 manufacturing pearls by the thousand. As a necklace of 

 pearls made over ^5000 at Christie's the other day, an average 

 of 100 a pearl (in war-time too !), one must conclude that 

 this enterprising gentleman has not yet found his oyster 

 amenable to his desires. 



