184 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



to get a haul which will be remunerative even to his 

 modest ideas. Not the least curious of the Chinese 

 methods is the one that, even as I write, is being 

 exhibited in the London Hippodrome : the utilization 

 of trained cormorants for the purpose of fishing, a 

 method of hunting fish akin to the ancient sport of 

 hawking, and one that with the Chinese has doubtless 

 been practised from time immemorial. It may, how- 

 ever, be taken for granted that in all methods of 

 obtaining food, whether by land or sea, the Chinese 

 will take the very highest place, first because of their 

 patience, next because of their skill, and thirdly 

 because all is food that can be eaten. 



Diverging for a moment to a group of islands not 

 far from the coast of China, the Philippines, I found 

 there, amid a great neglect of the offshore fishing, a 

 curious little method of fishing practised in Cebu and 

 Cavite Bay. The natives would come off in their 

 canoes and make fast to the side of a ship. Their 

 lines were of exceedingly fine twisted grass and 

 their hooks very small. The bait they used was 

 rice boiled into glue, and they each carried a bottle- 

 shaped basket of cane with a small opening in the 

 side. This they put into the water secured by a line. 

 As each fish, small mullet-like creatures about ten 

 inches long, was hauled up, the fisherman, holding 

 one end of a disgorger in his mouth, freed the hook, 

 which the fish has invariably swallowed, with a most 

 dexterous movement, and dropped his prey into the 

 floating basket. In a couple of hours a basketful 

 would be secured, and the fisherman, making all speed 

 shoreward, reaped, let us hope, a goodly reward, in 

 his opinion, for his labour. With this sole exception 



