464 CHINESE FISHING 



" the first pre-Pelasgian piscator " from whom, in Sir O. 

 Seaman's witty verse, 



" From whom have sprung (I own a bias 



To ways the cult of rod and fly has) 



All fishermen — and Ananias ! " 



or lest it seem to disqualify me for the character bestowed 

 by Alciphron on an angler, of being one " who would never 

 even shp into misrepresentation," I call no less a witness than 

 Mr. S. Wells Williams, LL.D., late Professor of the Chinese 

 Language and Literature at Yale College, and author of Tonic 

 and Syllabic Dictionaries of the Chinese Language. 



From page 349 come ipsissima verba : ^ " The Bulletin 

 Universel for 1829 asserts that in some parts of China spawn 

 is carefully placed in an empty egg-shell, and the hole closed : 

 the egg is then replaced in the nest and after the hen has sat 

 a few days upon it reopened, and then placed in vessels of 

 water warmed in the sun, where it soon hatches ! " 



De Thiersant, in his assertion that " from time immemorial 

 it has been the policy of the Government and officials to protect 

 fishing in every way," and Mr. Yen in his that " our ancient 

 classics mention the appointment, several centuries before the 

 Christian era, of special officials to rule over and protect our 

 fishermen," indicate that a Board of Fisheries came into exist- 

 ence at an early date. 



The Chou Li, or The Rites of the Chou Dynasty {c. 1000 B.C.) 

 point distinctly to wardens being appointed for fishing purposes. 

 We read, in fact, of an official staff, called Fishermen attached to 

 the Lmperial Court : " They were entrusted v^dth the fishing 

 appropriate to each season, and made dams for catching fish." 



Private fisheries, with some few exceptions such as the 

 Imperial preserves, apparently were not allowed, or seem not 

 to have existed. All waters were free and open to all citizens 

 of ancient China. In modern times fishing belongs to the 

 State, and licenses to fish, which are strictly limited in each 

 canton, are obligatory. District magistrates are bound to 

 care for and police the rivers : to put down fry in suitable 

 streams : to enforce the laws, especially those deahng with a 



1 op. cit., vol. I. 



