CHAPTER XV 

 THE FISHERIES OF THE FAR EAST 



China, Japan, Siam, etc. A fish-eating people Fresh-water fishing 

 Chinese angling Fishing with the help of cormorants How the 

 birds are trained Good and bad divers Two birds to one fish 

 The dip-net River-fishing by hand Sea fisheries ; the junk and 

 the lorcha A Portuguese colony "Archers " and " fighting-fish " 

 Japan's fisheries The salmon and trout 



UNDER the above heading we may include the 

 fisheries of China and Japan, together with those 

 of Siam, Annam, and Malacca. 



It may not be easy for us Europeans to realise that the 

 inhabitants of these countries are even more a fishing 

 people than ourselves. Nevertheless they are. The fact 

 could doubtless be demonstrated and explained in scores 

 of different ways ; but it is sufficient for us to remember 

 that (1) the people of the Far East are, as a whole, of 

 a somewhat timid disposition, and consequently less in- 

 clined to take to hunting than the men of the West ; (2) 

 for the most part their climate is against the consump- 

 tion of much flesh meat ; and, in any case, a large pro- 

 portion of the inhabitants would abstain from it on 

 religious grounds. Hence a disposition to live on vege- 

 table produce ; and to eke out or savourise such diet with 

 fish would surely be instinct to a seaboard people. Japan 



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