FISHERIES AND FISHERMEN 



OF ALL COUNTRIES. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE CONDITION OF FISHERMEN IN EVERY AGE, 



Twas a fat oyster. 



Pope. 

 Poverty is the badge of all our tribe. 



Merchant of Venice. 



3RD FISHERMAN. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea. 

 IST FISHERMAN. Why, as men do a-land : the great ones eat up 

 the little ones. 



Pericles. 



A KAKI or oyster of venerable appearance and high 

 reputation for wisdom, whose remarks have been preserved 

 by the learned Kiuo in his famous Japanese sermons, was 

 lying at ease one day amid the rocks beneath the Eastern 

 waters, and was watching the sunlight which played among 

 the reeds and grasses of that pleasant retreat. Now it 

 needed but a very slight glance down through the blue 

 limpid depths to see that this oyster, as we shoulc^ call 

 him, with his well-developed beard and general expression 

 of cool tranquillity, was a highly distinguished member of 

 his order. A gentle murmur proceeded from his half-open 

 mouth as he addressed a youthful kurumayebi, or lobster, 

 standing respectfully near him ; and any one acquainted 

 VOL. I. H. 2 H 



