PACIFIC COAST: CALIFORNIA. 617 



tide is flowing and will so arrange their nets tbat the lead-line will be 2 or 3 feet from the bottom. 

 As the water rushes in the sturgeon conies with it and when the water is slack the line is loosened 

 and sinks to the bottom. When the water recedes the fish cannot get out, and they are either 

 gilled in the nets or are found gasping on the ground which has been left bare by the receding 

 waters. The Chinaman cuts open the largest sturgeons that have been thus caught just back of 

 the head, and with a hook made for the purpose pulls out the inside nerve of the fish's backbone. 

 It resembles in appearance, when thus taken out, a piece of macaroni, nearly a yard in length. 

 This is dried and is also shipped to China and is regarded by Chinese epicures as a rare tit-bit. 

 In this manner also are destroyed thousands of small fish of all kinds, which will in time have, a 

 marked effect on the supply, unless the criminal waste be checked. The Fish Commissioners 

 are intending to procure some legislation on the subject, which will probably be all that is needed. 

 "A tax is paid by all the bay and ocean fishermen to the State, and a wharfinger is employed 

 by the State to give his exclusive'attentiou to this branch of industry. The docks of the fisher- 

 men are at the foot of Clay street. As an article of food, the fish that come to our markets are 

 next in importance to the meats, and the trade in them gives employment directly to thousands of 

 industrious people. The fish should be preserved as much as possible and the business so regu- 

 lated that a penalty may be promptly inflicted on the Chinaman or white man who shall wantonly 

 destroy edible fish." 



THE PREJUDICE AGAINST THE CHINESE FISHERMEN OF SAN FRANCISCO ON THE PART OF 



THOSE EMPLOYING EUROPEAN METHODS OF FISHING. The Chinese methods of fishing are un- 

 doubtedly extremely destructive, and have occasioned much protest among the other fishermen 

 of the region where they are employed, as well as a general feeling of alarm among observing 

 persons interested in the future of the fisheries. In January, 1876, the Italian Fishermen's Union, 

 of San Francisco, addressed an open letter to State Senator Nunan, on the subject of the destruc- 

 tion of fish by Chinese, in which the following presentments are made: 



"The Chinese modus operandi is as follows: They set their traps (mandraghe) in many portions 

 of the bays and rivers, the poles proving obstructive and dangerous to small-sized boats and 

 schooners, and the nets being so fine and so numerous that fish even of the smallest size are 

 caught. In this way the Chinese are destroying very rapidly these useful members of the finny 

 tribe. These Chinese traps swing with the tide, and the Chinese leave them in position all the 

 year round. The modus operandi of the Italians and other members of the Fishermen's Union, who 

 are Spaniards, Greeks, Slavonians, and Maltese, is to throw their drag-nets into the water and 

 leave them there only 5 or 6 minutes. The nets used by the Chinese fishermen are as tightly woven 

 as a mosquito net, and retain all sizes of fish, even the spawn none escaping. The nets used by 

 the Italians and other fishermen in the union have the apertures fifteen times as large as those 

 used by the Chinese fishermen. The fish caught by the Chinese those which are too small to be 

 eaten, or not of the quality worth preservation or to bo sent to China are cast upon the beach to 

 perish, sometimes within a couple of yards of the sea. The fish caught by the Italians and others 

 of the Fishermen's Union are all sold in our market. The Chinese are fishing night and day, and 

 they catch all they can, regardless of season, place, size, damage, quality, or quantity. The Italian 

 and others of the Fishermen's Union do quite the contrary. They only catch enough fish to supply 

 our market day by day, and when said amount is obtained they give up their daily work. The 

 Chinese fishermen catch continually the sturgeon in an enormous quantity, for the only purpose of 

 taking away from the fish that nerve, which is like marrow and extends horizontally down the middle 

 of the spine from the head to the tail, and which forms the one-twentieth part of the fish. The rest is 

 thrown on shore to rot, or to be fed to poultry. This way of proceeding on the part of the Chinese 



