116 Thirty-Third Annual Meeting 
When it comes to eating water products, the Japanese have 
few prejudices. If any species of fish are discarded, they must 
be very few indeed and I learned of none. Among their 
commonest, cheapest and most wholesome food-fishes are sharks, 
which are brought into the markets and butchered much after 
the manner of beef in our country. For some reason we do not 
knowingly eat sharks, and thereby miss a good deal. As some 
of you are doubtless aware, the dog-fishes, which go in such im- 
mense droves on our east coast and are so destructive, are excel- 
lent when fresh or canned; and I predict that the day will come 
when these and other sharks will be regularly seen in our mark- 
ets. 
Raw fish is one of the national foods. I acknowledge that 
my repugnance to it was great, but it was overcome with the first 
dish, for as prepared and served by the Japanese the thin, cold, 
boneless slices of perfectly fresh tai or mackerel, taken with chop 
sticks and dipped in soy-bean sauce, are delicious. 
Other articles which I have eaten at a single full-course din- 
ner are fish soup, fried fish, baked fish, fried eels and rice, 
pickled eggs of sea-urchins, dried octopus or squid, boiled aba- 
lone, sea-weed jelly, and shredded whale cartilage, pickled. 
A characteristic scene in the larger coast towns is a crowd of 
men, women and children searching and scraping and digging 
with hand, or stick, or rake, on the shores at low tide for any 
little fish, or shell, or crab, or bit of sea-weed that may serve as 
food. In Yokohoma, where I first saw this practice, swarms of 
poor people appear on the beach at each period of low water, 
and seldom fail to carry home with them enough of the bounty 
of the sea to serve for several meals. A very striking sight is 
some times afforded by the bright garments of the women and 
girls, who even though their kimonos may be plain, usually affect 
gay obis and underskirts. At low tide, boats resort to the marshes 
and bars for the purpose of gathering any kinds of products that 
may have been stranded or that may be accessible by wading. 
Fishing vessels and boats are of various patterns, according 
to the region, fishery, etc.; but all those used in marine fishing 
are alike in being very strongly and heavily built, many being 
almost clumsy from our standpoint. They are often constructed 
throughout without the use of nails, and are not painted. The 
