118 Thirty-Third Annual Meeting 
volunteers were called for to take vessels into Port Arthur for 
the purpose of blocking the channel, those who insisted most 
strongly on being allowed to go to almost certain death were the 
coast fishermen; and in every naval achievement of the present 
war, the fishermen in the navy have played a prominent part. 
Ingenious and important uses are made of many products 
which with us are mere curiosities. Nothing would seem to us 
to be of less value than the dried strings of egg-cases of whelks 
which are so common on our sandy shores; and yet, in Japan, I 

IMMENSE BAMBOO BAIT-BASKETS. 
saw many street vendors with push-carts loaded with these ob- 
jects, dyed a bright red or other color and tastefully arranged 
on masses of wet sea-weed; and I saw many half-grown girls 
buying them and making a blowing noise by putting them be- 
tween their tongue and palate. 
In a town near Tokyo, I saw a shop devoted to the manufac- 
ture and sale of lanterns made from the dried skins of swell-fish. 
In the Loo-choo Islands, water snakes are a common article of 
food. They are prepared for market by drying in an extended 
or shghtly wavy position. Those I saw were about a yard long. 

= ew ee 
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