128 Thirty-Third Annual Meeting 
men are in constant attendance. A net which I visited and saw 
drawn had two wings, each 3,000 feet long, one of them extend- 
ing to the shore; the bag was 900 feet long, 250 feet wide at its 
mouth, and 125 feet deep. During a season of 2% months, this 
net had stocked $50,000, which was an ordinary catch. On one 
occasion 10,000 yellow-tails, averaging 20 pounds each, were 
taken at one haul. There is only one yellow-tail net in each vil- 
lage, and in many cases it is almost the sole source of wealth to 
a community. In five or six years some of the poorest and mean- 
est villages have been made rich and undergone striking internal 
improvements as the result of the establishment of yellow-tail 
fishing. When the haul of the net in question was completed 
and we were about to steam away, the captain of the crew came 
alongside and presented a fine yellow-tail, a large tai, and several 
bonito, which were cooked on the run back to port. 
Of all the fresh-water fishes of Japan none is more interest- 
ing than the ayu, or dwarf salmon. It is found in the mountain 
rivers throughout the empire. and is an important food and 
game species. Its introduction into certain American waters 
would be very desirable, and I strongly recommend that its ac- 
climatization be attempted. Following are some of the points 
in the life history of this really remarkable fish, about which 
very little has been written: 
It spawns in fall, at night, in the lower courses of rivers, on 
gravelly riffles. The eggs are attached to the gravel, and imme- 
diately after attachment the outer shell ruptures and becomes 
everted. Hatching takes place in three or four days, and the 
young go to sea, remaining in the vicinity of the rivers until 
spring, by which time they have become two or three inches long. 
Then they run up the streams, going to the upper waters and 
reaching full size by August. In the young fish less than two 
inches in length, there are conical teeth ih the jaws, and cope- 
pods, flies and insects generally are eaten; fish about two inches 
long lose their teeth, they cease to eat animal food, papillae 
especially adapted for scraping alge from stones develop on 
the lips, and ever afterward alge constitute the sole food. The 
species reaches maturity when five inches long, and its maximum 
length is a little over ten inches. When just a year old, it drops 
down stream, spawns and dies. 
