288 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



costing about half a cent. They are bought by young girls. The cases are turned 

 about in the mouth, and when filled with air and then squeezed between the tongue 

 and the roof of the mouth emit a peculiar sound. The same use is made of the 

 fruit of a plant (hozuki), and the mollusk egg cases serving the purpose are called 

 "umi-hozuki" (sea hozuki). These toy things are in such a demand that the supply 

 can not be left simply to the accidental finding of them, and so various methods of 

 cultivating them have been devised in different parts of Japan. In Chiba boxes are 

 constructed 6 by '■'< feet ami -J. feet high, with wooden sides and covered with bamboo 

 basket work on the top and the bottom, and in these large whelks {Rapana h<:<«<r) 

 are placed and the whole left floating in the sea. The mollusks soon deposit their 

 egg cases on the wooden sides. In Noto pine sticks 2 to 3 feet long arc anchored by 

 a line and a weight and are left floating in the sea for the mollusks ( Fusus inconstans) 

 to come and deposit their egg cases on them. In Okayama inverted bamboo baskets 

 are kept anchored in the same way and serve as the repository of the eggs. There 

 are, no doubt, other methods in other places. These egg cases, although mere toys, 

 must altogether be worth several tens of thousands of yen. Chiba alone produces 

 them to the value of 30,000 yen and Noto 10,000 yen. 



" Bakagai " ( Mactra sulcatoria Deshayes); "asari " i Tapes philippinarum Adam 

 and Reeve); "shijimi" (Corbicula atrata Prime, and other species). These mollusks, 

 especially the last two. arc very common and are consumed in enormous quantities, 

 which facts have naturally led to agreateror less amount of cultivation in some places. 

 They may be collected when young and allowed to grow in culture grounds, or they 

 may be allowed to grow by systems of rotary crops. Methods would seem to differ 

 in different places. 



The trepang, "namako" (Stichopus japonicus Selenka). In a recent paper of 

 mine (Notes on the Habits and Life History of Stichopus japonicus Selenka, Anno- 

 tations, Zoological Japonicse, Vol. Y., pt. 1). 1 offered suggestions on the method of 

 propagation of this holothurian, after a study of its life history. My ideas have not 

 mi been given a fair trial, but in Mikawa Bay, where a part of them have been 

 enforced, the complaint of the decrease of the supply, at least, seems to have ceased. 

 1 may perhaps be allowed to quote the last paragraph of the paper. "•After I had 

 thought out these measures of protection for Stichopus japonicus from its habits and 

 life history, my friend. Doctor Kishinouye, was traveling in the somewhat out-of- 

 the-way island of ()ki and found that people there had been a hundred years or 

 more in the habit of putting up loose stone piles in the shallow sea in order to obtain 

 a supply of the holothurians. A village headman had thought it out from practical 

 experiences. Verily there is nothing new under the sun." 



"Amanori" (Porphyra tenera Kjellman); "Funori" {Gloiopeltis furcata Post 

 and Ruprecht). Although the present discussion is on the cultivation id' animals. I 

 can not help alluding at the end to the cultivation of some seaweeds, as one of them 

 at least is very important indeed. The ••amanori"' or " asakusanori " is most exten- 

 sively cultivated in various parts of Japan. Of all places, however, the system has 

 reached greatest perfection at Shinagawa and Omori. at the mouth of the Sumida 

 River, which passes through Tokyo. In the late autumn or in the winter you can 

 see here miles upon miles of culture areas in which tree branches are set up as 

 collectors. During the cold season the alga keeps growing on them, and any fair 



