166 FISHERIES OF THE ORIENTAL REGION, 



It is supposed that a tenth part of the population of China 

 derives support from fisheries. To use the words of the editor 

 of the Technologist. " Hundreds and thousands of boats crowd 

 the whole coast, sometimes acting in community, sometimes 

 independent and isolated. There is no species of craft by which 

 a fish can be inveigled which is not practised with success in 

 China. Every variety of net from vast seines embracing miles, 

 to the smallest hand-filet in the care of a child. Fishing by 

 night and fishing by day ; fishing in moonlight, by torchlight and 

 in utter darkness ; fishing in boats of all sizes, fishing by those 

 who are stationary on the rock by the sea-side, and by those who 

 are absent for weeks on the wildest of seas ; fishing by cormorants; 

 fishing by divers ; fishing with lines, with baskets — by every 

 imaginable decoy and device. There is no river which is not 

 staked to assist the fisherman in his craft. There is no lake, no 

 pond which is not crowded with fish. A piece of water is nearly 

 as valuable as a field of fertile land. At daybreak every city is 

 crowded with sellers of live fish, who carry their commodity in 

 buckets of water, saving all they do not sell to be i-eturned to the 

 pond or kept for another day's service." 



The obvious reason for all this is, that with the exception of 

 rice there is nothing that enters so largely into the domestic 

 economy of the Chinese as fish ; very nearly as much but not 

 quite so extensively as with the Japanese, for until lately, the 

 latter ate no meat at all, while the Chinese considerably 

 supplement their fish food with pork, at least, if not with 

 other meats. 



Several circumstances combine to make China a great fishing 

 country The coast line is long and tortuous, besides having an 

 extensive archipelago of islands. It has a magnificent river 

 system with such a network of small tributary streams that no 

 country can be said to be better watered. These natural 

 advantages have been largely aided by systems of canals or 

 channels of communication which water the vast plains in all 

 directions. 



