148 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
bags are made of hemp twine. The half of a net next the mouth has a 
2-inch mesh; the middle section, of about 10 or 12 feet, has a 1-inch 
mesh, while the lower or small end has a mesh measuring only one-half 
inch. Considering the contraction caused by tying up the small end 
of the bag, it will readily be seen that scarcely any marine life is minute 
enough to pass through the meshes. Wilcox saw one of these nets at 
San Quentin which had been imported from China, and it differed from 
the above only in width, it being 30 feet wide at the mouth and 18 
inches wide at the small end. The mouth was oval or oblong in form, 
and when set would be about 6 feet deep. It had a row of floats or 
corks along the upper edge, and sinkers were fastened to the lower side 
of the mouth to keep it open. This net cost $12 in China, but the 
freight and import duty added materially to this amount. 
While some of these net bags are imported, the majority are made 
by the fishermen during the season when they can not do much fishing. 
In December, 1888, Wilcox visited the camp at Hunter’s Point ; only 
a half dozen Chinamen were there, all of whom were busy making 
hemp nets for their traps, to be used the following spring. The seines 
and gill nets are similar to those employed by Chinese fishermen else- 
where on the coast, and need not be described in detail. The fyke net 
is of the ordinary pattern. Alexander makes the following remarks 
concerning its use : 
The fyke net is by far the most destructive apparatus used for the capture of fish. 
This net has been described too many times to give it more than passing mention 
here. That they are used in every available place along the coast whenever circum- 
stances will permit is a well-known fact. That they are the means of destroying 
prodigious quantities of small Crustacea and other small fry, such as large fish of 
commercial importance subsist upon, is acknowledged by all ; but no steps have yet 
been taken which have had the desired effect of wholly preventing this wholesale 
slaughter. The enormity of using fyke nets would be greatly lessened if there were 
any possible chance for minute species to make their escape after entering them ; 
but the meshes are so small that the finest floating substance is captured. The vari- 
ous species of floating fish eggs which are annually destroyed in this way must be 
enormous. If on hauling or taking up these nets any pains were taken to liberate 
the eggs captured the destruction to natural propagation would be greatly alleviated ; 
but on the contrary everything which comes to the net of a Chinaman is “fish,” and 
is utilized for his gastronomic wants. 
The sturgeon trawl has been used for a long time in China, and the 
natives of that country have introduced it in the fisheries of California, 
though its employment is illegal. Alexander says of it: 
This is a very cruel as well as a destructive way of catching fish. Each trawl 
has an average of eighty barbless hooks, which are as sharp as needles. They 
are fastened to the gangings in clusters of eight and ten, and when in the water 
are swung about by the action of the tide like the tentacles of an octopus reach- 
ing out for prey. A fish which approaches within a length of itself is pretty sure 
of being hooked by one or more of these treacherous devices. When a fish of any 
considerable size gets fastened to a hook it is sure in its struggle for freedom to become 
entangled with other hooks, and finally, in its flouncing about, will become com- 
pletely incased in a network of gangings and hooks, like a shark which has rolled 
