THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



is most carefully carried on, and the oddest fishes are sold much 

 as we sell or buy birds as pets. Just how old the industry is, 

 no one knows ; but it is known that there was a fish breeder 

 of the name of Sato Sanzaemon at Koriyama in the Hoyei era 

 in 1704-1710. 



The fish of the ' black cross ' and various quaint designs 

 are produced by applying dilute hydrochloric acid. Every year 

 in the autumn an exhibition is held and thousands of the quaint 

 and beautiful fishes sold from two cents to twenty-five dollars a 

 pair. 



With all the fine sea fishes of Japan, the inhabitants do not 

 obtain the benefit of them, due to the situation of the Islands 

 rising precipitously from deep water and often abysmal depths. 

 The fishermen do not venture offshore where the large fishes 

 are, their boats being very small. The area about Japan within 

 the six hundred-foot line is but seventy-seven thousand square 

 miles ; and this naturally has been very seriously depleted by 

 the four hundred thousand small boats. Up to within a few 

 years, the Japanese knew little or nothing of the fine game in the 

 Euro Shiwo off their shores ; and in 1906, when a modem gasoline 

 fishing-boat, the twenty-five ton Fuji Mam, went offshore away 

 and made a great catch of bonito, they were amazed and a sen- 

 sation was created all over Japan. 



Salmon and trout have been introduced, and there are twenty 

 hatcheries. American Eainbow trout have been placed in lakes 

 Nikko and Aizu, and in a short time the Japanese wiU copy our 

 rods and reels, and will be among the cleverest of fiy casters 

 and makers. 



The most noticeable trout-Uke fish in Japan is the Hucho 

 {Hucho blacJcistoni), similar to the big trout we have seen in the 

 Danube, where it affords excellent sport. The angler of an in- 

 quiring mind will wonder why this trout should exist in these 

 two widely separated regions alone : the northern rivers of 

 Japan, and the Danube, and certain streams in the vicinity of 

 Austria and Germany — one of the seeming puzzles of nature. 

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