108 CHINESE FISHERMEN. [Cuar. VII. 
Immense quantities of fish are daily caught in 
the river above the town. Their mode of catching 
them is ingenious and amusing. One day I was 
going up a considerable distance in a boat, and set 
out a little before low water, that I might have the 
full benefit of the flow of the tide, and get as far 
up as possible before it turned. On the side of the 
river, a few miles above Ning-po, I observed some 
hundreds of small boats anchored, each containing 
two or three men; and the tide turning just as I 
passed, the whole fleet was instantly in motion, 
rowing and sculling up the river with the greatest 
rapidity. As soon as the men reached a favourable 
part of the stream they cast out their nets and 
began to make a loud noise, splashing with their 
oars and sculls, with the intention, I suppose, of 
driving the fish into the nets. After remaining in 
this spot for about a quarter of an hour, all the 
- boats set off again, farther up, for the next station, 
when the crew commenced again in the same noisy 
manner, and so on, for a long way up the river, as 
long as the tide was flowing; they then returned 
with the ebb, Joaded with fishes for the next morn- 
ing’s market. 
There is another mode of catching fish, which I 
have frequently seen in the northern provinces, 
even more curious than that which I have just 
noticed. [very one acquainted with Chinese history 
knows that fish abound in all the rivers and lakes 
of the north; indeed, every little pond swarms with 
them. Iwas greatly surprised when I first saw 
