452 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



is 0. masou, Brevoort, a land-locked form in Japan, and growing 

 and maturing in suitable fresh water. Artificial flies for the 

 capture of this and other Salmonidae in Japan will soon be 

 extensively used. The Pond- Smelt or Chika (Mesopus olidus, 

 Palloc), with adhesive eggs 1 mm. in diameter, and the Ice-fish, 

 Whitebait, or Shira-uwo (S alarm microdon, Blkr.), also with ad- 

 hesive eggs, but only about two thousand in number, are two 

 small forms of considerable value. They are caught with seines 

 and fixed nets. A fish very popular with the Japanese is the 

 Ayu, Annual-fish, or Flavorous-fish, a form which was well 

 known 200 b.c. It is about ten inches long, and much prized 

 for its flavour and sweetness; so much so that protective regula- 

 tions for its culture to supply the Imperial table were in force 

 between a.d. 810-824. It passes its early life in the sea, and 

 ascends rivers in March and April to spawn, the eggs adhering 

 to the gravel. It is caught by nets, either fixed or cast, by hook 

 and line, and by Cormorants — a method which has been in vogue 

 in Japan for two thousand five hundred years. 



The Japanese Eel (Anguilla japonica, T. & S.) is valuable in 

 the home-market, and almost all the fresh waters of Haido and 

 the southern part of Hokkaido are stocked with it. Murcenosox 

 cinereus, T. & S., the Biter, attains a length of 2|- ft., and is 

 furnished with knife-like teeth. Congrettus anago, T. & S., the 

 Anago or hole-dweller, frequents a bottom of sandy mud inshore. 

 Both are captured by hand-lines, by trawls, trawl-lines, and 

 drift-nets. 



The sea-fisheries of Japan are both extensive and valuable, 

 and her position in the Pacific Ocean is such that it is unlikely 

 that even her teeming population will ever seriously affect her 

 marine food-fishes, however clamant local fears and prejudices 

 may be. 



