2 I O 



The National Geographic Magazine 



slightly wavy position, those I saw being 

 about a yard long. 



Nothing would seem to us to be of 

 less value than the dried strings of egg 

 cases of whelks, which are so common 

 on our sandy shores, and yet in Japan 

 I saw street vendors with push-carts 

 loaded with these objects dyed a bright- 

 red color and tastefully arranged on 

 masses of wet seaweed, and many half- 

 grown girls were buying them and mak- 

 ing a blowing noise by putting them 

 between the tongue and palate. The 

 demand for these articles is so great 

 that the supply obtained naturally is 

 inadequate, and a kind of culture has 

 sprung up. 



FISHING JUNKS 



Fishing vessels and boats are of vari- 

 ous patterns, according to the region, 



the fishery, etc., but all those used in 

 marine fishing are alike in being very 

 strongly and heavily built, many being 

 almost clumsy from our standpoint. 

 They are usually constructed without 

 the use of nails, and are not painted. 

 The boats are for the most part arranged 

 for sculling instead of rowing, and their 

 crews are large. It is no uncommon 

 thing to find 8 to 12 men constituting 

 a boat's crew, whereas with us a simi- 

 lar boat and fishery would require only 

 2 to 4 men. The sails are frequently of 

 the junk rig and sometimes consist of 

 five or six upright widths of straw mat- 

 ting loosely laced together. The fisher- 

 men venture far offshore in small open 

 boats, sometimes as much as 75 miles, 

 in quest of certain pelagic fishes. The 

 first intimation I had of the proximity 

 of the Japanese coast on the voyage 



