2 2o The National Geographic Magazine 



suma I saw hundreds of these fields, 

 which are large, perfectly flat areas, 

 near the sea-level, with a firm, clean, 

 sandy surface and intersected by nar- 

 row drains or ditches, in which the tide 

 flows. Water from these ditches is 

 freely sprinkled by hand over the floor, 

 and, in order to promote evaporation, 

 the wet sand is stirred and raked with 

 a kind of harrow. The sprinkling, 

 stirring, and drying of the sand con- 

 tinue until it can take up no more salt ; 

 it is then scraped into piles with a long 

 piece of plank drawn by a workman by 

 means of a rope brought over his shoul- 

 der, and placed in peculiar bins, of which 

 each field has many, arranged in regu- 

 lar rows. The sand is then thoroughly 

 washed with sea water, and the highly 

 concentrated brine resulting drains into 

 vats beneath the bins. From the vats 

 the brine is poured into a sluice or flume 

 and conveyed to large reservoirs under 

 cover. As required, it is poured on 

 huge flat iron trays, under which is a 



hot fire, and the water is driven off by 

 boiling. 



The fisheries of Japan are already of 

 vast extent and are exceeded in money 

 value by those of only two countries. 

 There is no other country from which 

 western nations may learn more of prac- 

 tical utility about many branches of the 

 fishing industry, and there is none the 

 study of whose cultural enterprises, gov- 

 ernmental relations, and organization 

 and fishery legislation and history will 

 prove more profitable. We cannot fore- 

 tell what developments the present gen- 

 eration or the next may see, but events 

 are moving so swiftly in the Sunrise 

 Kingdom, the entire business life is re- 

 sponding so quickly to the pace set by 

 the twentieth century, that, whatever 

 the outcome of the present war, the 

 general commercial and industrial prog- 

 ress will undoubtedly be imparted to 

 the fisheries and will be likely to place 

 the money value of the industry above 

 that of all other nations. 



A CHAPTER FROM JAPANESE HISTORY 



By Eki Hioki 



First Secretary of the Japanese Legation 



IT affords me great pleasure to have 

 this opportunity of addressing a 

 gathering of such distinguished 

 gentlemen. It gives me special pleas- 

 ure to do so tonight, because this very 

 day, the 21st of February, 1905, is the 

 fiftieth anniversary of the exchange of 

 the ratifications of the first treaty be- 

 tween Japan and the United States — 

 the first treaty that Japan had ever con- 

 cluded with any nation of the West. 



THE DIPLOMACY OF COMMODORE 

 PERRY 



You should be proud of the wonderful 

 skill in diplomacy displayed by your 



first envoy to Japan, our honored Com- 

 modore Perry, and the brilliant success 

 which was achieved by him in inducing 

 a nation, which had so long cherished 

 the policy of seclusion and exclusion, 

 to enter into treaty relations with the 

 powers of the world, the accomplish- 

 ment of which was brought about with- 

 out the shedding of a drop of blood or 

 even the happening of a single incident 

 which could now revive any unpleasant 

 memories. I am often led to reason, 

 rightly or wrongly, that when an act 

 of a man is founded on truth and kind- 

 ness there is no need of the help of lan- 

 guage to communicate it to others. 



* An address delivered at Washington February 13, 1905 



