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ODD WAYS OF CATCHING FISH Chinese Use Trained Cormorants in Harness to Fill Their Baskets Sucking Flsli in Mediterranean and andSpiders Spiders la Strata Seas Used Usedas as Assistants Apparently the Chinese government docs not agree with tlic dictum that the abundance of the sea is for the free use of man judging by the restrictions which they place upon the fishermen One can imagine the outcry which Wuold occur among the fishermen around our coasts if they were asked not only to pay a sum for fishing rights in a certain section of the sea but were also held responsible for the preservation of the fish in the particular space of water allotted to them This however is exactly what the Chinese government does ac ¬ cording to the report of the vice consul at Ningpo China Ningpo is the greatest market in China for fish of every kind which is exported to nearly every native port and even to foreign countries Over 10000 crafts are fitted out for the sea fish ¬ eries in the Cliusan Archipelago and a license must be procured for each boat from the civic authority For fishing on the shores of the islands applica ¬ tions for space must be made to the officials as the ground belongs to the government There are also special regulations for fishing in ithc lakes rivers and canals On payment of a small sum a certain amount of space is granted l y the officials and a license issued but the holder is thence ¬ forward held responsible for the preservation of the fish in liis allotment No fishing is allowed in the spawning season and in order to keep the stock in good condition a proportionate quantity of young fry must yearly be placed in the water A favor ¬ ite method of catching the fish particularly on the mud flats left along the coast by the receding tides is by fixing long nets vertically on bamboos iii the shape of a half circle and the fish being left prisoners in the inclosure at low tide tideFISHING FISHING WITH TRAINED BIBBS BIBBSIn In the rivers lakes and canals fishing with trained cormorants is the favorite method Each cormorant has at ring or cord around its neck to prevent it swallowing the fish it catches and its legs are connected with another piece of string forming a loop by which refractory birds may at any moment be brought aboard The cormorants are caught while they are young and are carefully trained to fish for their masters They are thrown out into the water and are driven to their task It takes infinite patience and much petting and some boxing of the ears to teach the cormorants to fish with out a collar and string attached but when one masters the art it is a most valuable aid to the fisherman The cormorants take a certain pride in their work and when they are unsuccessful in their efforts they take their places shamefacedly to await the next tryout The young usually are trained to work by the assistance of the old birds The owners are kindness itself to the birds when they work but box their heads arid hurl impre ¬ cations at them when they fail On the Ningpo River too moonlight fishing is carried on to a large extent For this purpose a long narrow Hat boat provided on one side with a board Eloping down into the water and painted a bright white is used On the other side of this craft is a net stretched vertically on stanchions The fish attracted by the wMte board jump upon it and thence into the boat the net preventing them from falling into the water on the other side Yet another novel way of fishing is with a net and clapper The net is stretched on a light bamboo frame in the shape of a truncated pyramid The fisherman cither sits in the boat or wades in the shallows striking the water with the wooden clap ¬ per which frightens the fish into the net netOBB OBB ASSISTANTS TO FISHER FOLK FOLKIn In the fisliing world there are many remarkable instruments and appliances used but one must go to the Orient to find tne most peculiar sort of tackle One occasionally hears in America of a trained otter and the fisherman who is lucky enough to possess one it is said has a guarantee of a good seasons fishing In the Mediterranean turtle fisheries the rerapra or sucking fish is used as an assistant fisherman It is a curious kind of fish that attaches itself to larger fish to turtles or to the boats themselves and when it gets a good grip hangs on with great tenacity WheYi it is caught a heavy ring is placed about its body just ahead of its tail and it is tethered to the boat When a turtle is sighted and the remora is thrown out it fastens its fortyleech power suction apparatus to the shell of the turtle It holds fast to the turtle until that creature has been towed alongside the vessel when it is pried loose and sent after another turtle Sometimes the remora gets contrary and will not try to take hold of its turtle but will swim back to the boat and fasten its sucker to the hull of the boat boatIn In some of the South Sea Islands a species of Iho spider proves that it was the original fish net maker A bamboo sapling is bent on a round shape and tied It stays in this position and when a spider comes along and uses it as a framework on which to build his web the fishermen convert it into a sort of tennis racquet affair with which the native knocks a fish out of the water as a tennis player would strike a ball out of his side of the court The webs are as strong as those of the ordinary dipnet dipnetALL ALL SORTS OF TACKLE IN VSE In the commercial fisheries of the world all sorts of tackle are used Of course the vast majority of the worlds fish supply is caught in nets The most important of these nets is the trawl net This is a large mouth net bag of gigantic proportions with a beam about forty feet long At either end of this beam is a triangular hoop which serves the threefold purpose of sinker beam supporter and sled runner This net is shot from the stern of the boat and trawled along until it is filled full of fish when it is hauled in The seine is one of the nets to which the world owes much of its fish supply It is a plain net with sinker weights at the bottom and jeork floats at the top It may vary in size from the huge quarterofamile long and sixty feet wide Cornish Pilchard seine to the little hand net worked by the fisher children along the beach In the heavy salmon fishing of our great northwest the seine and the fine gill net are much used The seine is shot in a semicircle across the stream and when it is full of fish it is pulled ashore horses and steam power often being used in the salmon fisheries It looks much like air overshot water wheel and over this the Jisli are shot Into i Ktaked inclosiirtv In the herring fish ¬ eries the gill net is used and some of these arc of such remarkable size that they contain dozens of tons of fish when they are hauled in If a school of fish is traveling and the gill net be placed across its path the meshes of the net are large enough to admit their heads and to pass their gills But the larger part of their bodies cannot pass through In this predicament they fig ¬ uratively backpedal until their gills become hope ¬ lessly fast in the meshes When the nets are as full as desired they are pulled up and the contents erapied on deck Many other kinds of fish are also caught in the gill net Longline fishing is another of the commercial methods by which the worlds supply is captured A single line sometimes as much as 10000 feet long is shot out from the Side of the boat A heavy weight Is attached to the end first thrown overboard and at intervals of a few feet short lines with hooks on them are attached The long line is stretched across the tide and thns the lines arc kept at a proper distance apart When the big line has remained out long chough it is pulled in and on the hundreds of hooks sometimes 1500 of them many different species of fisli will be found foundCATCHING CATCHING BY HANDLINE AND HARPOON HARPOONIn In the great cod fisheries of Newfoundland the simple haridline is much used A single fisherman in a boat goes out and pulls them in one after an ¬ other until lie gets a boatload The long lines and the nets arc sometimes used It is said that a fish has more curiosity than any other living creature and in sport fishing for mackerel the best bait that can be used is a little piece of scarlet flannel or ribbon tapering to a point There is nothing in the sea that it imitates it is merely intended to take advantage of the mackerels inqnlsitiveness Perhaps the most dangerous and thrilling calling in the world is whaling though the advent of the steam whaler has tended to lessen both the danger and the romance of the chase That whaling is of remote origin has been proved beyond a doubt There is a tradition among the Indians of Florida long before the white men set foot upon American soil that they would jump on the head of a whale plug up one nostril with a wooden peg then allow him to go to the bottom and when he came up again would plug up the other nostril and thus suffocate the monster Of course no one credits this tradi ¬ tion but there seems to be no room for doubt that the ancient Eskimos would surround a whale and at a given signal would fill it full of harpoons to which were attached inflated sealskins This buoyed the animal up to the surface and it was only a mat ¬ ter of time until the whale would die The use of the harpoon gun in which a bomb with a fuse attached is hurled into the whale with the harpoon is comparatively recent When the bomb explodes it usually inflicts a mortal wound woundIn In the South Sea Islands turtle fishing is carried on in the most primitive fashion The fishermen swim out from the vessels climb onto the turtles back arid like an Old Man of the Sea ride him to the vicinity of the ship where a line is passed to the fisherman and hooked around the turtles head halter fashion Then the captor swims off for another victim Sometimes the natives make good shark bait a fate which they doubtless deserve as they literally burn the turtles alive in order to get the shells off some fiend having discovered that when the shell is taken off before the turtle is killed it makes a finer quality of tortoise shelL
