Graze the seaweed, their pasture, and through groves Show to the sun their way'd coats draped with gold." The Chinese are pre-eminently a fish-eating people, and the vast demand for fish there can only be supplied by artificial means. The shad is called by the Chinese "sam-li;" it is of superior flavour and great size, and is produced by artificial means and conveyed in "congs," large vessels made of coarse earthenware, to all parts of the empire. It has been supposed that nearly a tenth of the population of China derive their means of support from the fisheries. Hundreds and thousands of boats crowd the whole coasts, sometimes acting in communities, sometimes independent and isolated. There is no species of craft by which a fish can be inveigled which is not practised with success in China. Every variety of net, from vast seines, embracing miles, to the smallest hand-filet, in the care of a child; fishing by night and fishing by day; fishing in moonlight, by torchlight, and in utter darkness; fishing in boats of all sizes; fishing by those who are stationary on the rock by the seaside, and by those who are absent for weeks on the wildest of seas; fishing by cormorants; fishing by divers; fishing with lines, with baskets-by every imaginable decoy and device. There is no river which is not staked to assist the fisherman in his craft. There is no lake, no pond, which is not crowded with fish. A piece of water is nearly as valuable as a field of fertile land. At daybreak every city is crowded with sellers of live fish, who carry their commodity in buckets of water, saving all they do not sell to be returned to the pond or kept for another day's service. In the port of Okhotz, Siberia, fish is almost the only food of the inhabitants, flour and groceries being unheardof luxuries, and meat very scarce. Even the cattle and poultry are fed on fish. The general idea that the Southern Australian seas are inferior in piscatory resources to the colder waters of Europe seems to be wholly unfounded. At proper seasons of the year, and when reasonable precautions have been taken and the close months observed, the creeks and estuaries are leaping with fish. In Victoria, not only around the great inland sea-lake of Port Phillip, for the sustenance of the crowded population of the capital, but in outlying ports and sequestered coves, families, singly and in clusters, draw their whole subsistence from the fisheries. The total number of fishing boats belonging to the Hobson's Bay district amounts to nearly 500, and all of them are busily employed. Let us glance briefly at the statistics of the value of some of the principal fisheries. The Norwegian fisheries bring in to the hardy Northerners not less than £3,200,000 per annum, a magnificent sum for a country possessing a population of barely 2,000,000 souls. In Russia the products of the fisheries are estimated at £3,500,000; in Denmark they bring in about £160,000; and the value of those of France reach about £3,500,000. The take of the French fisheries for 1873 was thus officially returned : Francs. 6,719,774 9,981,547 9,401,307 3,483,343 13,757,534 469,695 Besides seaweed and sand as officially valued at £60,000. The French fisheries gave employment to the following : Cod fishery of Coast fishery. Out of a gross return of 80,000,000 francs the coast fisheries brought in over 63,000,000 francs. Both in the home and foreign fisheries many improvements have been carried out of late years in boats, nets, and appliances. In 1873 a great improvement was effected in France by the introduction of capstans worked by steam for hauling in the nets. Steam vessels are also now employed in fishing operations at Teste, Rochelle, and other ports. The sale of fish in the Paris markets in 1854 was to the value of 7,500,000 francs (£300,000), of which about 1,000,000 francs was for fresh-water fish. In 1860 the sales reached about 10,000,000 francs. Paris consumed the following quantities of fresh-water fish, etc. : There was also sold of sea-fish at the central markets, 31,489,202 lbs., valued at 13,191,845 francs, together a total of over £634,000 sterling. The consumption of other fish was stated in 1854 to have been of— The sale of these has, however, more than doubled in the last quarter of a century. It is not possible to form an accurate estimate of the extent or value of the fisheries and the products of the fisheries in various countries. But as regards our own special commerce, we have some few official figures to work upon. Taking the latest year for which full and complete returns are given, we find that the imports into the United Kingdom reach over £6,000,000 in value. Guano is included because it is a deposit of sea-birds, and may, therefore, be considered to some extent a product of the sea. The exports of fish of British catch in 1874 were valued at £1,077,065, and if we add the export of salt for the fisheries, fishing nets, hooks and lines, sails and cordage, and other supplies, we shall have fully a value of £1,500,000. The great city of Amsterdam and the present unsurpassed seaport of Liverpool arose from the industry and enterprise of a few fishermen, who found those spots convenient for their dwellings and pursuits—a fact of history thus poetically recorded: "Where Mersey's stream, long winding o'er the plain, Pours his full tribute to the circling main, A band of fishers chose their humble seat, |