Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/676

658 Mr. J. Duncan Campbell, of the Chinese Marine Customs in London, said in an address, in 1881, that "without any acquaintance with the laws of capital and labor, the Chinese fishermen have come to a practical solution, satisfactory to all of them, of the question of cooperation in benefits." This agrees with my own conclusions, and is accurately true of the large masses of fishermen living around Swatow. These fishermen are formed into labor-unions, which are important according to the scale of fishing in which they are engaged. The most considerable companies are those which employ the kaio-kou. Each of them controls two large junks (kaio-kou) having crews of fifteen men each, and forty-five shallops carrying usually three men each; making in all forty-seven boats and one hundred and sixty-five men. Each company is directed by a chief, who has under his orders a steward to keep the accounts and attend to the sales. The systems for dividing the proceeds are different in different places and with different companies. In one of the companies each 10,000 francs is divided as follows: 1,800 francs for the hire of the boats and the fishing-implements, which are let by a capitalist; 250 for the expense of religious sacrifices; 300 for the salaries of men under employ who do not belong to the company; 400 for the helmsman; of the remaining 7,200 francs, half to the captain, and the rest equally among the men of the company. In the smaller companies, which usually employ only shallops, the proceeds are commonly divided into fifteen parts, six of which go to the captain, two to each of the four men of the crew, and one is applied to the sacrifices. Some companies give thirty per cent to the capitalist who furnishes the ship, seven per cent to the chief of the company, four per cent to his steward, seven per cent to each of the junks, and one per cent to each shallop. The boats divide their shares into as many parts as there are men in the crew, plus one, and that goes to the helmsman, who always has two parts.

The river-fisheries are not so lucrative as those of the sea, and less generally give employment to a class of professional fishermen. The tackles used in carrying them on are not essentially different from those employed in similar kinds of fishing in Europe. In the more important river-fisheries, however, two auxiliaries are employed that are wholly unknown in Western fishing—the otter and the cormorant. The otter, which is frequently met in the Blue River, is trained to drive the fish into the nets, and does it as dexterously as the best hunting-dogs bring the coveys within reach of their masters' fowling pieces.

The cormorant does all the work of fishing for his master, who only has to take care of the boat. The birds stand upon the edge of the shallop till the boatman gives the signal, when they spring into the water to perform their task. As soon as they have captured a large fish or filled their throat with smaller ones, they return to the boat and their master takes possession of the prey. If they find a fish too