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over 28 feet. Owing to the fact that fishing-boats are for the most part propelled by oars, they are without keels, and are generally flat-bottomed. The peculiar shapes of these craft are the result of long experience of the seas with which they must contend, and of the different kind of fisheries to which they are devoted. The whalers and bonito boats are made doubly strong, so that even when the masts and sails are blown away the occupants generally succeed in saving themselves by taking to their oars. Still, it is generally recognised that the boats are not built on scientific principles, and the proper authorities have recently begun to take the subject under consideration, with the effect that the European method of decking and air-tight compartments is already coming into vogue.

The different kinds of fishing-gear used are too numerous to mention, but broadly speaking they may be divided into the two usual divisions of netting and angling. The large pound net is used for capturing herring, salmon, tunny, etc., while seine nets are employed for sardine and other shoal-fish. Drift nets are used for surface-fish, and the gill net is set at the bottom of the sea for herring, cod, shrimps, etc. Dredge nets are the rule for shell-fish and sea-cucumber, and there 1s a contrivance called shiki-ami, or spread-net, which is laid out over the bottom and lifted up when fish happen to enter it. Angling gear is of the variety used the world over. The total number of nets used in 1891 was estimated at 1,103,978. The value of the fish taken in the year 1900 is given in the official returns as about £5,683,315, which was derived from more than forty varieties of sea life. The average number of whales taken per year during the five years ending with 1897 was 121, placed at an average value of £22,000. The value of the fishermen’s investments in boats and gear was computed at about £1,240,000 in 1891, and has since increased. One of the hardest features of the fishing industry is that since the abolition of an old custom of Government loans at a low rate of interest, in order to carry the workers over from season to season, an enormous proportion of them have been obliged to have recourse to moneylenders, who extort exorbitant rates of interest, and who demand a pledge of the anticipated catch of the coming season. Under these circumstances, the lion’s share of the profits goes into the coffers of the moneylenders.

Fish culture is now extensively carried on, and extends to carp, snapping turtle, gray mullet, eel, oyster, salmon, and trout. During the ten years ending with 1901 more than 17,000,000 of salmon spawn were liberated in three districts.