Jan, 19.—Perhaps it is because of the changed conditions produced by local warfare, but this year I have noticed for the first time many countrymen walking out in the early morning with a long bamboo pole at the end of which is a thin cotton "net": the whole thing looks like a clumsy butterfly net, with the bag made of thin cotton-cloth instead of gauze, and I have continually wondered what it could possibly be intended to catch. This morning my curiosity was satisfied when, amidst rain and mud, I found an elderly native operating this implement in a deep stagnant pool. He stood on the bank with the pole in his hands twisting the net round and round in the water so that the stocking-like bag, with its wide mouth and narrow tail. followed the pole in an endless spiral: he went on twisting and turning his bamboo for minutes on end until needing a rest, he closed the mouth with an expert turn of the pole and wiped his heated brow. I promptly asked him (in my very bad Chinese) what he was catching, so he most obligingly withdrew the bag and showed me clinging to its sides a number of small round particles which I was unable to recognize....at, the same time giving me a song explanation which I quite failed to understand. although I thought I heard the word "fish." Returning home somewhat dampened in body and spirit. I got into touch with a Chinese friend who promptly told me that the catch is known as "Sze-chieh," meaning "water-larvae" of various insects which are sold in the shops as food for Goldfish, at a Cost of about 25 cents per bottle. So here is another industry which has previously escaped me: "fishing for food for fish" is a pastime overlooked even by Izaak Walton,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.