Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/254

suma I saw hundreds of these fields, which are large, perfectly flat areas, near the sea-level, with a firm, clean, sandy surface and intersected by narrow drains or ditches, in which the tide flows. Water from these ditches is freely sprinkled by hand over the floor, and, in order to promote evaporation, the wet sand is stirred and raked with a kind of harrow. The sprinkling, stirring, and drying of the sand continue until it can take up no more salt; it is then scraped into piles with a long piece of plank drawn by a workman by means of a rope brought over his shoulder, and placed in peculiar bins, of which each field has many, arranged in regular rows. The sand is then thoroughly washed with sea water, and the highly concentrated brine resulting drains into vats beneath the bins. From the vats the brine is poured into a sluice or flume and conveyed to large reservoirs under cover. As required, it is poured on huge flat iron trays, under which is a hot fire, and the water is driven off by boiling.

The fisheries of Japan are already of vast extent and are exceeded in money value by those of only two countries. There is no other country from which western nations may learn more of practical utility about many branches of the fishing industry, and there is none the study of whose cultural enterprises, governmental relations, and organization and fishery legislation and history will prove more profitable. We cannot foretell what developments the present generation or the next may see, but events are moving so swiftly in the Sunrise Kingdom, the entire business life is responding so quickly to the pace set by the twentieth century, that, whatever the outcome of the present war, the general commercial and industrial progress will undoubtedly be imparted to the fisheries and will be likely to place the money value of the industry above that of all other nations.

It affords me great pleasure to have this opportunity of addressing a gathering of such distinguished gentlemen. It gives me special pleasure to do so tonight, because this very day, the 21st of February, 1905, is the fiftieth anniversary of the exchange of the ratifications of the first treaty between Japan and the United States—the first treaty that Japan had ever concluded with any nation of the West.

You should be proud of the wonderful skill in diplomacy displayed by your first envoy to Japan, our honored Commodore Perry, and the brilliant success which was achieved by him in inducing a nation, which had so long cherished the policy of seclusion and exclusion, to enter into treaty relations with the powers of the world, the accomplishment of which was brought about without the shedding of a drop of blood or even the happening of a single incident which could now revive any unpleasant memories. I am often led to reason, rightly or wrongly, that when an act of a man is founded on truth and kindness there is no need of the help of language to communicate it to others.