190 WESTERN SERIES OF READERS. 



of the sea. Think of all the creatures that man 

 has captured for his use. Off the coast of Central 

 America the natives catch great turtles that come 

 up on the sandy beach to lay their eggs. In the 

 frozen Arctic the Esquimaux live almost wholly 

 on seals, while in the markets of our coast cities 

 are found numerous kinds of those creatures that 

 people call shell-fish. 



In some countries sea-cucumbers are esteemed 

 as a great delicacy, while among certain islanders 

 of the Pacific a swimming seaworm is so highly 

 prized that when it arrives off their coasts they 

 drop all other employments, including fighting, 

 and, friends and enemies together, pull off in their 

 canoes to collect great quantities of the green 

 "Polulu." 



Comparatively little clothing is obtained from 

 the sea, but that little is of the most expensive 

 kind. It does not take a very large sealskin cape 

 to be worth one hundred dollars, while a single sea- 

 otter's pelt will fetch three fourths of that sum. 

 Leather is made from the hides of hair-seals and 

 walruses, while shoestrings of the strongest kind 

 are cut from the tanned skin of the porpoise. 



Oil was formerly obtained almost wholly from 

 the blubber of whales, but in these days of petro- 

 leum not so many ships go out to hunt these great 



