138 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
resources! We need not insist, that such knowledge, 
properly and judiciously made use of, will not only 
be useful, but lucrative. The first traders who sup- 
plied China with the furs of America, realised large 
fortunes; and the same results will always attend 
every such enterprise, however irregular it may 
appear, if it is only founded on knowledge, and 
conducted with prudence. People go on trading in 
the beaten track, not because there are no others, but 
because the traders are in general totally uninformed 
on those circumstances which lead to their discovery. 
The produce of the animal kingdom, in our com- 
mercial lists, is much more limited than that of the 
vegetable and the mineral. Yet how few of the 
valuable exotic drugs, dyes, and medicines do we 
know more of than their ordinary names! Some 
that, from being produced in small quantities, and 
in a limited district, bear a high price, may very 
possibly be abundant in adjacent countries, or might 
be transplanted and cultivated in other situations less 
remote and more convenient. It is the business of 
the merchant, if he aims at wealth, to discover new 
sources of commerce, of which he can reap the first 
fruits; but this will never be done, save by accident, 
without he is well informed respecting the produc- 
tions, — whether natural or artificial —of other 
nations; in order that he may supply their wants, 
or import their produce. The truth is, that the pro- 
fession of commerce embraces many branches of in- 
formation, and even of science, which at first sight 
appear totally unconnected with it: and among these, 
natural history holds no inconsiderable station. 
