172 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



must be amazingly numerous when compared with the 

 flocks and herds of the land which must be so care- 

 fully preserved and fed by the hand of man. And 

 all along the northern littoral of America, as far as 

 the confines of the frozen sea, fish of many kinds, but 

 almost all edible, are to be found in the same mighty 

 hosts, the inclement weather above the sea affecting 

 them not at all. Here, again, the toll taken of them 

 by man is so small as to be entirely negligeable, it 

 probably does not amount to as much in a whole 

 season as would be devoured by two or three adult 

 rorquals. Does it not, then, seem strange and un- 

 fortunate that whole populations should ever die of 

 famine with such boundless stores of food available, if 

 only means of transporting it were organized ? 



Not only are fish in large quantities to be found 

 within a few miles of the shore, but the labours of 

 the United States deep-sea dredging expeditions have 

 proved that in depths beyond those ever reached by 

 fishermen, or ever before dreamed of as available for 

 fishing purposes, such valuable food-fish as the halibut 

 and other varieties of the pleuronectidce are to be found 

 in great numbers and of huge size. And in those 

 depths of water the range of such fish is vastly ex- 

 tended, because below a certain depth it has been 

 proved that the temperature of the sea is everywhere 

 equal, and temperature is one of the greatest factors 

 in the distribution of fish of edible kinds which are 

 all addicted to coolness, loving their environment to be 

 a little only above freezing-point. The greater part 

 of the North Atlantic Ocean, then, north of the tropics, 

 is an immense reservoir of fish, practically of all the 

 edible kinds, of which it is well within the truth to 



