196 FISH HATCHING. 



-when we consider the pecuniary advantages 

 that flow from the system, in a commercial 

 point of view. If to the first cost of an 

 animal reared and fattened on a farm, we 

 add the risks that are run in maintaining 

 him in health and condition until he is fit 

 for human food, the profit for feeding is not 

 very great ; but in the case of the salmon, 

 we can send a fish down to the sea, which, 

 even by this artificial means, does not cost a 

 farthing, and he there grows and fattens, 

 without either care or superintendence, with- 

 out cost or trouble of any kind, and when he 

 is in. the highest condition, he returns to us 

 worth about as much as a prime fed sheep, 

 which has required to be watched and cared 

 for till it reached that condition. Here, 

 then, as Lord Essex said, " is a mine of 



