THE KINGDOM OF MAN 229 



result in any increase of food-fishes, though it was 

 persisted in for years. Then, at last, when an appeal 

 was made to scientific knowledge, it was discovered 

 that the cormorants fed in great part on the sand-eels 

 and crabs which devoured the fry of the food-fishes. 



To destroy rats in Jamaica they imported the mon- 

 goose from the Old World, and for a time things went 

 well. But when the mongoose had finished with the 

 rats, it had become many mongooses, and these turned 

 their attention to the poultry. Thence they passed to 

 ground-birds and lizards and snakes. There was no 

 mourning over the loss of snakes, but the lizards and 

 ground-birds were missed. For injurious insects and 

 ticks began to multiply exceedingly, and some people 

 said they would rather have the rats back again and 

 the mongooses safely home. The last part of the story 

 is that the insects and the ticks are making life a burden 

 to the mongooses. It will right itself, but much is 

 always lost in the process. 



Wastage and Economy of Exploitatmi. — It is very 

 interesting to contrast the old ways of hunting and 

 fishing, shepherding and farming with those of to-day ; 

 and one fact stands out — ^that modern methods are or 

 can be made far more economical in immediate result! 

 Take in illustration a very ancient and very widespread 

 mode of fishing — still practised in Australia, for instance 

 — that of throwing into the water quantities of certain 

 poisonous plants. The fish are poisoned and float up 

 to the surface where they are caught dying or dead. 

 It is a diagram of wastefulness. Young are killed as 



