AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 109 



water beyond at the north. This opinion of the 

 learned Zoologist will undoubtedly stimulate these 

 explorations until that problem is fully solved. If, 

 then, this surmise proves to be correct, and the 

 whale-fisheries can be carried on successfully in that 

 great northern ice-bound field, it would certainly be 

 a remarkable instance of the indirect benefits of 

 science. We may be asked to wait until the dis- 

 covery is made. We only refer to it as a thing so 

 conclusive that action may reasonably be based 

 upon it, and the grand result may reasonably be 

 expected to follow. "What connection would there 

 seem to be, to one unacquainted with the history 

 and bearings of all science, between the study of 

 a whale and the discovery of a northern sea, and 

 the establishment of productive fisheries ? Whether 

 this may be realized or not, such are the constant 

 results of science, from subjects that in the begin- 

 ning gave promise of nothing but the gratification 

 of curiosity. 



The study of the habits of fish will enable us to 

 protect them, by law, from those methods and times 



of capture which prove destructive to large num- 



10 



