376 A Plea for Sea Fisheries. Chapt. xxvi. 



acceptance. Belief in the subject will come by seeing. I only use 

 the parallel of the land to aid the appreciation of the value of the 

 water farm. 



9. This much, as to my first and main point, unassailablenesa 

 by the severest drought, reliability in times of the worst famine. 



10. If instead of taking my remaining propositions in the 

 exact order in which they stand, I turn next to the fertility of the 

 above sources of supply, I shall hope the better to gain an 

 interested reading for the minor conclusions ; for I must show the 

 productiveness of the farm before I can hope for a contemplation of 

 its extent and accessibility and cheapness of working, &c. 



11. I begin with the sea, I shall quote from the very best 

 authority, from the Commissioners selected by the British Parlia- 

 ment to report on the sea fisheries of the United Kingdom, 

 selected presumedly for being previously the best informed persons 

 on the subject, and persons whose judgment was to be most relied 

 on by the nation in such a matter of public wealth. They, after 

 having further informed themselves by enquiring of the persons best 

 qualified to give them information, and alter having laboriously 

 recorded the answers to no less than 61,831 questions, give the 

 following as one of their conclusions : — 



" The produce of the sea around our coasts bears a far higher 

 " proportion to that of the land than is generally imagined. The 

 " must frequented fishing grounds are much mure prolific of food 

 " than the same extent of the richest land. Once in the year an 

 " acre of good land, carefully tilled, produces a ton of corn, or two 

 " or three cwt. of meat or cheese. The same area at the bottom of 

 " the sea on the best fishing grounds yields a greater weight of food 

 " to the persevering fishermen every week in the year. Five 

 " vessels belonging to the same owner, in a single night's fishing. 

 " brought in 17 tons weight of fish, an amount of wholesome food 

 " equal in weight to that of 50 cattle, or 300 sheep. The ground 

 " which these vessels covered during the night's fishing could not 

 " have exceeded an area of 50 acres."' 



L2. Not without careful consideration can such an astounding 

 insertion have been arrived at by such men to be printed in a 

 Parliamentary P>lne Hook, and presented to the scrutiny of the 

 numerous experts and the far more numerous opponents of 

 pisciculture throughout the country. I claim for it, therefore, that 



