DESPATCHES, EEPOKTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 791 



475 Hon. Robert J. "Walker, whose ability as a statesman is no- 



where seriously questioned, in a letter to Mr. Seward. Secretary 

 of State, dated April 24. 1868, thus describes the value of the fish- 

 eries as sources of food supply. He says : 



But there are other most important considerations connected with extended 

 coasts and great fisheries. The fisheries are capable of furnishing more and 

 cheaper food than the land. 



The reasons are 



(1 ) The ocean surface is nearly four times that of the land, the area being 

 145.000.000 square miles of ocean surface to 52.000,000 of land. 



(2) The ocean everywhere produces fish, from the equator to the pole, the 

 profusion of submarine animals increasing as you go north up to a point but 

 433 miles from the pole and believed to extend there, whereas, in consequence 

 of mountains, deserts, and the temperature of the surface of the earth in very 

 high latitudes, loss than half its surface can be cultivated so as to produce 

 food in any appreciable quantities. 



(3) The temperature of the ocean, in high latitudes, being much warmer 

 than that of the land surface, there is increased profusion of submarine animal 

 life, especially in the Arctic and Atlantic Seas, where, on account of extreme 

 cold, the land surface produces no food. In warm latitudes the deep-sea 

 temperature diminishes with the depth, until a certain point, below which it 

 maintains an equable temperature of 40 Fahrenheit. The temperature of the 

 ocean in latitude 70 (many degrees warmer than the land surface) is the 

 same in all depths. There are wonderful provisions for the multiplication of 

 animal life in the ocean, and it moderates both heat and cold. These are 

 additional reasons in favor of the existence of a Polar Sea, filled with a far 

 greater profusion of submarine animal life than any other seas, and, as a 

 conseq ence, possessing far the best fisheries. Indeed, as fish progress north- 

 ward, on account of the better ocean temperature there, as also, because the 

 marine food there is more abundant, there can be little doubt that the open 

 Polar Sea will furnish fisheries of incredible value. 



(4) The ocean produces food in all latitudes for the support of animal sub- 

 marine life. These are squid (the principal food of the whale), also abundance 

 of nutritious sea-grasses, etc., upon which the fish feed. Besides, as the earth 

 is mure and more cultivated, and farms, as well as towns and cities, drained 

 by creeks and rivers to the seas, the submarine food is correspondingly aug- 

 mented. Even in mid-ocean the phosphorescence observed there is produced by 

 the presence in the water of myriads of living animals. 



(5) Whilst the earth produces food by plowing its surface only a few inches 

 deep, the ocean supples myriads of fish, tier on tier, thousands of fathoms deep. 

 Thus, the registered take of herrings in the Scotch fisheries, in 1S61. was 

 900,000,000, whilst that of Norway, in the latitude of Iceland and Greenland, 

 was far greater. 



Perhaps, however, the main reason why the ocean produces so much more food 

 for man than the land is, that whilst land animals only give birth to one or two 

 of their young at a time, some fish produce millions of ova. to be matured into 

 life. Thus, a female cod lias been found to contain .'->.40o.()i!0 ova: and other 

 lish ova varying from several millions to 36,000. Hence, the vast success 

 attending the increased production of fish by transfer, by sowing the spawn, 

 and other methods known to ichthyology. 



Nothing could more certainly lessen the food supply of the people, 

 which, after all, is the basis of all human progress, than to promote 

 strife amongst fishermen visiting the same waters. A policy that 

 leads to such a result is an injustice to the human family. 



Xo wealth, national or personal, can be justly earned when it comes 

 from diminishing the supply of human food. 



With all our vast excess of cereals and of animal fond we still need 

 all the fish we can gather from the oceans and seas for the comfort 

 and economy of living, especially among the industrial cla-M 1 - <-f our 

 rapidly increasing population. The Atlantic and Pacific fisheries 

 rank in importance along with the production of beef, mutton, and 

 pork as a source of food supply, and as a competitive element in the 

 food markets even of this abundant country. 



