EDIBLE SPECIES 27 



II 



The characteristic of the fish, as we saw at the outset, 

 is its multitudinous numbers. Directed by this clue, we 

 are able to appreciate the significance of the relations 

 existing between feeding and breeding, displacement and 

 migration. Fish are beyond enumeration : they are 

 voracious : they spawn at nearly fixed periods : they are 

 subject to closely limited local migrations, which are the 

 work of a hereditary instinct. Moreover and this is 

 a factor not to be dismissed with contempt * they are 

 shortsighted. It is evident that as a result of these 

 factors it is possible for man, with the aid of appropriate 

 engines, to exploit the seas, if not with scientific certainty 

 at least with facility. 



We must now name and place in order the principal 

 edible species. On the following pages will be found a 

 practically complete tabulation of the salt-water fishes 

 consumed in France and England. I include all fish 

 caught by French boats, whether on the French coasts, 

 in the North Sea, off Newfoundland and Iceland, or 

 along the shores of Spain and Portugal as far as the 

 coast of Morocco. All are not of equal utility. The 

 sardine is mentioned in company with the flying-fish, the 

 cod with the atherine, and the herring with the gar-fish. 



Last summer the fishermen of La Rochelle caught large 

 quantities of horse-mackerel, which they returned to the 

 sea. I have nevertheless entered this fish as one of the 

 widely eaten species. The first fourteen species have 

 cartilaginous skeletons : the others are bony fish. As for 



1 Allgemeine Fischerie Zeitung, 22, 1902. The fishermen of Havre 

 state that the mackerel taken by the lines are blind, and they also 

 assert that their eyes are covered with a film. I have searched 

 for the latter in vain. As for the sole, Cunningham has demon- 

 strated that it is almost completely blind. 



