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most refined epicures, or on the tables of the poorest 
classes in nearly every country, fishes of various kinds 
take an important part. The daintily prepared salmon 
or trout, followed by other luxuries in one household, 
is represented by mackerel or herring in another, with 
perhaps no other addition to its savoriness than its rival 
staple, bread. In fact there are few people of any grade 
who are not fond of some one of the silvery denizens of 
the water; and from humanity down to the smallest 
warm blooded animal, from the greatest mammal of the 
sea to the smaller fishes; even reptiles are fond of fish 
and all wage a constant war upon their numbers; and 
how many, both human and animal, derive their whole 
sustenance from this one source alone. 
There was once a prevalent idea that fish had a peculiarly 
nutritive effect upon the brain; science does not substan- 
tiate that notion, but undoubtedly in a piscatorial diet 
there must be considerable health and strength. One 
attribute of such nutriment seems to be tenacity of life. 
Among the Esquimos, for instance, there are tribes who 
live exclusively on fish, seal meat and oil, and a few ber- 
ries ; they have no salt. The fish is broiled when fresh, 
eaten raw when dried, and some even consider putrid fish 
heads a most delicious dainty ; they live in underground 
huts with no ventilation of which to speak ; they fairly 
reek of fish, and yet some of them live to quite a good 
age. ‘This goes to prove that there is a vast amount of 
nutrition in.the food, and that the careful propagation of 
the best food fishes of the world is a noble and necessary 
employment. 
Among all the finny tribes, salmon and cod of the 
larger fishes, trout and mackerel of the smaller, seem to 
be most important. from the salmon fisheries of the 
north-west alone there is derived an enormous profit; 
Columbia River salmon has long been classed as the finest 
in the world, but Alaska is steadily advancing until it has 
already come into favor equal in many ways with the 
