CHAPTER LXVIII 



ANIMAL FRIENDS— FISHES, MOLLUSCS, AND CRUSTA- 

 CEANS AS FOOD— FISHERIES 



To do anything- like justice to the "harvest of the sea", not 

 to mention the "freshwater harvest", would require a very con- 

 siderable space, but the importance of the subject may be 

 sufficiently illustrated for the purposes of this book by a few 

 salient facts and figures. It will be convenient to successively 

 consider Fishes, Molluscs, and Crustaceans, beginning in each 

 case with a brief account of the more valuable species, and adding 

 a few remarks on fisheries, culture-methods, &c. In the pre- 

 paration of this chapter the writer has been greatly helped by 

 Mr. J. T. Cunningham's Marketable Marine Fishes, as well as by 

 papers and MS. notes by Professor J. Travis Jenkins. 



Much kind assistance has also been given by the Secretaries 

 to the French, German, Italian, Russian, and U.S. Embassies, 

 the Legations of Holland and Scandinavia, the Italian Chamber 

 of Commerce, the Imperial Russian Financial Agency, our own 

 Department for Agriculture and Fisheries, and the Whitstable 

 Oyster Fishery Company; also by the U.S.A. and Newfoundland 

 Fisheries Departments, the High Commissioner for Canada, and 

 the British Consuls-General in Christiania, Paris, and St. Peters- 

 burg. 



FISHES (Pisces) AS FOOD 



Without entering into minute technical details, it will be 

 desirable in the first place to say a little about the three chief 

 methods by which fishes are captured on a commercial scale, 

 i.e. line-fishing, net-fishing, and trawling. 



Line -Fishing. — Before the prehistoric races of Western 

 Europe had learnt the use of metals there is evidence to show 

 that large fishes, such as salmon, were secured by means of 



„• Vol. IV. 261 112 



