INTRODUCTION. 



When we take into consideration the very important place 

 which the marine food-fishes occupy in the general food-supply 

 of the country it is remarkable to find how very little is really 

 known, even by scientific men, of the life-history of the various 

 species so familiar to every housewife. Few there are who 

 could not readily distinguish such common forms as the cod, 

 the haddock, the plaice or the sole when either or all of these 

 were before them, but how many know anything whatever of 

 the habits or the past history of these denizens of the deep ? 

 True it is that a cod is a cod, and a knowledge of its young 

 stages and their food does not in any measure add to the 

 intrinsic value of the fish as an article of diet ; in fact we may 

 go further and say that perhaps — in the case of some fishes — 

 ignorance regarding their habits and food were better, lest their 

 ready sale be affected thereby. We shall see, later, instances 

 of fishes which are of so grotesque or repulsive an appearance 

 that they must often of necessity have their form disguised 

 or their heads and skins removed before being sent into the 

 market lest their mere ugliness should seriously militate against 

 their sale to an unreasoning and easily influenced public. 



Be that as it may, we find in every other case in which 

 man makes use of the lower animals for his own sustenance 

 a wonderful amount of intelligent observation and study of the 

 laws governing the existence and prosperity of these animals 

 has been brought to bear upon them from the very earliest 

 times of man's existence. 



M. p. 1 



