FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 95 



and make a good addition to their wages, and their table 

 thereby, as pork forms an agreeable change to continual 

 mutton. 



Pork is the meat most used in France, and, indeed, in 

 most of the countries of Europe. Almost all the country 

 people depend chiefly on pork. Some localities will not 

 eat mutton, others do not like beef ; but there is not a 

 village or hamlet, not a cottage where pork is not the 

 basis of the daily food. It is with pork that the soup is 

 made, and with the fat that the vegetables are cooked. 



The statistics give under 6,000,000 as the quantity of 

 swine in France, but the number must be much larger 

 than this, and may be fairly estimated at 8,000,000. 

 Pigs are also imported, and much dead meat. There are 

 about 12,000,000 heads of families in France, and there 

 are very few that do not consume one pig a year. There 

 are many that use three, four, or five annually. 



In France the consumer of pork deems the lean part 

 not so good as the fat. The Frenchman likes the firm 

 and savoury fat of his prime Celtic pork, and not the 

 oily, soft melting fat of the English breed. In many 

 parts of France beef and mutton are beyond his means, 

 and pork is his only meat ; hence it is important that 

 this should be of the best quality. The French peasant 

 farmer prefers to sell his milk and his butter, and to 

 supply his domestic wants with fat pork, or as it is termed, 

 " lard." 



Pig butchery in Paris is conducted upon a novel plan. 

 The pigs are taken into a large round house, having a 

 cupola in the roof to let oflF the smoke, the floor being 

 divided into triangular dens. A dozen or so of pigs are 

 driven into each den at a time, and a butcher passes 

 along and strikes each one on the head with a mallet. 



After being bled, the defunct porkers are carried to the 

 side of the room and arranged methodically in a row. 

 They are then covered with straw, which is set on 

 fire, and the short bristles quickly burned oflF. After a 

 thorough scorching the pigs are carried into the dressing- 

 room, hung up on hooks, and scraped by means of a sort 



