254 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Food Products of the Sea — Some Fish 

 Delicacies. 



The Harvest of the Sea — Nutritive Value of Fish — The Office of 

 the Food Taster — A Chinese Fish Dinner — An American 

 Fish Dinner — Supply of Fish to London — Imports of Fish in 

 the United Kingdom — Supply of Birmingham, Dublin, etc. 

 — Imports of European States — Supply to New York — Com- 

 mercial Classification — The Cod Family — Statistics of the 

 Fisheries — Norwegian Fisheries — Capelin — Fish Flour and 

 Bread, Extracts, and Other Preparations — Fish Sauces — 

 Flat Fish — Soles, Turbot, Plaice, etc. — Herrings — Extent of 

 the Fisheries — Pilchards — Whitebait — Fish Supply of Paris 

 — Statistics of the French Fisheries — Sardines — Anchovies — 

 Skates — Mackerel — Mullet — Tunny — Conger Eels — Fresh 

 Water Eels — Large Consumption in Italy. 



There is a great difference in the production of animal 

 food on land and in the sea. Poultry, game, and live 

 stock derive their food from the produce of the earth ; 

 but the produce of the sea fisheries, whether fish, Crus- 

 tacea, or shell fish, can be obtained in illimitable quan- 

 tities by the sole resources of the sea, and at little or no 

 expense to man. In respect of fish, no natural causes 

 prevent their co-existence, in the greatest abundance, 

 with man in the highest state of civilisation and refine- 

 ment, in the midst of the greatest agricultural and 

 manufacturing opulence. 



The fishery has over agriculture one great advantage 

 — nature alone is charged with sowing the field which 

 the fisherman reaps. The products of the sea, like those 

 of the land, enter largely into the food resources of man. 

 The fisheries supply our markets for daily consumption, 

 and also furnish to commerce articles for export. The 

 fisheries have their regional coasts, which are regularly 



