FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA — FISHES. 255 



fished, and their great seas which are explored, and have 

 the distinction applied according to the field worked, the 

 different means employed, and the capital required. It is 

 the coast or the sea fisheries, as we speak of small or large 

 farms, when treating of the soil. In the one case, it is 

 the nature of the banks or depths and the instincts of 

 the fish which have to be studied ; in the other, the com- 

 position of the earth and the requirements of plants. 



This is found to be true at the present time in a 

 better appreciation of the grand industry of the waters, 

 as shown by the coining and adoption of two new words 

 now applied to the fisheries, aquiculftire and piscimltvre. 

 Hence the fishery is the agriculture of the sea; and 

 science has now consecrated the use of this definition, 

 which is not new, but which had for a long time wanted 

 application. 



Every sea and every marine shore has its special in- 

 habitants, and the main point is, to ascertain how far 

 these may be made to subserve the wants of man. 



The number of savoury species of fish is so great, that 

 there are few persons so fastidious as not to be satisfied 

 with some one or more kinds of fish. 



Man treats with carelessness and neglect a food supply 

 sufficient for the sustenance of millions — perhaps 

 hundreds of millions — of human lives. Enormous 

 quantities of food-fishes are given the go-by altogether. 

 Numberless species, which are both palatable and 

 nutritious, are left untouched. 



That the sea and the lakes and the rivers already teem 

 with fish suitable for human food, and that vast districts 

 of the earth's surface which are covered with water are 

 capable of being made fo produce food equal in nutri- 

 ment and money value to the product of the same num- 

 ber of acres of land, scarcely admits of a doubt Nearly 

 all the species of fish are edible, and those only are 

 refused which are absolutely poisonous, or the flesh of 

 which has a disagreeable flavour. 



The value of fish as an article of food is very generally 

 under-estimated. In many parts of the world, and 



