336 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



There is a fish custom-house at Zanzibar, and a regular 

 salt fish market, where the fish is sold wholesale, fetching 

 on an average 12s. per cwt. It is afterwards retailed to 

 the working population at about 2d. per lb. Dried fish 

 is the staple animal food of the poor and labouring 

 population there, both free and slave ; it is either grilled 

 or cooked with a little roughly prepared curry, and served 

 as a relish with the evening meal of rice, or more com- 

 monly meal porridge, in every hut and cottage, two or 

 three ounces sufficing for each person. Any other 

 description of animal food is rarely within the means of 

 natives of the labouring classes, except in the case of 

 those residing on the coast, who at times can procure 

 fresh fish at equally low prices, as well as a great variety 

 of shell fish during the spring tides. There is a consider- 

 able quantity of sharks and small fish cured in the coast 

 villages, principally for home consumption. The price 

 of fresh fish may be considered high, being fully half as 

 much as is paid in London for fish of similar qnality. 

 The octopus is also dried in great quantities by the 

 native fishermen, and being sold at a very low price is 

 largely eaten by the natives. Its use is liable to cause 

 a very unsightly disease. 



The unctuous lumpsucker {Cychpterus lunvpus) is not 

 much used in this country for food, although it is said to 

 be considered a great delicacy in Edinburgh. The roe 

 is remarkably large. When boiled it forms an extremely 

 fat and oily food. The name of sea snail is sometimes 

 given to it, from the soft and unctuous texture of it, 

 resembling that of the land snail. It is almost trans- 

 parent and soon dissolves and melts away. On the 

 shores of Greenland and Kamschatka these fish often 

 attain a foot to eighteen inches in length. The fiesh of 

 the fish, which is soft and oily, is devoured with avidity 

 by the inhabitants of Greenland, who esteem it as highly 

 nutritive and delicious. 



New Zealand Fish. — There occurs in the fresh water 

 lakes of New Zealand a little fish very nearly resembling, 

 both in appearance and flavour, our English whitebait. 



