General Introduction. 17 



In the port of Okhotz, Siberia, fish is almost the only 

 food of the inhabitants, flour and groceries being unheard- 

 of luxuries, and meat very scarce. Even the cattle and 

 poultry are fed on fish. 



The general idea that the Southern Australian seas are 

 inferior in piscatory resources to the colder waters of 

 Europe seems to be wholly unfounded. At proper seasons 

 of the year, and when reasonable precautions have been 

 taken and the close months observed, the creeks and 

 estuaries are leaping with fish. 



In Victoria, not only around the great inland sea-lake 

 of Port Phillip, for the sustenance of the crowded popula- 

 tion of the capital, but in outlying ports and sequestered 

 coves, families, singly and in clusters, draw their whole 

 subsistence from the fisheries. The total number of fishing 

 boats belonging to the Hobson's Bay district amounts to 

 nearly 500, and all of them are busily employed. 



Let us glance briefly at the statistics of the value of 

 some of the principal fisheries. The Norwegian fisheries 

 bring in to the hardy Northerners not less than ;£'3,200,ooo 

 per annum, a magnificent sum for a country possessing a 

 population of barely 2,000,000 souls. In Russia the pro- 

 ducts of the fisheries are estimated at ;^3,5oo,ooo ; in 

 Denmark they bring in about £"160,000; and the value of 

 those of France reach about ;£'3,5oo,ooo. 



The take of the French fisheries for 1873 was thus 

 officially returned : — 



