ON THE COOKING OF FISH. 279 



workaday world of scientific naturalists and others — 

 viz. what do we do with them ? what do they yield ? 

 and what ought they to yield ? 



Is the land more naturally prolific than the water ? 

 Assuredly not. Two, or twenty, or two hundred acres 

 of water will produce douhle the weight of animal food 

 that tw9, twenty, or two hundred acres of land will, if 

 as carefully tilled, and with this strikiag difference — ■ 

 that in the case of the production, as regards land, 

 there are very heavy working and other expenses ; 

 in the case of water there are comparatively few. 

 Fish, even if left to themselves, wiU eat and grow, 

 and nature will provide the means of sustenance, 

 without either bams or stables, teams or fences, seeds 

 or farming, implements, or even draining ; nay, in this 

 instance, draining, (if one felt inclined to make a grim 

 joke) might be held decidedly injurious, as indeed is 

 another rather large item in farming, viz. manures. 

 Nor will fish property be subject to panics and con- 

 vulsions. No one will speculate for a rise in 

 carp, turbot, or trout; no treaties of reciprocity 

 can well give away our inland fisheries ; and 

 those of commerce wiU not put all sorts of internal 

 or external ad valorem, or prohibitory, or any other 

 duties upon them — at least I hope not. They are 

 our own produce, and worth so much per pound in 



