212 The National Geographic Magazine 



longer delayed, depletion was inevitable. 

 Population is increasing rapidly, and the 

 demand for sea-food is increasing even 

 at a greater ratio. 



As a result of improved methods of 

 canning, salting, smoking, freezing, or 

 otherwise preserving, not only are the 

 well-known food-fishes put upon the 

 market in many new and attractive 

 forms, thus greatly increasing the de- 

 mand for them, but methods for the 

 utilization of species hitherto regarded 

 as useless are being discovered every 

 year. 



WIIvIv OUR FISHING GROUNDS BECOME 

 EXHAUSTED ? 



The marvelous increase in the facili- 

 ties for distribution has widened the 

 field and enormously increased the de- 

 mand for the food products of the sea. 

 Fresh oysters, clams, lobsters, shad, 

 rockfish,and mackerel from the Atlantic 

 coast ; oysters, crabs, shrimps, and red 

 snappers from the Gulf coast ; and lake 

 trout, pike perch, and whitefish from 

 the Great Takes, now find their way 

 daily in their season into every state 

 and territory of the Union ; while the 

 Pacific coast and Alaska send fresh 

 halibut, steelhead trout, and royal Chi- 

 nook salmon all over the United States 

 and to Europe, the fish reaching their 

 destination as fresh and sweet as when 



taken from the Columbia or the ic} 7 

 waters of Alaska. 



To expect unaided Nature to keep 

 pace with this ever-increasing demand 

 for aquatic products is as unreasonable 

 as it would be to expect the uncultivated 

 land to meet the demand for grains and 

 fruits and the butcher's food. 



Cultivation of the coastal and interior 

 waters is as possible and imperative as 

 is cultivation of the land, and promises 

 quite as rich returns. An acre of water 

 can be made even more productive than 

 an acre of land. On land, the producing 

 area is a surface, but the total producing 

 area of a body of water is many times 

 the superficial area of its bottom. Dr 

 Brooks of Johns Hopkins University, 

 whom no one would ever charge with 

 being a dreamer, says that the time will 

 surely come when the oyster harvest of 

 Chesapeake Bay each year will be fully 

 equal to the total harvest of the last 

 50 years. 



Oyster culture and fish culture are 

 still in their infancy, and I am con- 

 vinced that the time is not far distant 

 when, through fish-cultural operations, 

 the annual catch of each of many of our 

 important food-fishes, particularly the 

 shad on the Atlantic coast and the 

 salmon on the Pacific coast and in 

 Alaska, will be many times greater 

 than it has been in the past. 



Vice-Admiral Makaroff, whose tragic 

 death on April 13 is much deplored, 

 during recent years was one of the 

 most prominent figures in the geo- 

 graphic world. His plan for reaching 

 or getting near to the North Pole by 

 means of his ice-breaker Yermak was 

 original, and while the one test given 

 was unsuccessful, the plan was not dis- 

 proved. A summer's experience with 

 the polar pack in 1901 showed that the 

 vessel could crush a way successfully 



through one-year-old ice, but that it 

 was helpless against older and thicker 

 floes. The test showed that vessels of 

 the Yermak type would be extremely 

 useful in helping to explore the Arctic 

 coast of Asia. It has also made many 

 believe that while the type is not adapted 

 for polar work north of Europe and 

 Asia, it might prove more successful 

 by the American, or Smith Sound route, 

 where conditions are generally quite 

 different. 



