K 



CHAPTER XXVIIL 



Pisces {Fishes), 

 Continued. 



As the innate selfishness of our hearts always prompts 

 the question, cui bono ? — it may be as well to commence 

 this chapter with a few particulars of the usefulness of 

 Fishes in ministering to our bodily wants. The value of 

 fish as an article of human food has been appreciated in 

 all nations and all ages. The earliest pictorial records of 

 Egyptian every-day life are largely occupied with the cap- 

 ture and preservation of these animals; various forms of 

 nets, the fish-spear, the hook and line, are all in requisi- 

 tion; and strings of fishes, split and salted, and hung out 

 to dry, remind us of scenes familiar enough to the writer 

 of these pages — the cod-fisheries of Newfoundland. Al- 

 lusions to the hook and line occur in the most ancient of 

 writings — the Book of Job; and, in the Mosaic law, 

 " whatsoever hath fins and scales in the seas and in the 

 rivers" was freely given to Israel for food. The most 

 remote and savage tribes feed largely on a fish diet; and 

 the ingenious devices and implements employed by the 

 islanders of the Pacific Archipelago far exceed in variety, 



