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THE COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS 

 OF THE SEA. 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



Importance of marine products — Uses of the animals — Number of species 

 of fishes — French bounty on fisheries— Statistics of British fisheries — Fish 

 as an article of food — Definition of "prime " and " offal " in the London 

 market — Quantity of fish brought to London — Value of fish and other 

 marine products imported — Value of exports — Statistics of British, French, 

 and North American fisheries — French fisheries, and consumption of fish 

 in Paris — Value of the trade in fish in foreign countries. 



The commercial products obtained from the sea are 

 more numerous and important than would be generally 

 supposed by those who have not looked closely into the 

 subject. The huge marine mammals furnish us with valu- 

 able oil, skins, whalebone, spermaceti, ambergris, etc., as 

 well as food to some tribes. The utility of fishes, properly 

 so called, to man is not very various. For the most part, 

 they serve only as food ; but in this respect they are of the 

 utmost importance to a great part of the human race, who 

 live only on this class of animals. Some savage nations 

 possess the art of preparing fish in a great variety of ways, 

 even as a kind of flour and bread. Fish are also salted and 



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