PISHES. 
263 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
Pisces (Fishes'). 
Continued. 
As the innate selfishness of our hearts always prompts 
the question, cui hono ? — it may bo 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 arc largely occupied with the cap- 
ture and preservation of these animals; vai'ious 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, romind 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, 
