352 Supply of Fish in Great Britain. 
Continent the average depth of the German ocean is ninety 
feet. One-fifth of it is occupied by banks which are always 
being added to by the muddy deposits of the rivers of both 
countries. In extent they are equal to the superficial 
area of Ireland. To these banks the animals of ‘the ocean 
chiefly resort, and this great and prolific field is free to the 
industry of all. 
The produce of the sea around our coasts bears a far 
higher proportion to that of the land than is generally 
imagined. The most frequented fishing grounds are much 
more prolific of food than the same extent of the richest 
land. Once in the year an acre of good land carefully 
tilled produces a ton of corn, or two or three cwts. of meat 
or cheese. The same area at the bottom of the sea on the 
best fishing grounds yield a greater weight of food to the 
persevering fisherman every week in the year. Five ves- 
sels belonging to the same owner, in a single night’s fish- 
ing, brought in seventeen tons weight of fish, an amount 
of wholesome food equal in weight to that of 50 cattle or 
300 sheep. The ground which these vessels covered dur- 
ing the night’s fishing could not have exceeded an area of 
fifty acres. 
When we consider the amount of care that has been 
bestowed on the improvement of agriculture, the national 
societies which are established for promoting it, and the 
scientific knowledge and engineering skill which have been 
enlisted in its aid, it seems strange that the sea fisheries 
have hitherto attracted so little of the public attention. 
There are few means of enterprise that present better 
chances of profit than our sea fisheries, and no object of 
greater utility could be named than the development of 
enterprise, skill, and mechanical ingenuity which might be 
elicited by the periodical exhibitions and publications of 
an influential society specially devoted to the British 
fisheries. 
