THE HARVEST OF THE TROPIO SEAS. 
The Harvest of the Tropic Seas. 
By CHARLES HEDLEY. 
Where soil is good and rainfall ample, the product of the earth 
depends on temperature, becoming richer as the climate grows warmer. 
Naught but moss and lichen is afforded to the hardy reindeer by the 
desolate hills of the Arctic, while the fields of the tropics produce spice 
and sugar, oil, breadfruit, and bananas. The maximum of human food 
per acre is obtained in the equatorial zone. 
But this rule does not apply to the sea. The most fish, the best fish, 
the largest fish occur in the cold latitudes of Norway, Scotland, Iceland, 
NATIVE STANDING ON “NIGGERHEAD.” 
and Labrador. The herring and the cod supply more human food per 
sea mile than any other fish, On the reverse side of the globe, it is 
recognised that fish are more abundant and of better quality in New 
Zealand or Tasmania than in Australia. 
The reason of this has not been fully explained; probably it is due 
to the relative abundance in warmer waters of bacteria which consume 
nitrogen. The activity of these unfriendly bacteria would starve the 
eh life of the sea, and by so much the plant diet of fishes would be 
reduced. 
But though as a source of food for fishes the tropical seas are 
inferior to cooler waters, they provide humanity with many desirable 
gifts. The warm, shallow, island-studded seas that fringe the shores of 
C.18302.—8 465 
