4. Sponge showing the Outgoing Water-currents 5. Outer Surface of different kinds of Sponge 6. Cup-shaped Sponges in natural position, rooted to rock 7. Varieties of Sponges 156 166 169 181 20. Saw used by Natives for cutting Segments of the Shell 290 21. Segment of Shell, and Bangle, or Ornamented Bracelet of United Segments... 22. 1. Money Cowry. 2. Ovulum angulosum. 3. Dentalium Shell (Money of West Coast Indians). 4. Fillet of Nautilus Shells 291 296 FIG. 23. Pinna nobilis, and Pinna rugosa 24. 25. Varieties of Seaweed Ulva latissima (Green Sloke), and Chondrus crispus (Carrageen 30. Corallium nobilis, or red Coral, with a piece magnified, showing the Polypes 31. Varieties of Coral PAGE 307 316 319 352 364 384 411 437 440 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 valuable 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 B dried, smoked and potted, preserved in oil, and pounded into a dry mass. In Catholic countries the consumption of fish during their fasts and festivals is very large; all other food being then prohibited by their priests. To a great part of the civilized world the taking of the herring, the pilchard, the mackerel, the cod, the tunny, the salmon, the sardine, and other fishes is of great value, and gives employment to many hundreds of persons. The oil obtained from the shark, cod, herring, and other fish is used for lamps, medicine, and in industry. Many parts of fish are employed in the arts and manufactures-as the scales of the bleak for making false pearls, and those of other fish for making ornaments; the skins for tanning and other purposes. Isinglass is obtained from the air or swimming bladders of many. Fish roes are not only used as food delicacies, but also for bait in the fishing grounds. Fish maws, shark's fins, and bèche-de-mer or trepang (a species of Holothuria) are considered great food delicacies by the Chinese, forming the chief ingredients for their gelatinous soups. The sea is more abundantly stocked with living creatures than the land. In all parts of the world a rocky and partially protected shore perhaps supports, in a given space, a greater number of individual animals than any other station. The sea is filled with animals of several kinds, and each layer of water in depth seems to have its own varieties, thus resembling the changes which take place according to elevation in the organized portions of the land. The animals are among the mightiest and among the smallest. There are swimming beasts, as whales, seals, and walruses; there are fishes of various kinds and sizes, |