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31

olin,anx

Animal Food Resourges of Different Hations.

THE
Animal Food Resources of Different Nations,

WITH MENTION OF SOME OF THE
.

SPECIAL DAINTIES OF VARIOUS PEOPLE DERIVED FROM
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

BY

PL. SIMMONDS,

Author of “A Dictionary of Useful Animals,” The Commercial
Products of the Sea,’ ete.

“ There’s no want of meat, Sir;
Portly and curious viands are prepared
To please all kinds of appetite.”
MASSINGER.

“ A very fantastical banquet,

Just so many strange dishes.” ’
SHAKESPEARE,
ae aaa)
LONDON:

E. & F. N. SPON, 125, STRAND.
NEW YORK: 35, MURRAY STREET.

1885.
Xu

LONDON :
PRINTED BY WERTHEIMER, LEA AND CO.,
CIRCUS PLACE, LONDON WALL.

PREFACE,

——+. >

A QUARTER of a century ago I published a work
on “ The Curiosities of Animal Food,” based chiefly on
a Lecture I had delivered at a Literary Institution.
Although the volume merely dealt cursorily with the
wide subject in a popular point of view, it was favour-
ably received and much quoted by various eminent
scientific authors, writing on the Food question. That
book has, like. many of my other works, long been out
of print.

The subject, however, of the Animal Food supply
has since then risen into great importance. Having
given much attention to this matter, I have endeavoured
to condense into the present volume a large amount of
practical and useful information not generally accessible,
combined at the same time with some pleasant reading.

P. L. SIMMONDS.

85, FinBorouGeH Roan,
SoutH KENSINGTON. |
February, 1885.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL.
PAGE
Manan Omnivorous Animal—Some Eastern Nations eschew
Animal Food—Varieties of Food pf Different People
—Man the only Cooking Animal—Variable Food in
Different Ages and Climates—Less Animal Food
Eaten in Tropical Regions than in Temperate and
Arctic Regions—Various Food Delicacies—A Chinese
Dinner—Wild American Animals as Food—Marrow
—Tinned or Preserved Meats—Statistics of Imports
of Animal Food from America—Charqui—Dried and
Jerked Meats of Different Countries—Pastoormah—
Dendeng—Frozen Carcases—Choice Morsels held in
Special Estimation—Value of our Imports of Animals
and Animal Products for Food in 1883—Advance in
Prices—Meat Consumption in France—Meat Pro-
duction and Consumption in Russia—United States
Consumption—Mutton despised in many Countries—
Large Consumption in Great Britain—Slaughter of
Sheep in Buenos Ayres—Goais’ Flesh very little
Eaten—Our Foreign Supplies of Animal Food—
Average Individual Consumption—Value of Cheese
as Food—Imports of Butter and Cheese from Abroad
—Diseased Meat as Food—Not considered to be In-
jurious—German Legislation thereon — Extensive
Use of Animals which have Died by a large Low-
Caste Population in India—M. Decroix’s Personal
Experience of a Quarter of a Century Feeding on
the Flesh of Diseased Animals—Medical Evidence
taken on this Subject before the Irish Cattle Trade
Defence Association—Diseased Lung of a Bullock
aa and Eaten—Opinion of the Lancet on Diseased
eat ‘ ‘ 3 é 4 : . .

Vili

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER II.

A Few Worps oN CANNIBALISM.

Flesh of Whites not esteemed—Statements of Old Chro-

niclers on the Practice of Cannibalism in Europe,.—

Asia, and America—Assertions of Modern Travellers
—Evidences of Shipwrecked Sailors and Others—
Cannibalism Common in the Pacific Islands and
Australia, especially in the Fiji Islands—Evidence
of many Writers—Practised also in Islands of the
Eastern Archipelago, Celebes, Sumatra, Malacca—
Many African Tribes Anthropophagi—Statements of
Sir 8. Baker, Bruce. Captain Cameron, P. du Chaillu,
Thompson, and Layland . : . : 3 :

CHAPTER III.

FiesH Foop From MamMat.s.

Flesh of Monkeys Eaten in Africa, the West Indies, South

America, Ceylon, and Borneo—The Lemurs in Mada-
gascar—Bats Eaten in the East and in Australia—
Insectivora— The Hedgehog — Carnivorous Planti-
grades—Bears—Skunk—Badger—Sea Otter—Civet
Cat—Dogs’ Flesh Eaten by North American Indians,
Chinese, Africans, and other People—Foxes and
Wolves Eaten —Lion’s Flesh—Jaguar — Hyena—
Lynx—Carnivorous Marsupials—Opossums—Bandi-
coots—Kangaroos — Wombats — Phalangers — Mar-
mots—Squirrels—Rats—Rat Pie—Dormouse—Hares
and Rabbits—Prodigious Increase of Rabbits in
Australasia—Flesh of the Beaver —Porcupines—
Agouti—Sloth—Anteater—Armadilloes

CHAPTER IV.

FLesH Foop rrom MamMats.— Continued.

Pachyderms — Elephants — Hippopotami— Rhinoceros—

Tapir—Peccary — Swine — Immense Numbers in
North America—Our Large Imports of Bacon, Hams,
etc., from the United States—Wild Boars—Statistics
of Swine in Various Countries—Consumption of
Pork in France—Horseflesh Eaten in China, Europe,

PAGE

40

54

CONTENTS. ix

PAGE
and America—Statistics of Horses—Increase of Con-
sumption of Horseflesh in Europe *—Asses and Mules
also Eaten—Quagga and Zebra—The Ruminants—
Statistics of Horned Cattle over the World—Con-
sumption in the United Kingdom—Average Weights
in Different Countries—Beef Imported into England
—Quantity Sold in the London Markets—Average
Prices—Buffaloes—Statistics of Sheep in Various
Countries—Large Imports of Carcases from New
Zealand—Imports of Sheep to the London Markets
and Comparative Prices—Average Weight of Dif-
ferent Kinds of Sheep—Goats’ Flesh—Flesh of the
Camel Tribe—Alpaca—Giraffe—Ven'son—Reindeer
—Moose or Elk—Antelopes—Eland—Bison—Marine
Mammals—Whales—Seals—Sea Lion—Sea Elephant
—Walrus—Dugongs—Dolphins—Porpoises__.. ; 82

CHAPTER V.
FLesH Foop FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES.

Buzzard, Kite, and other Birds of Prey Haten—Beccafico
—Guacharo—Larks — Thrushes—Blackbirds—Bunt-
ings—Fried Canaries—Starlings—Rooks—Ortolans—
Edible Birds’ Nests—Statistics of Supply—Parrots—
Toucans—Domestic Poultry—Fowls in Egypt and
Morocco—Weight of Different Fowls—Statistics of
Poultry in the United Kingdom—in France—in
Austria—in the United States—Value of the Poultry
Imported from Abroad—Turkeys—Christmas Sup-
plies—Statistics of Turkeys in France—Wild Tur-
keys of America—Peacocks—Formerly Served at
Royal Banquets—Bustards—Partridges—Game Birds
Consumed in Great Britain—Snipes—Woodcocks—
Grouse— Pheasants — Capercailzie— Game Birds of
Sweden—Prairie Hens—Kuffs, Reeves, and Godwits
—Quails—Game Pies of France—Patés de Foies
Gras—Tragopans—Pigeons, Domestic and Wild—

* While this work was passing through the Press (but too late for
notice in its proper place), an important article has appeared in the
“Bulletin of the Société d’Acclimation,” Paris, for August, 1884,
p, 617, by M. Decroix, giving a résumé of the consumption of horses,
asses and mules in France from 1876 to 1883, accompanied also by
numerous recipes for cooking horseflesh in various ways. "

x CONTENTS.

PAGE
Ostrich Meat—Flamingoes, Cranes, and Herons—
Ducks and Geese—Statistics of in France—Wild
Geese—Swans—Plovers—Teal—Canvas-back Ducks
—Pelicans—Penguins. : 3 : 2 F 7 134

CHAPTER VI.
Eceos or Various Kinps as Foop.

Eggs of Domestic Poultry—Nutritive Value and Chemis-
try of Eggs—Average Weight of Eggs—Quantity and
Values of our Imports of Eggs—Range of Prices—
Number of Eggs Received from France—Estimated
by Weight on the Continent —Testing Eggs — Egg
Traffic of the United States and Canada—Prices—
Condensed Eggs — Various Modes of Preserving
Eggs—Pickled Eggs—Haster Eggs—Ostrich Eggs—
Emeu Eggs—Plovers’ and Lapwings’ Eggs—Eggs of
Sea Fowl— Gulls — Terns — Penguins — Petrel —
Albatross—Eggs of Reptiles—Turtles—Land Tor-
toises — Alligators— Lizards’ Eggs— Snakes’ Eggs—
Insects’ Eggs—Fish Spawn—Cod Roe—Herrings’ |
Eggs—Sturgeon Caviare—Modes of Preparing—Roe
of Sandre, Bream and Mullet—Fish-bread from Roes.
—Mode of Eperseauon: Eee of Crustacea—Lobster
Spawn : . 184

CHAPTER VII.
REPTILES, SNAKES, AND AMPHIBIANS EaTEN aS Foop.

Turtles and Tortoises—Land, Marsh, River and Sea Tor-
toises—Flesh Largely Eaten in Various Countries—
Terrapins of America Great Food Delicacies—Turtle
Soup and Dried Turtle Flesh—Sources of Supply of
Turtle — Recipes for Cooking Turtle — Flesh of
Loggerhead Turtle not Good—Crocodiles and Alli-
gators Eaten- Lizards Eaten—Monitors—Iguanas—
Snakes Eaten in Many Countries—Snake Wine—
Amphibians—Frogs Eaten in Europe, America, and
Asia—Modes of Catching Them—Recipes for Cook-
ing Them—Salamander mad Axolotl Eaten . . 216

CONTENTS. xi

CHAPTER VIII.

Foop Propucts or THE Sza—SomeE Fiso DELIcAcies.
PAGE
The Harvest of the Sea—Nutritive Value of Fish—The
Office of the Food Taster—A Chinese Fish Dinner—
An American Fish Dinner—Supply of Fish to Lon-
don—Imports of Fish in the United Kingdom—
Supply of Birmingham, Dublin, ete.—Imports of
European States—Supply to New York—Commer-
cial Classification—The Cod Family—Statistics of
the Fisheries—Norwegian Fisheries—Capelin—Fish
Flour and Bread, Extracts, and Other Preparations
—Fish Sauces—Flat Fish — Soles, Turbot, Plaice,
etc.—Herrings—Extent of the Fisheries—Pilchards
—Whitebait—Fish Supply of Paris—Statistics of the
French Fisheries— Sardines— Auchovies—Skates—
Mackerel — Mullet — Tunny—Conger Eels — Fresh
Water Eels—Large Consumption in Italy—Minnows 254

CHAPTER IX.
Foop Propucts oF THE Sza—Fisuus— Continued.

Fisheries of Sweden—Of Roumania—Lampreys—Stur-
geons — Balyk — Mode of Preparing — Russian
Fisheries—Fisheries of Tunis—Of Egypt and West
African Coasts—Indian Fisheries—Choice Fish—
Statistics of Imports and Exports—Trade in Sharks’
Fins and Fish-maws — Bonito — Gourami— Fish of ~
Guadaloupe—Consumption of Fish in West Indies— f
Barbados—Jamaica—Honduras—Sharks as Food—
Their Flesh Eaten in Various Countries—Swordfish
— Oulachans, Large Fishery for— Carp Family —
Trout and Salmon—Statistics of British Trade in—
Salmon Fisheries of Canada—Tinned Salmon, Enor-
mous Trade in—Halibut—North American Fisheries
—Fish Preserved in Ice—White Fish (Coregonus)
and other Lake Fish— Flying Fish —Consumption
of Fish in Zanzibar—New Zealand Fish—Tasmanian
Fish—Fish of Ceylon, China, and the Indian Seas—

Of Japan—Brazilian Fish—Fish of River Plate and
Paraguay . 4 : 7 3 . ‘ , : 302

xil

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.

Various Insects Eaten as Foon.

Cockchafers or Vers Blane Eaten—Modes of Cooking—

Bees and Ants Eaten —Cossus of the Ancients —
Gru-grus or Palmworms — Caterpillars — Tobacco
Worms — Locusts — Extensive Use of Locusis in
Africa, Asia, and America—Various Modes of Cook-
ing—Termites Eaten in India and Africa—Silkworm
Chrysalids Red Ants—Honey— Statistics of Pro-
duction—Lerp and Trehalose_. : ‘ F

CHAPTER XI.

PAGE

ANIMAL Foop FURNISHED BY THE CRUSTACEANS AND

Mo.vusca.

Lobsters—Chemical Composition of the Lobster—Trade

in, from Norway and Sweden—American Lobster
Trade—Canned Lobsters—Cape Lobsters—Lobster
Fisheries on the American Shores—Shrimps, varieties
of — Prawns — Dried Shrimps— Feasting on Live
Shrimps—Crayfish—Crabs, varietiés of—Land Crabs
—Mollusca—Univalves—EKdible Snails—Limpets —
Whelks—Periwinkles—Haliotids, or Ear-shells

CHAPTER XII.

|

347

. 376

ANIMAL Foop FURNISHED BY THE MOLLUSCA AND RaDIATA.

Bivalves—Cockles—Oysters, Classification and Varieties

of — Statistics of French Production — Magnitude
of American Oyster Trade—Green Oysters—Ship-
ments of Oysters in Barrels and Cans — Statistics
of American Production — Canadian Oysters —
Scallops — Razor-fish — Clams, varieties of — Clam
Bake Feasts in the United States— Other Species
of Mollusks, Tapes, Venus, Pholas, &c.—Mussels—
French Trade in—British Consumption—Zoophytes,
Actinia—Modes of Cooking—Curious Fish Dinner
—Cephalopods, Sepia, Octopi, Squids, Sea-Urchins
—Trepang or Beche-de-Mer —Varieties of — Large
Consumption of in China—Indian Exports—Leeches
and Worms Eaten ‘ : F , ‘

411

by

THE

Animal Food Resourses of Different Hations.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL.

Man an Omnivorous Animal—Some Eastern Nations eschew

Animal Food—Varieties of Food of Different People—Man
the only Cooking Animal—Variable Food in Different Ages
and Climates—Less Animal Food Eaten in Tropical Regions
than in Temperate and Arctic Regions—Various Food Deli-
cacies—A Chinese Dinner—Wild American Animals as Food
—Marrow—Tinned or Preserved Meats—Statistics of Imports
of Animal Food from America — Charqui — Dried and
Jerked Meats of Different Countries — Pastoormah —
Dendeng—Frozen Carcases—Choice Morsels held in Special
Estimation—Value of our Imports of Animals and Animal
Products for Food in 1883—Advance in Prices—Meat Con-
sumption in France—Meat Production and Consumption in
Russia — United States Consumption — Mutton Despised in
many Countries — Large Consumption in Great Britain —
Slaughter of Sheep in Buenos Ayres—Goats’ Flesh very little
Eaten—Our Foreign Supplies of Animal Food—Average In-
dividual Consumption— Value of Cheese as Food—Imports of
Butter and Cheese from Abroad—Diseased Meat as Food—
Not considered to be Injurious — German Legislation
thereon—Extensive Use of Animals which have Died by a
large Low-Caste Population in India—M. Delcroix’s Per-
sonal Experience of a Quarter of a Century Feeding on the
‘Flesh of Diseased Animals—Medical Evidence taken on this
Subject before the Irish Cattle Trade Defence Association—
Diseased Lung of a Bullock Cooked and Eaten—Opinion of
the Lancet on Diseased Meat.

‘PROFESSOR OWEN has well observed that— Whatever
the animal kingdom can afford for our food or clothing,
for our tools, weapons, or ornaments—whatever the lower

B

2 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

creation can contribute to our wants, our comforts, our
passions, or our pride, that we sternly exact and take at
all cost to the producers. No creature is too bulky or
formidable for man’s destructive energies; none too
minute and insignificant for his keen detection and
skill of capture. It was ordained from the beginning
that we should be the masters and subduers of all in-
ferior animals.” ;

Our range of food already is specially wide and varied.
All the world is laid under tribute to supply our tables,
and we are learning to imitate or improve on the culi-
nary processes of every nation and every age. In Europe
and in America—aye, and we may also add in the far
East—men have hunted high and low, on land, in the
air, and in the sea, to obtain a variety of food, and this
not only in times of war and famine, but when peace and
plenty reigned. Not only will men have variety, but
they will have it at every meal. There are not, perhaps,
ten people in a thousand who eat a single meal consist-
ing of only one article, provided they can get variety.
Science has taught us that as in nature clay produces
one plant and sand another, so man also requires a
variety of food to provide for all the elements of which
he is made. Other creatures are generally restricted to
one sort of provender at most. They are carnivorous,
piscivorous, or something-ivorous, but man is the uni-
versal eater.

He pounces with the tiger upon the kid, with the hawk |-,-,--

upon the dove, and upon the herring with the cormorant.
He goes halves with the bee in the honey-cell, but turns
upon his partner and cheats him out of his share of the
produce. He grubs up the root with the sow, devours
the fruit with the earwig, and demolishes the leaves with
the caterpillar; for all these several parts of the members
of the vegetable kingdom furnish him. with food. Life
itself will not hinder his appetite, nor decay nauseate his
palate ; for he will as soon devour a lively young oyster
as demolish the fungous produce of a humid field. This
propensity is, indeed, easily abused ; viands of such incon-

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 3

gruous nature and heterogeneous substances are sometimes
collected as to make an outrageous amalgamation, so that
an alderman at a City feast might make one shudder ;
but this is too curious an investigation—it is the abuse
of abundance too, and we know that abuse is the origin
of all evil. This fact should lead us to another point,
the appreciation of goodness and beneficence. The adap-
tation of external nature has often been insisted on—
the adaptation of men to all circumstances, states, and
conditions is carrying out the idea. The inferior animals
are tied down, even by the narrowness of their animal
necessities, to a small range of existence; but man can
seldom be placed in any circumstances in which his
universal appetite cannot be appeased. From the naked
savage snatching a berry from the thorn, to the well-
clad, highly-civilised denizen of the town, surrounded by
every comfort, every luxury; from the tired traveller
who opens his wallet and produces his oaten cake beside
the welling lymph which is to slake his thirst, to the
pursy justice, “in fair round belly with good capon
lined,” who spreads the damask napkin on his knees,
tucks his toes under the table, and revels in calipee and
calipash—what an infinite diversity of circumstances !

The Word of God tells us: “Every moving thing
that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green
herb have I given you ail things.” Still Animal food
igs even now but sparingly used in Eastern countries,
and by some nations held in utter abhorrence. All great
legislators of the Orient have, moreover, forbidden the
use of certain animals which they call unclean. Moses,
Manu, and Mahomet proscribed them alike. Buddhism
makes the killing of a living animal sinful. Nor does
any nation on earth yet subsist on Animal food only ; even
the lowest in the scale of civilisation, those who live as
fishermen and hunters, mix some vegetables with their
diet.

That which characterises especially meat and fish, is
the abundance of nitrogenous matter which can be
assimilated into our tissues, and which conduces to

B2 é

4 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

healthy nourishment, and it is these foods the repro-
duction of which has to be encouraged, for the supply
is at present insufficient, and hence the want is calcu-
lated to injure the health of the people, especially the
labouring classes, whose daily work demands a nutrition
more reparative.

The diversity of substances which we find in the cata-
logue of articles of Food is as great as the variety with
which the art or the science of cookery prepares them;
the notions of the ancients on this most important sub-
ject are worthy of remark. Their taste regarding meat.
‘was various. But they considered it, as we still do, the
most substantial food, hence it constituted the chief
nourishment of their athletes. Camels’ and dromedaries
flesh was much esteemed, their heels more especially.
Donkey flesh was in high repute. Mecenas, according
to Pliny, delighted in it, and the wild ass brought from
Africa was compared to venison. In more modern times
we find Chancellor Dupret having asses fattened for his
table.

The Romans seem to have indulged in as great a
variety of Animal food as the epicures of the present
day. A passage from Macrobius, quoted in Soyer’s “ Pan-
thropheon” furnishes the following menu of a supper
given by the Pontiff Lentulus on the day of his recep-
tion:—* The first course was composed of sea hedgehogs
(Echinus), raw oysters in abundance, all sorts of shell-
fish and asparagus. The second service comprised a fine
fatted pullet, a fresh dish of oysters and other shell-fish,
different kinds of dates, univalve shell-fish (as whelks,
conchs, etc.), more oysters, but of different kinds, sea.
nettles, beccaficoes, chines of wild boar, fowls covered
with a perfumed paste; a second dish of shell-fish and
purples (? lobsters), a very costly kind of crustacea.
The third and last course presented several hors @euvre,
a wild boar’s head, fish, a second set of hors deuvre,
ducks, potted river fish, leverets, roast fowls, and capi-
tones (a large kind of eel) from the marshes of Ancona.”

An eminent French economist justly observes :—‘ A

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 5

population which does not consume meat is not in a
healthy condition; they have in themselves a deplorable
cause of inferiority i in works of strength and of mortality
by diseases.” *

Man is the only animal that cooks, and, indeed, hu-
manity may be said to be divided into two epochs, that
preceding and that following the discovery of cookery.
Pre-historic man resembled savages of the present day,
whether on the Continent of America, in Australia, or
Polynesia, where fish, animals, and loathsome insects are
eaten raw, as a kind of change from fruits. Man was
not, as some savants allege, originally a vegetarian ; the
latter is perhaps an artificial kind of alimentation.:
Brahmins only became frugiferous where agriculture put
within their ak that kind of food. Vegetables are
easily consumed by birds and cattle, because they have
gizzards and paunches—appropriate organs, but wanting
to man ; hence the necessity of the culinary art, to make
rice and millet digestible. But to cook, it was essential
to have fire, and for a long time humanity had not dis-
covered this element. Indeed, it was even a marketable
commodity, and some tribes still carry living embers as
they camp.

Dr. W. Roberts tells us that the changes impressed on
food by cooking form an integral part of the work of
digestion—a part which we of the human race get done
for us by the agency of fire-heat, but a part which the
lower animals are compelled to perform by the labour of
their own digestive organs.

The late Mr. John Crawfurd, in the “ Ethnological
Transactions,” remarks :—“ By his anatomical structure
man is an omnivorous animal, and all the races, when
attainable, will equally consume animal and vegetable
food. A very few, the result of dire necessity, live on
animal food only.such as the Esquimaux, who could not
exist amid ice and snows if they did not. No race lives
exclusively on a vegetable diet, for their position has

* Chevalier, ‘‘ Des forces alimentaires des Etats,” p. 47.

6 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

never rendered a restriction to it indispensable; the
nearest approach to it is probably among the higher
classes of Hindoos, but these are greater consumers of
milk and butter, of vegetable oils and pulses, which con-
tain the same chemical elements as animal food. Some
tropical races, such as the Malays, have been supposed to.
be almost exclusively consumers of fruits and vegetables,
which is not true, for they are large consumers of fish
and of vegetable oils, or of substances containing these
oils, as the cocoanut and ground pea or earth nut.”

A recent writer, speaking of human diet, observes :
“Tt is a remarkable circumstance that man alone is pro-
vided with a case of instruments adapted to the masti-
cation of all substances—teeth to cut and pierce and
champ and grind; a gastric solvent too, capable of con-
tending with anything and everything, raw substances.
and cooked, ripe and rotten, nothing comes amiss to
him.”

If animals could speak, as sop and other fabulists:
make them seem to do, they would declare man the most:
voracious animal in existence. There is scarcely any
liying thing that flies in the air, swims in the sea, or
moves on the land, that is not made to minister to his:
appetite. The daily food, however, varies in different
ages and different climates. Queen Elizabeth and her:
ladies breakfasted on meat, bread and strong ale. Our
modern ladies take tea and coffeé and thin slices of toast
or bread. The Esquimaux drink train oil, and the Cos-:
sacks koumiss, an ardent spirit made from mare’s milk.
The inhabitants of France and Germany eat much more
largely than we do of vegetable diet, and drink at al?
times of the day thin acid wines.

In Devonshire and Herefordshire an acid cider is the
common beverage, and in the Highlands of Scotland
oatmeal porridge is in a great measure the food and.
whisky the drink of the inhabitants. The Irish peasant
lives chiefly on potatoes, and the Hindoo on rice. Yet
all this variety and much more is digested, yields nutri~
ment, and promotes growth ; affording undeniable eyj-

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. we

dence that man is really omnivorous, that he can be
supported by great varieties of food.

In warm climates meat is often poor, dry, insipid and
hard stuff, because perhaps it cannot be kept to render
it in general fit for any man who has not the teeth of a
shark, or the snout of a saw-fish.

In tropical countries Animal food ought to be indulged
in as sparingly as is consistent with the digestive powers ;
for, on the whole, animal food is more easy of digestion
than vegetable; and it may be added (en parenthése) that
the flesh of the mature animal is more easily absorbed
into the human system than that of the young of the
same kind. Thus, five-year old mutton is more whole-
some than lamb; beef than veal; goat than kid. This
may seem strange to those who have never studied the
subject, but the physiologist assures us that such is the
fact. This being so, there was perhaps something of an
unconscious wisdom in that party of sailors who once
drank a bowl of punch on the summit of Pompey’s
Pillar in Egypt, on Christmas Day, in choosing for their
dinner a tough billy-goat, in preference to a younger
animal, for the all-sufficient reason that it took more
“chawing,” and that, consequently, the flavour would
linger on the palate much longer than if it had been less
mature.

Still, while conceding that Animal food is necessary
for the sustentation of human strength and health, it
cannot be denied that an abundant supply of vegetables
is highly beneficial to the great’ omnivore—Man, and
particularly so in tropical climates. There can be no
doubt that a bountiful Providence has adapted the food
of man to his necessities in all climates, so that the pro-
duct of any particular country is best suited to the people
inhabiting it.

Habit, as is well known, will do much in accustoming
the stomach to particular descriptions of food. Many
persons live exclusively, or almost so, on vegetables, others
on animal substances, and particular kinds of diet are
forced on the inhabitants of many regions of the globe;

8 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

but as far as Englishmen are concerned, a due mixture
of vegetable and animal matter is not only most palat-
able, but most conducive to health.

Let us briefly take a preliminary glance at some of
the various articles which different people relish. Be-
sides the local peculiarities of the vegetable and animal
foods which are most abundant and attainable, we have
the influence of those instinctive appetites for particular
articles of food, which certainly exist, however difficult
of explanation they may be. Religious or superstitious
usages are also most important factors in the result in
many instances, although they will not always serve to
explain the abstention from certain perfectly wholesome
and nutritious foods, or the consumption of absolutely
noxious or useless materials like clay. — Professor
Church’s “ Food.”

Sir George Grey, in his “ Travels in Australia,” gives
a graphic account of the food of the Australians, and
particularly tells us of the feast of a whole tribe on a
stranded whale. “It was a sorry sight (he says) to see
a pretty young woman entering the belly of the whale,
then gorging herself with blubber, and issuing forth
anointed from head to foot, and bearing in each hand a
trophy of the delicacy in question.”

A young lady of the Sandwich Islands, even now, will
swallow half a dozen raw mackerel for breakfast, without
the smallest inconvenience to herself.

Sir E. Belcher, in a visit to some Esquimaux at Iey
Cape, found the winter store room under the floor of
their yourt or den, pretty well supplied with a mixture
of reindeer, whale, walrus, seal, swans, ducks, ete., but
none fresh. It was frozen into a solid mass beneath, but
loose from those on the surface, and seemed to be incor-
porated by some unexplained process into a gelatinous
snow, which they scraped up easily with the hand, and
ate with satisfaction, fish and oil predominating. It was
not offensive or putrid. How many years the frozen
mass may have remained there he could not determine,

In North America, fish eyes, the roes of salmon, and

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 9

other small scraps, are buried in the earth by the natives
until putrid, and then eaten cooked or raw. These sub-
stances produce a horrible stench when exposed to the
air. The Chippewa Indians are said to indulge in this
diet.

The Sioux prepare a favourite dish, used at great
feasts, called “ washen-ena,” consisting of dried meat
pulverised and mixed with marrow, and a preparation
of cherries, pounded and sun-dried. This mixture, when
eaten raw or cooked, has an agreeable vinous taste.

The Emperor Napoleon once partook of an African
dinner, with tortoise broth for turtle soup, porcupine,
gazelle, and loin of the wild boar for piéces de resistance,
salmis of Carthaginian hens, antelope cutlets, and
bustards for entrées, an ostrich for a roast, and for side
dishes ostrich eggs in the shell, pomegranate jelly, and
all manner of sweetmeats with unpronounceable names
like “ scerakboracs.” Ostrich, by way of roast chicken,
is however rather tough eating; and we wonder the
Governor, who was his host, did not add a slice or two
of lion to the entrées, and pickled rhinoceros’ foot to the
side dishes. They certainly would digest much better
than Arab sweetmeats, which, with the exception of
“hulwah ” are abominable.

The late Marquis of Compiegne, writing on the tribes of
Equatorial Africa, states that some of them will eat any
substance, however putrid, and he relates that they took
from the river the floating body of a kind of flying squir-
rel (Anoma larus), which had evidently been dead ten or
twelve days and was green and horribly swollen, and
the skin gone. And yet they roasted and ‘ate this dis-
gusting viand, without even disembowelling it,.and con-
sidered it an exquisite repast.

Arabs often eat raw sheep’s liver or kidney, seasoned
only with salt ; some tribes of Bedouins consume other
parts of the sheep in an uncooked state. Others eat
gazelles and horseflesh, but this latter is never an article
of diet of the northern Bedouins.— ,

In Sweden roast reindeer steaks and game are dressed

10 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

in a manner preferable to that which prevails with us,
The flesh is first perforated and little bits of lard in-
serted, and after being baked in an oven, it is served in
a quantity of white sauce. Some of the purely national
dishes, such as lut-fisk on Christmas-eve, are most extra-

ordinary things.
A writer in “Temple Bar,” giving an account of a grand
Chinese dinner of which he partook, says:—‘Some of

the intermediate dishes were shark’s fin; birds’ nests
brought from Borneo (costing nearly a guinea a mouth-
ful) ; fricassee of poodle, a little dog rather like a pig,
except for its head; the fish of the honk shell, an elastic
substance like paxwax or india-rubber, which you might
masticate but could not possibly mash; peacock’s liver,
very fine and recherché; putrid eggs, nevertheless very
good; rice, of course; salted shrimps; baked almonds;
cabbage in a variety of forms; green ginger; stewed
fungi; fresh fish of a dozen kinds; onions ad kbitum ;
salt duck cured like ham, and pig in every form, roast,
boiled, fried: Fouchow ham, which seemed to be equal
to Wiltshire. In fact, the Chinese excel in pork, but
Europeans will rarely touch it, under the superstition
that pigs are fed on babies. Of course a pig will eat a
baby if it finds one, as it will devour a rattlesnake,
but that does not prevent us eating American bacon,
where the pigs run wild in the wood, and feed, from
choice, upon any vermin they can find and are fattened
with garbage. When in the Southern States I got two
magnificent rattlesnakes, and my pigs ate them both.
That did not prevent the pigs being eaten in their turn;
and I think I would as soon eat transmutation of baby-
flesh as of rattlesnake, especially the rattle. But I
believe the whole to be a libel. The Chinese are most.
particular about their swine, and keep them penned up
in the utmost cleanliness and comfort, rivalling the
Dutch in their scrubbing and washing. They grow
whole fields of taro and herbs for their pigs, and I do not
believe that one porker in a million ever tastes a baby.
The whole was cooked without salt, and tasted very

INTRODUCTORY AND: GENERAL. Il

insipid to me. The birds’ nests seemed like glue or isin-
glass; but the cocks’-combs were palatable. The dog
meat was like very delicate gizzard well stewed—a short
close fibre and very tender. The dish which I fancied
the most turned out to be rat; for upon taking a second
help after the first taste, I got the head, and I certainly
felt rather sick upon this discovery. But I consoled
myself by the remembrance that in California we used
often to eat ground-squirrels, which are first cousins to
the flat-tailed rats; and travellers who would know the
world must go in boldly for manners and customs. We
had tortoise and frogs; a curry of the latter was superior
to chicken. We had fowls’ hearts, and brains of some
bird—snipe I think. And the soup which terminated
the repast was surely boiled tripe, or some interior ar-
rangement, and I wished I had halted a little time ago.”

Dr. Macgowan, of Shanghai, tells us that in China
little distinction is made between materia medica, and
materia alimentaria, therapeutic properties being as-
cribed to all articles that are used as food. Nearly all
portions of animals, the human frame included, are
supposed to be efficacious in the treatment of disease.
Some animal substances are macerated in fermented or
distilled liquors, and are termed wines—thus, there are:
mutton wine, dog wine, deer wine, deer-horn wine, tiger-
bone wine, snake wine, and tortoise wine.

In the shops of Hong Kong fat pork chops dried and
varnished to the colour of mahogany are seen suspended
with dry pickled ducks’ gizzards, and strings of sausages.
cured by exposure to the sun.

The diet of the Cochin Chinese is, to European ideas,
often gross and disgusting in a high degree. Dogs’ and
alligators’ flesh, rats, mice, worms, frogs and other rep-
tiles, maggots, entrails, and putrid meats are among
their favourite dishes. Ducks are boiled, and eggs are
not valued until they are rotten or nearly hatched. __

- Fish pickle is their favourite condiment, into which
nearly every morsel they eat is plunged: elephants’
flesh is eaten only by the sovereign and nobility.

12 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

In Java the dried inner skin of the buffalo, as well as
that of the gourami (Osphromenus olfax) and other fish,
are parboiled, and fried or made into a stew.

In Chili the universal dish is the “casuelo,” which con-
sists of boiled chicken, potatoes, onions, carrots, tomatoes,
and eggs, the whole being well seasoned with grease, aji
(a species of capsicum), and a little garlic. The grease
and aji are “ browned ” in an “ olla” and poured over the
dish just at the moment it is served up. In spite of its
incongruous materials, to a hungry stomach this mixture
is far from being despicable.

Horace Greeley, in his “ Letters from the American
Plains,” thus relates the general opinion as to the wild
animals used for food :—“ Buffalo meat I found to be a
general favourite, though my own experience of it makes
it a tough, dry, wooden fibre, only to be eaten under
great provocation. I infer that it is poorer in spring than
at other seasons, and that I have not been fortunate in
cooks. Bear, I was surprised to learn, is not generally
liked by the mountaineers—my companions had eaten
every species, and were not pleased with any. The
black-tailed deer of the mountains is a general favourite ;
so is the mountain-hen, or grouse: so is the antelope, of
course; the elk and mountain-sheep less decidedly so.
None of our party liked horse, or knew any way of
cooking it that would make it really palatable, though,
of course, it has to be eaten occasionally, for necessity
hath no law—or rather, is its own law. Our conductor
had eaten broiled wolf, under compulsion, but could not
recommend it; but he certified that a slice of cold boiled
dog—weil boiled, so as to free it from rankness, and then
suffered to cool thoroughly —is tender, sweet, and delicate
as lamb. I ought to have ascertained the species and age
of the dog in whose behalf this testimony was borne—
for a young Newfoundland or King Charles might -
justify praise, while it would be utterly unwarranted in
the case of an old cur or mastiff—but the opportunity
was lost, and I can only give the testimony as I re-
ceived it.”

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 13

M. Bojir, writing in “ Hooker’s Botanical Miscellany,”
IIL, p. 253, remarks :—“ The principal food delicacy in
Madagascar is the flesh of an unborn and but half-
formed calf, to obtain which they destroy the cows, an
inhuman practice, which, since our visit to Emerina, has
been forbidden by Government.”

Marrow.—The marrow of bones is a dainty at European
dinners, and is esteemed as a luxury even among savages.
The Indians of North America hold it in high estimation,
particularly that of the bones of the buffalo, the elk, the
moose, and the deer. The round bones of these animals
are roasted in the coals or before the fire, then split with
a stone hatchet, and in some cases with a wedge driven
in between the condyles, when the bone has these termi-
nations. The marrow is then scooped out with a piece
of wood in the form of a spoon, and eaten on the instant
by the members of the party seated around the camp
fire.

A feast of this kind can only be fully enjoyed after a
successful hunt, when the marrow is collected in quan-
tity for storing during the hunting season, which occurs
usually twice a year; the bones of the larger animals
are broken into small fragments and boiled in water,
until all the marrow which they contain, and the grease
which adheres to them are separated and rise to the
surface, when they are skimmed off and packed in blad-
ders, or in the muscular coat of the stomach and in the
larger intestines, which have been previously prepared
for this use. Not only is the marrow of the large
bones of the limbs preserved in this manner, but also
that of the vertebral column. The bones of this are
comminuted by pounding them with a stone hammer
similar to those which are occasionally ploughed up
in the Eastern States.

The marrow still warm from the natural heat of the
animal is considered among the Laplanders and the
Greenlanders the greatest delicacy, and a dish of honour
which they offer to strangers and to the employés of
the Government.

14 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Various additions have been made from time to time
to the supply of Animal food for Europe, for which there
are incessant demands. ‘The preserved mutton and
beef which have been largely supplied from Australia,
although consumed by the public as makeshifts, have
not been generally popular from their insipidity and
the difficulty of recooking them, or giving them gist and
flavour. The trade has, however, grown, for in 1877
200,420 cases of preserved meats were received from
Australia. In 1879 the imports had reached 566,758
ewt., valued at nearly £1,700,000. In 1883 the quan-
tity of preserved meat imported had risen to 609,335
ewt., the value of which was £1,751,584, but more than
half of this came from the United States, the relative
supplies being, from— ,

Cwt.
Australia ... ae aoe se wee aa 226,059
United States... — ah ae ove 308,303
Other countries ... bus ae ase ote 74,973
609,335

Let us glance at the statistics of our imports of ani-
mals and animal products from the United States, taking
first the live stock. In 1880, we imported as many as
156,490 head of horned cattle. In 1883, the number
had decreased to 154,928. Of sheep we received 118,000
in 1879, and only 89,083 in 1883. A few years ago we
imported from America 16,000 live pigs, and now we
receive none. If we pass next to animal products, we
find the import trade is large, although scarcely so large
and important as formerly. Some five years ago we
received from the States 4,500,000 to 5,000,000 ewt. of
bacon and hams, now this quantity has dropped to
3,000,000 ewt. In 1882 we received 1,731,000 cwt. of
fresh beef, which is about the average received in
the three previous years. The imports of salted beef
keep pretty steady at about 280,000 cwts. a year.
Butter and butterine have dropped from 301,000 ewt.
in 1879 to 120,163 cwt. in 1883. The imports of
American cheese have also declined from 1,845,744 ewt.

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 15

in 1878 to 991,000 ewt. in 1883. Lard has declined
from 901,214 ewt. in 1878 to 751,128 ewt. in 1883.
Fresh and salted mutton is about the same—42,841 cwt.
in 1878, and 41,000 cwt. in 1883. Preserved meat (other
than salted) was as high as 472,086 cwt. in 1880, and
only 309,579 cwt. in 1883. Of salted pork, 322,148
wt. was imported in 1878, and but 247,667 ecwt. in
1883. Atarecent meeting of the National Wool Growers’
Association at Chicago, it was stated that sheep-farming
in the States yields £30,000,000 sterling in wool and
mutton, there being 1,020,000 sheep farmers pursuing
the industry, with £100,000,000 capital invested in it.
Further details of our foreign supplies of animal food
will be given in subsequent pages.

Jerked Meats—Among the dried and smoked foods
eaten by various people are jerked bear's meat, jerked
seal and walrus, and porpoise meat, used by the American
Indians; jerked and smoked buffalo meat, dried and
smoked beef, dried and smoked venison, hams of various
kinds, jerked squirrels, and other small mammals, desic-
cated meat, and meat extract.

The dried meat so largely prepared in South America
and shipped to Brazil and the West Indies, as animal
food for the negroes, has been tried for Europe, but met
with no approval. It is known as “charqui,” “ tasago,”
or jerked meat. From 650,000 to 900,000 cwt. of this is
shipped annually from Buenos Ayres and Montevideo,
about half as much from the Southern provinces of
Brazil, and some from Chili.

Beef jerking is confined to the hot and dry summer
months, the jerking season in Chili being looked forward
‘to like harvest time in England. In well regulated estab-
lishments the labour is divided; the jerkers having
nothing to do with the killing, skinning, ete. So expert
are they as to excite the astonishment of novices at the
rapidity with which they slice the animal up, in slices
so thin as to admit of a quick sun-drying on hurdles
well elevated above the ground.

The climate of Chili, from its extreme dryness, is

16 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

better adapted for the curing of meat than Buenos Ayres,
where there is a certain degree of humidity. The meat.
of Chili is of richer flavour and more approaching that
of venison. In preparing it in Chili the bones and fat
are removed from the flesh, which is cut into strips, a
quarter or three-eighths of an inch thick, and hung up
in the full rays of the sun, and in about eight hours it is
dried almost as hard as a piece of glue. The slices are
made into long bundles and packed in raw hides, which
shrink upon it, and keep it very tight. Meat dried in
this way does not putrefy, but after a time mites are
found in it. In Buenos Ayres, where it is partially
salted and afterwards dried, the fat is used, and the
meat becomes rancid, but with the negre population
it is a great treat to get some fat. In using the shreds
of meat, they are roasted thoroughly brown over the
embers of a fire, and pounded in very small pieces on
a flat stone. For all purposes of soup or stew it is a
valuable food.

In Wallachia and Moldavia beef is much consumed by
the people under the naine of “ pastourma ” or “ pastoor-
mah.” The meat is salted and sun-dried, and seasoned
with spices and garlic when cooked.

The tongues, sinews, etc, are sold to the sausage~
makers, who generally season them highly. The mar-
row, carefully extracted from the bones, is preserved in
goat-skins, and other vessels, and under the name of
“cerviche” is much employed for culinary purposes in
Constantinople.

The flesh of the beasts fattened on distillery refuse
has a disagreeable odour. There is a large trade in pre-
served meat in Moldavia. One house, Messrs. Powell
& Co., employ 240 workpeople, and turn out 5,000 boxes
daily, containing about 33,000 lbs. of meat.

In Siam elephants’ flesh is dried and stored up for
food. Goats’ flesh is also thus prepared.

Dendeng is the Malay name for the jerked meat of
commerce, that is of animal muscular fibre, preserved by
drying in the sun, nearly the only mode of curing

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 17
flesh in the Eastern Archipelago. Dendeng is made
of the flesh of deer, oxen and buffalo, and by the
Chinese of that of the wild hog. It is a considerable
article of native trade in the East.

In India pieces of mutton are dried in the sun and
cured with spices and a little salt. It is exported to
Burmah and used locally. It is said to be very good
when roasted and pounded.

This custom of drying meat in the sun is also prac-
tised in Africa. It is thus described by Captain Burton
in his “ Lake Regions of Central Africa.” “The African
preserves his meat by placing large lumps upon a little
platform of green reeds erected upon uprights, about
eighteen inches high, and by smoking it over a slow
fire. Thus prepared, and with the addition of a little
salt, the provision will last for several days, and the
porters will not object to increase their loads by three
or four pounds of the article, disposed upon a long stick
like gigantic kabobs. They also jerk their stores by
exposing the meat upon a rope, or spread upon a flat
stone, for two or three days in the sun; it loses a con-
siderable portion of nutriment, but it packs into a con-
veniently small compass. This jerked meat when dried,
broken into small pieces and stored in gourds or in pots
full of clarified and melted butter, forms the celebrated
travelling provision in the East, called kavurmek ; it is
eaten as a relish with rice and other boiled grains.”

The chargwi of South America, salted, is a product of
sun-drying ; and the desiccation of carcases, without de-
composition, on the plains has been a matter of common
observation.

It is stated in Turner’s “‘ Embassy to Thibet” (4to,
London, 1806, p. 301), that the flesh of animals is pre-
served frost-dried—not frozen—and it keeps without
salt. He says, “I had supplies of this prepared meat
during all the time I remained at Teshoo Loomboo,
which had been cured in the preceding winter. It was
perfectly sweet, and I was accustomed to eat heartily of
it, without any further dressing, and at length grew

c

18 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

fond of it. It had not the appearance of being raw, but
resembled in colour that which has been well boiled. It
had been deprived of all ruddiness by the intense cold.”

Frozen meat, unless losing greatly in weight by
evaporation, owing to the dryness of circumambient air,
will, like frozen fish, decompose on exposure to warmth..

The decomposition is activated by atmospheric im-
purity ; and it is easy to understand how, in the moun-
tains of Thibet, the rarefied air, of great dryness,
mobility and freedom from putrefactive germs, would
satisfy the conditions for abstracting sufficient moisture,
even from frozen meat, whilst effectually preventing
decay. Pure dry air, either hot or cold, being an admir-
able desiccant, is under suitable conditions an excellent
preservative.

Frozen meat has kept for ages, and during the
Russian and North American winters, the people are
compelled to put up with it. Freezing is, however,
prejudicial to the meat, and commercially somewhat
expensive, since it necessitates the construction not
only of ordinary ice-houses, but of freezing chambers at
the ports of shipment and landing, and there are
innumerable impediments in the way of getting the
frozen produce delivered untainted to the customer.
Experimentally the process is simple and quite successful,
but not as a means of supplying the nation’s food.
It has, however, of late years been brought more success-
fully into practice in the importation of carcases from
Australia and America.

It is curious to notice the various parts of animals
that are eaten, or selected as choice morsels by different
persons or classes. Sheep’s head, pig’s head, calf’s head
and brains, ox head, the heads of ducks and geese, ox
tongue, horse tongue, reindeer tongue, walrus tongue,
cranes’ tongues, cods’ tongues, etc. Fowls’ and ducks’
tongues are esteemed an exquisite Chinese dainty. The
pettitoes of the sucking pig, or the mature feet and hocks
of the elder hog, sheep’s trotters, calf’s feet, cow heel,
bears’ paws, elephants’ feet, the feet of ducks and geese

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 19

and their giblets; ox tail, pig’s tail, fat sheep’s tail, kan-
garoo tail, beaver’s tail. And the entrails again are not
despised, whether it be bullock’s heart or sheep’s heart,
liver and lights, lamb’s fry or pig’s fry, tripe and chit-
terlings, goose liver and gizzard, the cleaned gut for our
sausages, the fish maws, cod sound, cod liver, and so on.
The moufle, or loose covering of the nose, of the great
moose deer or elk is considered by New Brunswick
epicures a great dainty. The hump of the buffalo, and
the trunk of the elephant, are other delicacies. Deer’s
sinews, and the muscle of the ox, the buffalo, and the |
wild hog, jerked or dried in the sun, and then termed
“dendeng,” are delicacies of the Chinese, imported at a
high price from Siam and the eastern islands.

Under the name of sweetbread there is a delicate food,
which should be the thyroid and sublingual glands of
the ox, but the pancreas goes under the same name.
That of the calf is most esteemed, but the sweetbread of
the lamb is not unfrequently substituted for it.

The eggs of different. animals, again, form choice
articles of food, whether they be those of the ordinary
domestic poultry, the eggs of sea-fowl, of the plover, and
of game birds, of the ostrich and emu, of the tortoises
and other reptilia, or the eggs of insects, and of fishes.

A remarkable instance of the increase in the sale of
imported ox tongues is afforded by the trade done at
Paysandu, a little town in Uruguay, from whence about
150 tons are packed in hermetically sealed tins and
shipped annually to Great Britain.

The Russian tongues received are believed to be prin-
cipally horse tongues dried and smoked. Reindeer
tongues are another Northern delicacy, of which many
are imported, and we also eat in this country sheep’s and
pigs’ tongues. The tongues which are imported dried,
require long soaking in cold water before being
cooked.

Besides the dead meat brought into London, there are
received at the Metropolitan and Foreign Cattle Markets
an average of 320,000 head of cattle, 50 per cent.

c2

20 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

being foreign; 1,400,000 sheep, of which 60 per cent.
are foreign, and 12,000 pigs, nearly all of which are from
abroad.

In 1870 it was officially estimated that the meat con-
sumption in the United Kingdom was about 96 lbs. per
head per annum. Later estimates gave it, in 1872, at
108 lbs. per head. We paid for the food substances of
animal origin which we imported into this country, in
1883, the sum of nearly fifty-one and a-half millions
sterling, made up as follows :—

Living Animals—catile, sheep, and swine ... £11,978,996
Bacon ‘ be es 8,178,123

Beef ore tee a Se oss «- 2,878,264
Butter and butterine ... se aie w= 11,755,419
Cheese ... ae sis ats nae .. 4,882,502
Eggs ties ites a uae ae «» 2,728,396
Fish, cured cor ae hie ies ee» 1,773,027
Hams... au sig stg ae ww. 1,823,352"
Lard... dle ia see ar we 2,243,956
Beef and mutton, fresh or preserved «» 1,863,539
Pork ies ‘ies sae ae ose Per 759,651
’ Poultry and game see se ee as 591,367
£51,456,662

This is a pretty good round sum for foreign imports,
exclusive of our home meat supply, dairy produce, game,
and fresh fish.

The prices of meat are, generally speaking, advancing
year by year, as the following wholesale prices of
butchers’ meat (per stone of 8 lbs.) in the Metro-
politan Cattle Market shows :—

1870. 1880. 1882.

s. d, s. d. s. d.
Large prime beasts... 4114 ... 4112 1... 4 93
Southdown sheep wv 5 TE .. 6 OF 7 02
Lambs ... ies «. 610 8 i: 7 10
Small primecalves .. 5 5 ... 5 113 6 02
Small neat porkers ... 5 821 ... 4113 4 104

wo

In 1862 the consumption of butchers’ meat in Paris
(exclusive of pork) was said to be as high as 108 lbs.
per head.

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 21-

Adding together the alimentary products derived from
the bovine, ovine, and porcine races, to those obtained
from fowls, game, fish, eggs, and cheese, it was officially
stated that the population of the eighty-nine depart-
ments of France consumed in 1862 only 57 grammes of
nitrogenous food, while the average daily ration of
animal food of the Parisian was 278 grammes. ;

In 1864, with a population of 1,696,141, the following
amounts were returned as consumed in Paris :—

Tbs.
Butchers’ meat Bee abe a -. 260,205,970
Pork of allkinds ... ies «» 15,908,418
Charcuterie, cooked ham, sausages, &e. ... 3,600,548
Meat patés, &c. Be Bes sa 225,858

In 1865 the value of the import and export commerce
of France in animal food amounted to over seven and a-
quarter millions sterling, of which three-fourths was
imports.

In France, as with us, there has been an almost general
advance in the price of meat in the last ten years, as
shown by the following comparison of prices per kilo.
in the market of Villette, Paris :—

1872 1880

Francs. Francs.
Ox beef ... oe es ass 1:53 sedvce 1:59
Cow beef aes se <a 140 wswese 1:36
Mutton ... aa sie ans 160 a. 1°82
Pork es ae eis ‘ies P55 aseaes 1:73

A calf weighs ordinarily at its birth 90 lbs. It con-
sumes on an average about 34 quarts of milk per day.
At about three months it will weigh 360 lbs., and is
sold to the butcher for about 6d. per lb. in France,
where large veal is held in great esteem, being one of
the most popular and general articles of food.

From official returns we find that the consumption of
fresh meat for Paris in the year 1872* was as follows :—

* “ Enquéte de la Chambre de Commerce de Paris.”

22, ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

At the five slaughter-houses there were killed for
food :—

Oxen ee Bee ose aes ee ese 159,916
Cows ‘ies rae aoe we ar ass 47,517
Calves... ais ive ies aes aes 160,184
Sheep... as oe ee a3 ... 1,348,852
Goats... 5a ies we cs aid 298
Pigs a eee ss xe wan eee 154,477
Horses... dt ae Br ore ote 4,041
Asses and mules... ise es 612

The meat sent out for consumption yielded by these
animals was—

. Kilos.
Beef, veal,and mutton... eis ae 101,116,269
Pork ... ai — ae si io 12,312,745
Horseflesh ... Bh feos ee See 1,010,250
114,439,264

Of this quantity all but 5,500,000 kilos., sent to the
suburbs, was consumed in Paris.

The population of the city in 1872 was 1,851,792, and
in 1881 it was 2,269,023. ;

A peculiar feature of the business in the French
slaughter-houses is that of blowing up the carcass as:
soon as the head and legs are cut off, which is done as
follows: The body being placed on the dressing frame,
an incision is made in the breast near the neck, and the
nozzle of a bellows inserted. A man then works the
bellows for about fifteen minutes, until the whole carcass
is swollen out like a small balloon. The reasons given
for this are that it makes the meat look better, more
plump than it otherwise would, and that it enables the
person who skins the carcass to get the hide off quicker
and easier, without injuring it. All bullocks, calves,
sheep, etc., slaughtered in these establishments are blown.
up in this manner.

The imports of meat into France were in—

Beef. Salted and cured Pork.
Kilos. Kilos.

1879 ... axe 5,850,000... 35,675,000

1880 ... che 7,519,000 ...... 38,713,000

1881... re 5,741,000 Wass 19,710,000

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. : 23

The other salted meat imported in 1881 amounted to
4,146,000 kilos. The imports of pork were sensibly
reduced by the -stringent measures against American
bacon, in consequence of the trichinosis.

The total quantity of butchers’ meat consumed in
Paris in 1883 was about 167,000 tons.

In Russia the production of meat may be roughly
estimated from the animals slaughtered annually. This
number cannot be very accurately determined, but may
be approximately given. Not less than 3,500,000 head
of large cattle are sent to the butchers, of which 2;200,000
are oxen, and 1,300,000 cows. The number of calves
killed is on the average 4 millions, and of sheep 12 mil-
lions. We may assume, according to official data, for
each head of cattle, 450 Ibs. of meat and 60 Ibs. of suet
(an ox will give 550 Ibs. of flesh and 100 lbs. of tallow,
a cow 200 lbs. to 300 lbs. of meat and 150 lbs. of tallow) ;
and hence we get a total produce of 700,000 tons of
beef, irrespective of tallow. The 4 millions of calves
at 80 Ibs. give 140,000 tons of veal. Reckoning the
sheep killed at 30 or 40 lbs. of meat each, exclusive
of 10 lbs. of tallow, we have 170,000 tons of mutton;
and 6 million pigs killed will yield 200,000 tons of
pork.*

In the United States pork is the principal flesh food,
constituting fully half the meat consumption. In France
pork forms 30 per cent., and beef 55 per cent. of the
meat production, and mutton 183. In Great Britain
mutton and beef share more equally in the food supply,
swine flesh occupying nearly the place that mutton does
in France.

About 130 lbs. per head would seem to be the average
annual meat consumption in the United States.

In the town of Bremen the consumption of animal
food per head in the five years 1872-76, averaged as fol-
lows, in kilogrammes of 21 lbs. :—

* Buschen, “ Apercu statistique des Forces productives de la
Russe,” 1867.

24 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Kilos.

Beef ... oc a8 ea see ee .. 83°56
Mution ... ie eats aie oy ioe 3°29
Pork... ... ane as ee ae les 18°72
Game and poultry ... esta or re eas 2°58
Flesh generally ... cu sits “i 58:15

or about 128 lbs.

A remark may here be made of the general objection
to mutton as food in Germany, Holland, and other
parts of the Continent. I remember offending a
learned Dutch professor by providing at dinner when
he visited me, as a choice dainty, a quarter of lamb,
not knowing the Dutch objection to the flesh of the
sheep. The best of it is, a great deal of cow beef is
used in Holland, a meat which we do not hold in esti-
mation.

In other foreign countries mutton is disliked, or at
least rarely eaten. The Calmucks and Cossacks seldom
touch it, and the Mongols make a wine of it. In some
parts of America and in Spain, mutton is scarcely con-
sidered fit for food. The dried flesh of the wild sheep,
however, forms an article of commerce in Kamtschatka.

A sheep to be in high order for the palate of an epi-
cure, should never be killed earlier than when five years
old; at which age the mutton will be found firm and
succulent, of a dark colour, and full of the richest gravy ;
whereas if only two years old, it is flabby, pale, and
savourless. Wether mutton is always considered far
superior to that of the ewe.

Harrison, who died in 1593, described our sheep as
“very excellent, and for sweetness of flesh they pass all
others.” The last three centuries have added greatly to
the improvement of the breed and the quality of their
flesh. Southdown mutton in point of flavour and deli-
cacy is thought equal to any that is killed. The older
the mutton, the finer the flavour.

In highly fattened sheep the quantity of meat obtain-.
able may reach as high as 65 per cent. of the carcase,
but this figure will not be obtained from ordinary sheep?

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 25.

In well-fed sheep a yield of 55 to 60 per cent. can be
reckoned on, and 45 to 55 per cent. may be considered a
fair average.

Mutton is seldom or never salted in England; in France
le gigot présalé is a popular dish, but this is only mutton
grazed near the sea coasts.

The annual consumption of home-grown sheep and
lambs in this country, according to a reliable estimate,
is more than 14,000,000, out of a total of 28,000,000.
This was supplemented in 1883 by the importation of
over one million live sheep. There has been an esti-
mated loss of five and a quarter millions of sheep and
lambs of late years by the rot, hence the foreign imports
have to be largely supplemented to meet the food supply
of the nation.

The value of the flesh of 14 million sheep which are
now annually slaughtered for food in the United King-
dom may be taken to be worth over £20,000,000.

Each year in the province of Bucnos Ayres, 10 million
sheep are boiled down solely for their tallow and skins,
hence a great waste of serviceable food occurs. The
boiling down of sheep in Australia has been in a great
measure abandoned.

Goats’ Flesh_—The flesh of the goat is harder, tougher,
and stronger food than mutton ; it is very commonly eaten
in Switzerland and other mountainous regions of the
world. The haunches are frequently salted and dried. The
flesh of the kid is generally esteemed, and has a flavour
not very unlike that of venison. The Malabar goat, that
browses on the rocks in Ceylon, is said to be a delicate
animal. Of the consumption of goats’ flesh for food it is
difficult to form any accurate estimate, but in those
countries where the animal abounds it is no doubt eaten
in the young state. In England, however, the goat is not
legally held to be a food animal.

Morocco, Spain, and India are the countries where the
largest number of goats are found, but it is scarcely
necessary to particularise the numbers, as they are kept.
more for their milk, hair, and skins than for their flesh.

*

&
26 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

We imported in 1880 into the United Kingdom the
following quantities of Animal food supplies ;—

Quantity. Value £.

Live animals for food
(except pigs) .- 1,330,845 head ...... 10,060,396
Bacon andhams~...._-5,334,648 cwts. ...... 10,985,642
Beef, salted and fresh 1,017,956 ,, ...... 2,424,943
Butter ae vee 2,826,305 4, evevee 12,141,034
Cheese wee ves, LTT 9OT gy wince 5,091,514
Eggs ... sed ...747,408,600 No. ...... 2,235,451
Fish, cured or salted... 1,343,434 cwts. ...... 1,666,710
Lard ... Pan wae D2GSLZ: oe wees 1,852,160
Meat, salted or fresh... 149,010 ,, .... 429,073
» preserved ... 655,800 ,, ...... 1,905,717
Pork, salted or fresh... 409,267 ,, ...00 684,192
Poultry and game ... a orig 421,645
# 49,898,477

The proportionate quantity we consumed per head
of foreign provisions of Animal origin is officially given
as follows :—

1879. 1882.
Ibs. lbs.
Bacon and hams dea iis 14°84 8°85
Butter... wee Sate we C5T éesase 6°72
Cheese... es iad wait bs (err 5°20
No. No.
Eggs ... a site ais 22°44 wees 23°04

Cheese scarcely receives its proper place as a food
material with us. Some systems do not take to it kindly,
and such persons should not press it upon their digestive
economy. Much cheese, too, because it is poorly made,
is indigestible. These facts should be borne in mind.
And yet as a food possessing great strengthening power
and adapted to those who have hard physical labour to
perform, there are few substances so satisfactory as rich
and well cured cheese. We may give some authorities
on this point. Dr. Austin Flint says: “Old cheese taken
in small quantity towards the close of a repast, undoubt-
edly facilitates digestion by stimulating the secretion of
the fluids, particularly the gastric juice. Here its effect

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 27

is attributed to a different principle than that of its
fermenting quality, but an active ferment may also in-
crease the effect of the gastric juice.” Dr. Flint adds:
“ New cheese is a highly nutritious article, as is evident
from its composition.” The long experience of English,
Scotch, and Irish labourers proves cheese to be a whole-
some as well as nutritious food. A small quantity of
cheese, with them, takes the place of a larger quantity
of meat, and enables them to endure such hard labour as
the American thinks he can only perform upon a generous
meat diet. In Germany farm labourers depend largely
upon the curd of milk after being skimmed for butter.
This curd is frequently used in a fresh state, and makes
an important part of the labourer’s diet. It is related
of a certain Dane that he could carry a stone so heavy
that it required ten men to lift it on his shoulders: that
he performed such wonderful feats of strength upon a
diet consisting of large quantities of thick sour milk, tea,
and coffee. His enormous strength must have been sus-
tained by the curd of the milk. This case refutes the
common error, that milk does not furnish a diet for
vigorous manhood. There are numerous cases in which
a milk diet has sustained the system under the most.
exacting labour. The American Encyclopedia says :
“The peasants of some parts of Switzerland, who sel-
dom or never taste anything but bread, cheese, and butter,
are a vigorous people. Our American women are not.
such flesh-eaters as men, and with their love of sweet-
meats the nervous system becomes ill nourished. They
may almost be said to be made of starch and sugar. If
they would make cheese a more constant article of diet,
and use more unbolted flour, with more open air exer-
cise, they would soon become the most healthful and
robust, women in the world.” Cheese is less liable to
putrefactive change than flesh, and thus much less likely
to develop in the human system those scrofulous diseases
attributed to animal food.

It is believed that we produce in the United Kingdom
about 126,000 tons of ripe cheese, and 29,285 tons of

28 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

butter per annum. From America and Canada we im-
port about 60,000 tons of cheese per annum, and from
other sources 30,000 tons, which together amount to
about four-fifths of our home production.

Imports oF BurrerR anbD CHEESE INTO THE UNITED

. Kin@pom.
Butter. Cheese.
Quantity. Quantity.
ewts. ewts.
1861... Sais eas 992,772 nasa 706,395
1871... vs ete 1,334,783 oe 1,216,400
1881... de -- 2,047,841 9... 1,840,090
1883... sia ws 2,384,473 oe 1,799,704

The value of the butter and cheese imported in the
last named year was £16,664,333.

Diseased Meat as Food.—As their religion forbids their
killing animals for food, the Burmese generally eat those
that have died of disease.

‘The flesh of all animals that have died is not, as
generally assumed, necessarily unfit for food. It is an
old and widespread popular error that the unfitness of
such flesh for human food is due to its not having been
drained of blood; an error that seems to have come
down to us from ancient times, when it was held that all
diseases originated and were centred in the blood, and
that as this contained the materia peccans, the flesh of
a diseased animal would be perfectly wholesome if only
all its blood were abstracted. Or this general belief
may be partly owing to the methods of slaughtering
commonly employed. Bleeding is, however, no essential
‘part of proper slaughtering ; indeed, for a time the sys-
tem of killing without much loss of blood was strongly
advocated and widely practised, more especially in’
England, on the ground that the blood itself is quite as
nutritious as the meat, and that the latter is far tenderer
and better flavoured when a portion of the blood is
retained in it. The system of slaughtering with ab-
straction of blood holds its own chiefly because meat
thus killed keeps longer and is supposed to look better.

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 29

That people should be deterred from eating meat that is
good, simply because it has not been bled is of compara-
tively little importance; the real danger of the error
lies in the assumption that the flesh of diseased animals
is harmless if only their blood be abstracted in the
death-struggle.

In Germany diseased animals are often killed and
their flesh eaten. In certain localities these are killed
and their meat served up in the household, or for
_ the domestics and work-people. In other cases the flesh
of diseased animals is openly sold as meat of a reduced
value. In country districts there are no lack of pur-
chasers, who while knowing that the animals were not
thoroughly healthy before they were killed, believe that
the use of the meat will have no fatal effect.

According to the Prussian law relating to diseased
animals, those suffering from pulmonary complaints
may be slaughtered, and the flesh after it is properly
cooked may be sold; but the slaughter must be effected
under the surveillance of a veterinary surgeon.

In a great number of cases where the animals are
attacked with disease, they are secretly killed, and the
purchasers do not know they are buying diseased meat.
There are many butchers whose business it is to kill
animals in bad health. In many diseases to which
animals are subject, the flesh does not undergo any
change which renders it dangerous to human health,
or reduces its value as food. Frequently the slaughter
of the animal is due to the impossibility of a cure, such
for instance as the fracture of a limb, severe wounds,
&c. In certain internal diseases, which would ordi-
narily terminate fatally, it is found best to kill the
animal, and the flesh does not show, at least in the first
stages, any considerable change.

The flesh of sheep attacked by the staggers, that of
ruminants suffering in the lungs without having had the
fever, and of animals showing symptoms of fractures,
&e., can generally be used as food without danger. But
occasionally in these and other diseases, the flesh may

30 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

undergo a transformation which will render it dangerous,
when the disease has attained any height, and especially
when it has changed the blood.

The usage of the flesh of animals which have died of
gangrenous diseases, is often the cause of great danger
to man. It has been found that the meat of one diseased
animal has affected more than 100 persons, terminating
in the death of many.

Allusion may here be made to some recent cases, well
known. Many hundreds of persons at Nordhausen, 206
at Wurzen, and 197 persons at Zeitz, were more or less
seriously attacked, of whom many died, The great
intensity of the poison shows that it cannot be checked
by the ordinary preparation of food and insufficient
cooking.

In many of the diseases from which animals suffer,
the poisonous property is not always in the flesh, but
changes are brought about, so that the meat decomposes
rapidly after it is killed, and it becomes extremely
dangerous as human food. This is especially noticeable
in those which have had severe fever, and where what-
ever may have been the disease, they have been killed
just before they would have died naturally. :

According to an official report for the year 1873, there
were killed from necessity (Nothschachten) 4,189
ruminants and 6,002 pigs. In other States where
this necessitous slaughter is not controlled, it is pro-
bable that this is often done. The meat is generally
sold for food, and it is frequently the case that animals,
in the last death struggle from disease, are killed to
dispose of the meat.

The following is a summary of Animal food that is
injurious, according to the German Jaws :—.

1. The flesh of animals that have died a natural
death.

2. That of rabid animals, those suffering from glanders,
bloody spleen, gangrenous affections, whether of the
internal or external organs.

3. That of animals killed during the disease, after

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 31

having shown typhoid symptoms, and a falling away in
flesh.

4. That of beasts which have been poisoned, or which
shortly before being killed have taken poisonous sub-
stances, in considerable quantity.

5. Measly or trichinous meat; also that of scrofulous
and tuberculous animals.

6. Meat visibly tainted or decomposed.

The value of meat is diminished, without its being
injurious, in the following instances :—

1. In all febrile affections, as well as intermittent
fevers, in which a wasting of the animal takes place.

2. The flesh of calves killed before they are eight or
ten days old has little or no nutritive value.

3. The nutritive value of polonies, or hard sausages,
is diminished by the addition of flour and water.

4. Horseflesh is often sold as beef, and at the same

rice.

The following is an extract from a letter written to a
friend in this country from Northern India, by the Rev.
Dr. Marcus N. Carleton, a missionary twenty-five years
resident in that country. The statements made are
certainly very remarkable, but doubtless truthful. The
matter is one which cannot fail to attract attention
among physicians and the guardians of health every-
where :—

“Tn India, for at least twenty-five hundred years, we
have had a class of village ‘ Kamius’ (low caste), called
Chumars. I seldom, if ever, saw a village so small as
not to -have at least one family of Chumars in it, and
‘some towns have three hundred families. These people
are tanners and shoemakers. Under ancient, as well as
modern, Hindoo rule, and under English rule, they have
2 legal status and a legal right to all dead cattle.

“These people, the Chumars, are a large and thriving
class, and eat all dead cattle, dying from whatever
disease. The Hissar district is nearly as large as one
half the State of Massachusetts. It is a great cattle-
growing district, and a very large Chumar population is

32 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

found in it. About twenty-two years ago, Dr. Adam
Taylor, a distinguished English surgeon, was in charge
of the district, and from his lips I heard the following
statement :—

“A fatal epidemic broke out in the district among
the cattle. Dr. Taylor, by repeated post-mortem exami-
nations, declared that the disease, as far as he could dis-
cover, was like a form of typhus often called putrid
fever in the human subject. The epidemic raged for
months, till forty thousand head of cattle perished ; and
all these dead bodies were eaten by law, by legal right,
by the Chumar population. After the epidemic was
over, and these forty thousand head of cattle had all
been eaten, Dr. Taylor made a careful examination of
the Chumar population, and he could find no traces of
any disease among them caused by eating the dead
cattle, but on the whole they were more healthy than
any other class of villagers.

“ During the last twenty-five years I have examined
nearly fifty such cases. JI will mention one. In the
Hindoo village of Kamius there were twenty-two hun-
dred head of cattle. An epidemic broke out among
them, and in five months about six hundred of them
died. In this village there are twenty-two families of
Chumars, of about eight persons to a family. These
families ate in five months about six hundred head of
cattle, all dying of a very fatal disease. I visited these
Chumars, saw their baskets of meat, saw in every house
large earthen pots, filled with meat, on the fire. I saw
little children, eighteen months old, sucking small bones
of this meat, as little New England children would suck
the leg of a roast turkey on Thanksgiving Day. I
visited these families after their generous meat diet, and
found them all in as good health as any of the people.
I have now lived twenty-five years among the Hindoos
I have been in medical attendance on every class (there
are some thirty-six classes), and I do not think that
even among the Brahmins, the strictest vegetarians in
the world, there is better health than among the

He Heat

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 30

Chumars, who for twenty-five hundred years have by
law eaten all the cattle of India, dying by whatever
disease.”

M. Decroix (a confirmed hippophagist in France for
twenty years), argues strongly that diseased animals are
not unwholesome, and enters somewhat generally into
the argument. M. Decroix made it a practice to eat the
cooked flesh of horses killed in his service, which had
had glanders or farcy, and, whether thoroughly or parti-
ally cooked, he found no evil results to his health. He
has even gone further than this in his inquisitorial
experiments as to whether the flesh of animals which
have died was unwholesome. Ever since 1861 he has
eaten the flesh cooked of all animals that have died
within his reach, no matter from whatever disease.
Desirous of ascertaining whether the flesh of cattle,
sheep, and calves, seized by the inspectors of meat in
Paris was really unwholesome, for six months he re-
ceived from M. Chevreul, Director of the Jardin des
Plantes, parts of the flesh thus seized, and given to the
beasts of the menagerie. Several times a week during
this period, he ate of this flesh, without any inconveni-
ence to his health, except certain timid apprehensions
and the natural repugnance resulting from prejudice.
After a personal experience of fifteen or twenty years,
and a number of observations collected from others, he
affirms that one may eat with impunity the flesh cooked
(not putrid) of any of the domestic animals, no matter
what they had died of—glanders, typhus, hydrophobia,
etc. Instead of the flesh of animals which have died
naturally having a more repugnant appearance or a
particular flavour, he states that he has placed the two
kinds side by side in the same stew-pan, and with the
same sauce, and in serving to different persons, many of
them connoisseurs, the meat of the animals that have
died has invariably been found superior to that of meat
from the slaughter-houses. If the flesh of animals
which have died, or were diseased, is unwholesome, he
and those to whom he has given it, would have been

D

34 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

victims long since. The “Veterinarian,” and other
publications have discussed this subject from time to
time.

We can never realise to its full extent the effect of
the process of cooking in destroying organic poisons,
which in their natural state might exert a deadly in-
fluence on our organism.

Take game, winged or other, say a partridge ; before
cooking it appears almost in a state of decomposition.
On the table, after proper cooking, it is splendid. Who
would like to eat venison fresh? Unless kept until in a
high condition it is uneatable.

Certainly the flesh of animals which have died of
anthracoid diseases, has proved actively poisonous when
eaten in the raw state, but when sufficiently cooked has
been perfectly innocuous. Of the fact that there is a
large consumption of diseased meat, viz., the flesh of
animals affected with pleuro-pneumonia, foot-and-mouth
disease, and various febrile affections, no doubt can be
entertained by rational people, and it is readily admitted
that no obvious mischief results from eating such food;
the evidence, in fact, of the unwholesomeness of the flesh
of diseased animals is absolutely niZ. It is quite true
that the idea of eating diseased meat is distasteful—
to a sensitive stomach it may be nauseating—but the
fact remains, that, with few exceptions, there is no
proof that the meat is really deleterious after it has °
been submitted to the action of fire.

The Irish Cattle Trade Defence Association, was at
great’ pains lately to obtain professional testimony to
prove that the flesh of animals affected with pleuro-
pneumonia may, under certain conditions, be used with
impunity as human food.

That we habitually eat the flesh of diseased animals,
there can be no reasonable doubt. Whether we suffer
by it, and ifso,to what extent, are questions which have
not been satisfactorily answered. Our knowledge of this
subject is very imperfect, and we have but little trust-
worthy data to guide us. There are, however, some

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 35

well-authenticated facts. It has been proved that the ”
flesh of animals which have been suffering from malig-
nant fevers has caused sickness, diarrhcea, febrile symp-
toms, and death; and it has also been proved that the
flesh of such animals may sometimes be eaten with ap-
parent impunity. Trichinised meat has produced the
most disastrous results, and the flesh of animals contain-
ing tuberculous deposits is capable of transmitting the
disease to carnivorous animals. There is no doubt at all
about this; but, at the same time, abundant testimony
has been adduced to show that this kind of diseased
meat has often been used as food without-any percep-
tible evil resulting.

Our immunity from evil consequences when we con-
sume diseased meat appears to rest solely on culinary
operations. We must suppose that by boiling our milk
and thoroughly cooking our meat, we destroy these
germs as we destroy parasites like Trichin, which, ac-
cording to Cobbold, succumb to a temperature of 170 to
180 degrees Fahr.

No one can prove that our health is not impaired and
our lives shortened by the systematic consumption of
‘diseased meat, and that many of the ills to which the
human race is heir may not be found indirectly to arise
from that cause. But as we cannot yet prove that these
evils are so produced, and as we cannot afford to throw
away anything which appears to be fit for human food,
we have no alternative but to get rid of our cattle-
diseases in the interests of sanitary science, as well as
in those pertaining to agriculture.

The medical men who reported for the Defence Asso-
ciation were Drs. R. Macnamara, Alex Macalister, and
J. E. Reynolds. They state: There is no case on record
wherein the flesh of cattle slaughtered while suffering
from pleuro-pneumonia in any stage has ever been proved
to give rise to disease in man. Reynal states that the
flesh of animals who have suffered from this disease has
been in daily use in Paris for the past twenty years
without any appreciable results. Loiset asserts that for

D2

36 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

nineteen years the flesh of 18,000 diseased animals has
been used as food in Lille, and that during that time
there were no appreciable alterations in the death-rate,
nor any unusual accessions of disease.

Dr. Fleming, in his work on “Veterinary Sanitary
Science,” says, in speaking of pleuro-pneumonia :—‘Since
the malady has been recognised it may safely be asserted
that the flesh of millions of diseased animals has been
consumed as food in every part of the world, and yet
there is not to my knowledge a single instance of any
accident attending or following its use.”

From these considerations it is warrantable to con-
clude that the consumption of the flesh of cattle slaugh-
tered in the early stages of pleuro-pneumonia is perfectly
harmless, and the destruction of such meat is a wasteful
expenditure of a material which is capable of supplying
a perfectly wholesome animal food. We have proved
that meat of the kind referred to has been largely used
in this and other countries, and the fact that not in any
one case has disease been traced to the consumption of
the flesh of a pleuro-pneumonia animal is a point of the
most significant and conclusive value as evidence, more
especially as we have precise and positive information
relating to the deleterious effects attending the consump-
tion of the flesh of animals affected with anthrax, milz-
brand, etc., and also the decomposed flesh of healthy
cattle. The above remarks apply to the fresh and un-
changed meat of animals which have been slaughtered
in the earlier period of the second stage of the disease,
but we are not prepared to advocate the use of the flesh
of animals markedly reduced in condition. It is certain
that the use of the seriously tainted or putrescent meat
of healthy and diseased animals alike is attended with
danger, and there can be little doubt that effects attri-
buted to the virus of one or other of the diseases to
which cattle are liable have frequently been due to a
state of incipient decomposition of the food consumed.

It is true that there are some who prefer tainted to
fresh and wholesome meat, and who seem to be pro-

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 37

tected from the consequences of eating it partly by habit,
partly by the culinary art, and in part by a species of
dietetic disinfection almost unconsciously practised by
persons of epicurean tastes. But these cases notwith-
standing, there is no doubt that the general statement
Just made is true.

It follows, then, from the foregoing that the fresh and
unchanged meat of animals slaughtered during an attack
of pleuro-pneumonia may be safely consumed ; and that
such meat is not sensibly less in nutritive value than
‘that of other animals unaffected by any disease, but that
it is of lower quality, owing to its greater tendency to
undergo change.

I may here publish an anecdote which is given in an
Australian paper, the Geelong Advertiser :—

“ Mr. , we shall call him Mr. Vellum, of Melbourne,
‘is blessed with the friendship of Mr. , we shall call
him Mr. Stockwhip—whose cattle-station is not a hun-
dred miles from Echuca. Stockwhip is in the habit of
sending down tongues, potted butter, rolled beef, and
fifty other little up-country niceties to his town friend
as presents. On Tuesday last arrived at Vellum’s office
a good-sized keg, the address card in the usual well-
known handwriting. It was late in the afternoon, just
-about time to start for Paradise Villa, South Yarra; the
gift was safely stored in the buggy, and off Vellum
started with the treasure; while tea was getting ready
the keg must be opened. ‘How heavy it is,’ says one.
‘ What on earth can he have sent this time, says another.
Speculation was not allayed when the lid was prized
open, and only dry salt presented to view. ‘ Dive deeper,
was the order of Paterfamilias, ‘ there must be something
else in it.’ The salt was carefully removed, and with
considerable difficulty something bulky was dragged
out, of indefinite shape and texture. ‘Perhaps it’s a
Murray cod,’ said one of the juveniles. ‘Seems to be
some preparation of pork,’ remarked Vellum ; ‘however,
let’s have some fried for tea, and see how it eats." Fried
.a slice or two of it; everybody tasted, but nobody liked

38 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

it; it was horribly tough. Perhaps we don’t know how
to cook it properly, suppose we try it to-morrow for
breakfast ; stewed it was, and certainly it tasted a little
more savoury, but still tough. The proper mode of
cooking it had evidently not yet been hit upon; a piece:
was ordered to be boiled for dinner, and Vellum started
for the day’s business in Chancery Lane. There was.
the usual pile of letters to open, but one in Stockwhip’s
handwriting had the preference, and here it is—‘ Dear
, The scourge has reached us at last. Two of my
finest bullocks were found dead in the paddock yester-
day morning, and on being opened the indications of
pléuro-pneumonia were unmistakeable. The left lung
of one of them Dr. here says is the most perfect.
specimen of diseased structure he ever saw. I want Dr.
Macadam and Mr. Miscamble to see it, and therefore I
send it +o you packed. in salt.’ Vel-
lum’s eyes began to swim. He did not dine at home
that day.”

The following remarks from the Lancet on the quality
of meat deserve consideration :—

“Those who perpetuate the old English custom of
living on food which is so far honestly cooked for the
table that the eater may know what he is eating—who
do not in fact use made dishes which may be made of
anything—must have noticed of late a considerable
depreciation in the quality of meat. It is either soft.
and flabby, or stringy, tough, and poor in flavour. This.
is a serious matter, and may be taken as a foretaste of
what is to come, unless something can be done to stay
the plague of reckless importation. It may be safe,,
though we doubt the conclusion—to eat the flesh of un-
healthy animals, some suffering from the loathsome
febrile and wasting diseases, and killed to prevent their:
dying naturally ; but it is not nice or prudent to do so;.
better diminish the proportion of animal food in our
ordinary diet than eat measly pork, the flesh of sheep
affected with liver disease, induced by the fluke parasite,
and the wasted, or, which is quite as revolting, the arti-~

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 39

ficially fattened, carcasses of unhealthy bullocks and
cows. Poultry loaded with fat by a process initiated
from the phenomena of disease, are appreciated by the
palate. It does not, however, follow that these things
‘are really good for food.’ We believe that those who
would be healthy should use healthy nutriments. It is
impossible to provide this luxury in sufficient quantities.
Let the public pursue a sensible course, and resort to
articles of diet which supply an equally serviceable
material, less costly, and more under control. We have
no sympathy with the vegetarian craze, but unless
Animal food can be furnished at a fair price, and in
healthy condition, it will soon become necessary to
prefer vegetable diet. The slaughterers of cattle and
those who prepare their flesh for food are able to recog-
nise many hideous diseases, and have terms of their own
with which to designate them. For example, they know
tuberculous disease when they see it, and yet they are
content to remove the sickening mass and send the
residue for human consumption, as though the whole
animal were not poisoned.”

40 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

A Frew Worps on CANNIBALISM.*

Flesh of Whites not esteemed—Statements of Old Chroniclers on
the Practice of Cannibalism in Europe, Asia, and America—
Assertions of Modern Travellers—Evidences of Shipwrecked
Sailors and Others — Cannibalism Common in the Pacific
Islands and Australia, especially in the Fiji Islands—Evi-
dence of many Writers — Practised also in Islands of the
Eastern Archipelago, Celebes, Sumatra, Malacca — Many
African Tribes Anthropophagi—Statements of Sir 8S. Baker,
Bruce, Capt. Cameron, P. Du Chaillu, Thomson, and Lay-
land.

Ir is sad for the honour of mankind that we must still
include man himself in the list of Animal food, but there
is comfort in the sure hope that the rapidly fading horror
will soon vanish entirely as civilisation and Christianity
extend unto the dark pagan districts of the globe.

In the anthropological section of a literary congress
held at Lille, one of the subjects discussed at some length
was the practice of anthropophagy. M. Broca thereat
made some remarks on the different nature of the flesh
of various nations. He said that the cannibals, perhaps
fortunately for us, do not like the flesh of whites; they
find it bitter and salt, whilst, notwithstanding the latter
quality, it does not keep well. Their special dainty is
the flesh of the negro, of which they like the flavour,

* In my former work on “ Curiosities of Food,” I was taken to
task by some critics for having overlooked or not alluded to the
practice of Cannibalism. The subject is a revolting one to deal
with, and I should have preferred to pass it over without notice,
but that it has been brought prominently before the public this
year by one or two uncontrovertible instances where necessity
has compelled persons to feed on the bodies of their fellow men.

A FEW WORDS ON CANNIBALISM. Al

and which becomes dry by keeping rather than decom-
poses by the natural process.

Locke, in his Essay on Government (sec. 57), quotes
the following paper from Garcilasso de Vegas’ “ History
of the Incas of Peru”:—“In some provinces they were
so liquorish after man’s flesh that they would not have
the patience to stay till the breath was out of the body,
but would suck the. blood as it ran from the wounds of
the dying man; they had public shambles of man’s flesh,
and their madness herein was to that degree, that they
spared not their own children which they had begot on
strangers taken in war, for they made their captives their
mistresses, and choicely nourished the children they had
by them, till about thirteen years old; they butchered
and eat them, and they served their mothers after the
same fashion when they grew past child-bearing and
ceased to bring them any more children.”

Gibbon, in the twenty-third chapter of his history,
states that “a valiant tribe of Caledonia, the Attacotti,
the enemies and afterwards the soldiers of Valentinian,
are accused by an eye-witness (Jerom., vol. ii, p. 75)
of delighting in the taste of human flesh. When they
hunted the woods for prey, it is said that they attacked
the shepherd rather than his flock, and that they curiously
selected the most delicate and brawny parts, both of males
and females (pastorum nates et feminarum papillas), which
they prepared for their horrid repasts.”

Strabo (IV., v., sect. 35) says that the inhabitants of
Jerne are more savage than those of Britain, and deem it
honorable to devour their deceased fathers.

In reference to the last passage, Aubrey, in his “ Re-
mains of Gentilism,” mentions a holy maul preserved in
Wiltshire to his day, and previously used for braining
the incurably sick and old.

According to Herodotus, the Massagete (i., 216) and
the Padai (iii, 99) ate their relations.

There is, therefore, credible evidence that cannibalism
existed in Europe, Asia and America. It might, there-
fore, be reasonably expected to be found in Africa. Thus

42 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Schweinfurth states that cannibalism is practised to some
’ degree among the Niam-niam, and to a still greater ex-
tent among the Monbouttons between the 3rd and 4th
degrees of N. lat,

Cannibalism has existed almost universally among
races living in a savage state, sometimes as a means
of subsistence, as among the Monbouttons and some
other African tribes, where shambles for human flesh are
openly kept ; sometimes with the idea of appropriating
to themselves the qualities of the deceased.*

Wallace states the Cobeus of South America are
cannibals.

Ina history of French Guiana, published by M. Mousie,
an account is given of acts of cannibalism committed
by a band of escaped convicts in January, 1856, who
murdered and ate two of their comrades on the River
Lacomte. One, who escaped and reached the fortress,
informed upon the criminals, who were pursued. Of the.
band of fourteen, two had been eaten and two had dis-
appeared. Three of the principal culprits were hanged,
and their accomplices were condemned to various punish-
ments. When they were recaptured, the band were in
the midst of their hideous feast, having broiled the
tongue, the liver, the legs, and flesh of one of. the
slain.

It is not necessary here to enumerate the instances of
those who, from shipwreck and starvation, have been
driven to feed on their fellow creatures. Of this we
have a lamentable instance in the details which have
leaked out in America of the survivors of the Greeley
Expedition. Although attempts have been made to
throw doubts on the statements, the facts and evidence
of the exhumed bodies of the dead corroborate the sad
story.

It is unfortunately true that shipwrecked mariners
and men in long sieges have been driven to an extremity
which even the once cannibal Maoris did not reach, and

* Topinard’s “ Anthropology.”

. A FEW. WORDS ON CANNIBALISM. 43

have supported life on the bodies of their own dead.
The famous wreck from which Byron drew his passage
about “two boobies and a noddy” is a case in point;
the survivors of the yacht Mignonette, killing and eating
the boy Parker in 1884 is another ; and the horrors of the
siege of Jerusalem naturally recur to the imagination.

Where the ghastly habit has survived into nascent.
civilisation, it has been through some connection with
religion, as in Mexico, or (as in a recent case in the
Soudan) with the purpose of sating revenge, or for some
magical reason, that the eaters may acquire the strength
and wisdom of the victim. In such cases, allowing for
the wildness of the people who retain the practice, we
feel much less horror than in face of the naked fact of
cannibalism practised by civilised men for the sake of
dear life. I merely here cite cases where the practice is
indulged in for no such necessity.

A benevolent whaling captain, who undertook to do
something towards civilising Easter Island in the
Pacific, took a young man home with him, and gave
him an education and the habits of civilised life, and
returned him to the island. No sooner did he set foot.
on shore than his affectionate friends, finding him fat and
in good condition, took him to a convenient place, but-
chered, cooked, and ate him in the shortest possible time.

Dr. Dunmore Lang, in his interesting account of the
aborigines of Australia, mentions the following curious
fact :— The dead body of an enemy slain in battle is
never eaten by his enemies, but by his own tribe and
friends.” In another part of his work, he says:—‘“ The
fights of the aborigines are frequent, and occasionally
bloody ; and on such occasions the dead of both parties
of the combatants are carried off, skinned, roasted, and
eaten by their respective friends! Davies had seen as
many as. ten or twelve dead brought off by one of the
parties engaged, after one of their fights, all of which
were skinned, roasted, and eaten by the survivors.
There were so many assembled on such occasions, that
the bodies of the dead were cut up and eaten in a

44 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

twinkling, there being scarcely a morsel for eac “
This description of the Rev. Dr. Lang will remind the
classical reader of Juvenal’s picture of the abominations
of the ancient Egyptians :—
« ___. Ast illum in plurima sectum
Frusta ac particulas, ut multis mortuus unus
Sufficeret, totum corrosis ossibus edit

Victrix turba.
Ultimus autem

Qui stetit absumpto jam toto corpore, ductis
Per terram digitis, aliquid de sanguine gustat.”

Oceania had always been the land of cannibalism
until civilisation shed its humanizing influence. All the
Polynesians from the Sandwich Isles and the Marquesas
to New Zealand, have been more or less given to anthro-
pophagy.

New Guinea, the Fijis, the Louisiades, certain parts
of the Phillipine group, notwithstanding the vicinity
of the Spanish colonists, killed men to eat them. The
Kanatis of the French colony of Nouka Keva with
difficulty renounced the practice.

“Why do you eat your enemies?” demanded M. Gar-
nier, an engineer, of one of these men. “ Because,” he re-
plied, “ they are good eating, as excellent as pork or veal.”
‘A little deformed infant having been born, was washed in
the sea and cooked with the yams, and eaten by, among
others, the mother.

Cannibalism is altogether unknown in the Banks
Islands, but is more or less practised nearly everywhere
else in Melanesia.

The Tongans are not cannibals. Some of the Tongan
warriors who visited Fiji and fought in the wars there,
became man-eaters, but they were looked upon with
horror by their countrymen. This statement finds con-
firmation in the fact that there are no cannibal words
in the Tongan language. The Fijian, on the contrary, is
full of them.*

* “Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria,” vol. xvi.
p. 134.

A FEW WORDS ON CANNIBALISM. 45

Captain Erskine in his “Journal of a Cruise among
the Islands of the Western Pacific,” says :—‘ Although
direct and authoritative proof may be necessary to con-.
vince some humane sceptics of the existence of this
abominable practice, a visitor to the Feejee Islands need
at once feel all doubt dispelled, which he may have
entertained upon the subject; as the necessary details
of every-day life abound with examples, which, if not
spoken of by the white residents without disgust, ex-
hibit at least no surprise. So habitual has the sight of
the dead body for food become, that the missionaries assert
that the Feejeean language contains no word for a simple
corpse, but the word used ‘bakola’ conveys the idea
of eating the body, and a term which, when translated,
we at first considered a jest, ‘ paka balava’ or long pig,
is employed in serious parlance, to express the difference
between the human body and that ofa hog, to which
.. the epithet ‘dina’ or true, is in distinction applied.

“The supply of human flesh was formerly, in all parts
of Feejee, and is still in the districts to which the influence
of the missionaries has not extended, furnished from
different sources, the luxury being in general denied to
women and slaves, although they are supposed some-
times to satisfy their curiosity or inclination in secret.
All enemies killed in battle are, as a matter of course,
eaten by the victors, the bodies being previously pre-
sented to the spirit. This source of supply, to which it
is now believed all the negro races of the Pacific have
recourse, as well as to the bodies of shipwrecked persons,
in whose disfavour a strange superstition seems to have
existed, even in countries now civilised, is by no means
sufficient for the Feejeean demand, whose customs require
that on occasions of ceremony, when strangers of conse-
quence are entertained, the magnificence of the chief
shall be exhibited by a feast of human victims. The
method of furnishing these, by kidnapping neighbours,
generally females, has been shown on the occasion of the
Butoni visit to Bau; and sometimes much diplomacy is
exerted to calm the excited feelings of the tribe whose

46 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

women have thus been carried off. The chief of the
tishermen whose duty it is to procure the supply, is,
when a remonstrance is made, subjected to a public re-
proof, until he apparently conciliates, after a feigned dis-
grace, by an apology and present of whales’ teeth, the
favour of the reigning chief, whose object of entertaining
his visitors properly is thus gained without the sacri-
fice of his popularity with his neighbours. It has been
even asserted, that the Feejeeans do not object to banquet
on the flesh of their dearest friends, and also that, in
times of scarcity, families will make an exchange of
children for this horrid purpose. This assertion I have
heard contradicted, but it admits of no denial that .
children have been offered by the people of their own
tribe to propitiate a powerful chief, and more than one
white man has seen the canoe of Tanoa, after a con-
descending visit to Ovula, returning to Bau with the
bodies of infants, offerings from the people of Levuka,
ostentatiously hanging at the yard-arms.”

Dr. Harvey, in a letter to Mr. N. B. Ward, says that
“a large number of the inhabitants of the Feejee Islands
are savages of the worst character. They are cannibals to
a fearful extent ; habitually feeding on human flesh, not
from revenge or from necessity, but because they prefer it
to other food. They eat their enemies or prisoners when
they can ; but if unsuccessful in catching these, their law-
ful prey, they will cook their own wives or children.

“ Not long ago, a case occurred at Feejee, when a wretch
ordered his wife to heat the oven, and when she had
heated it, she asked him, ‘Where is the food 2?’ ‘ You
are the food!’ was the savage reply, as he instantly
clubbed her, and then cooked her for himself and party !

“The captain of our vessel tells me that when he was
in Feejee, in 1847, he saw a hundred human bodies laid
out at one time ready for cooking at a great feast,
Sometimes they cook a man whole (which they call a
“long pig”), then put him in a sitting posture, with a
fan in his hand, and ornamented as if alive, and thus they
carry him in state, as a grand head-dish for a feast.

A FEW WORDS ON CANNIBALISM. vg

Others chew little bits of raw human flesh (as sailors chew
tobacco), and put them into their children’s mouths.”

The natives of the Marquesas Islands are in the habit
of wooing the fairest damsels they can find, wedding
them and then eating them up. In New Caledonia can-
nibalism still prevails. The inhabitants of Formosa were
accused by the Chinese of being cannibals.

Cannibalism was the universal practice of the races in
the Pacific Islands. Cook had been specially instructed
to institute inquiries on this point. There were many
persons at home who were sceptical on the existence of
cannibalism among any people. The result of his daily
observations was to leave no doubt of its existence, and
to establish the fact that it was not merely an occasional
excess to which those who practised it were impelled by
fury and the spirit of revenge against an enemy, but that
human flesh was their almost daily and habitual food.
A provision basket was seldom seen without having in
it a human head, or other evidence of the fact. It is
true that they told him that they ate only their enemies ;
but so incessant were their invasions of each other, that
enemies were never wanting, or if the supply failed,
slaves taken in former raids were substitutes at hand,
and constantly killed in cold blood for the purpose.

The native religion of the blacks of Hayti, called
“Vandouism,” has its stated feasts, at some of which
human victims must be sacrificed. These great feasts
are held at midnight, in the depths of primeval forests,
and all intrusion is carefully guarded against.

The eating of human flesh, it has been suggested, is of
religious origin, though it is not always confined to reli-
gious occasions. The taste for such food is said to be
easily acquired among certain people of peculiar tem-
perament. It is not always renounced on professing
Christianity, and the absolving Minister knows well
what is meant when the convert discloses at the confes-
sional that ‘he has eaten a black pig without hair.*

* Major R. Stuart, ‘‘ Embassy Reports for 1877,” part ii., p. 110.

48 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

The mountains of the interior of the island of Celebes
were inhabited, according to Crawfurd, by savages, who,
like the wild races of Borneo, were professed head-
hunters, and some of them alleged to be cannibals.

The Bataks, natives of part of Sumatra, he also tells
us, undoubtedly practiséd cannibalism. The victims
were enemies, criminals, and now and then a slave.
The skulls were preserved as trophies, or sold at a
handsome price to the friends of the victimised. ' Mr,
Anderson, who visited there in 1822, writes :—“<I am
fully justified, not only from what I saw, and the proofs
in my possession, but from the concurring testimony of
the most respectable and intelligent natives whom I met,
in asserting that cannibalism prevails, even to a greater
extent on the east side of Sumatra, than, according to
the accounts received, it does on the west. For the sake
of humanity, however, be it mentioned that it is rapidly
decreasing as civilisation and commerce are advancing.
It is not for the sake of food that the natives devour
human flesh, but to gratify their malignant demon-like
feelings of animosity against their enemies.”

More recent Dutch writers, in like manner, testify to
the cannibalism of the Bataks, stating at the same time,
that those subjected to the Dutch authority are readily
dissuaded from it. The cannibalism of these people
seems early to have been known to the Portuguese, for
De Barros, speaking of the natives of the interior of
Sumatra says :—“ This was the race called Bataks, who.
eat human flesh, the most fierce and warlike people of
all the land.” (Decade 3, Book V.)

The Bataks inflicted the penalty of being eaten alive
on eriminals who infringed their laws. Sir Stamford
Raffles, who was a spectator at one of these executions
in the commencement of the century, states that the vic-
tim, who was one convicted of adultery, was lashed to a
post, and the executioner, who was one of the principal
chiefs, demanded of the husband what part of the crimi--
nal he wished to eat. The ear being selected, it was cut
off with a stroke of the sword and handed to him, and

A FEW WORDS ON CANNIBALISM. 49

after dipping it in a sauce which had been prepared, he
ate it before the assembled multitude. Then the various
assistants cut and ate from the criminal such parts of
the body as they considered the most appetising. Out
of respect to the foreigner present the death was
hastened by piercing the heart. Formerly their aged
and imfirm parents were slaughtered and eaten by these
people.

The population of parts of the interior of Malacca are
said still to be cannibals.

Some of the more savage tribes, both on the east and
west coast of Africa, have from time to time acquired
the ill renown of cannibalism—whether with justice or
not is still matter of dispute; but at least it cannot be
denied that the charge is of very ancient date, and has
often been repeated. It must have been a current belief
in Shakespeare’s time, for he notes among the wonders
told by Othello to Desdemona, in running through the
story of his life, “the cannibals that each other eat, the
anthropophagi and men whose heads do grow beneath
their shoulders.’ These must refer to Africa, as their
birthplace. The only place in the Old World in which
an African Prince could be supposed to meet with such
adventures was his own, his native land.*

The old accounts of Arab navigators are full of deplor-
able statements of the negro men-eaters, who inhabited
the coasts from Babel Mandeb to Sofala.

Sir Samuel Baker relates a scene of which he was
witness :—“ One of the female slaves having endeavoured
to escape, her owner fired at her, and she fell wounded.
She was very fat, and from her wound there dropped a
quantity of yellow fat. The Makkaukas no sooner saw
this than they tore out handfuls of this fat, and dis-
puted for this horrible prey. They then despatched the
woman with lances, and cut up and divided the body
among them for eating. The other female slaves and
children, horrified, fled and hid themselves among the

* “ Food Journal,” vol. ii., p. 232.
E

50 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

trees, where they were pursued, and many of the
children were killed and eaten, and a horrible feast
ensued.

Bruce relates that in his time there was still alive a
man of the name of Matthews, who was present at a
banquet of human flesh on the west coast of Africa, to
the north of Senegal. Snelgrave fixes the stigma on
the kingdom of Dahomey, and says that although he
did not actually see it, his not doing so was solely due
to his having been so thoroughly sickened by the pre-
vious atrocities of the horrible customs of which the
banquet was to be the appropriate wind-up, that he
could stand it no longer, and was glad to escape from
the dreadful scene.

Norris corroborates him, but still not from personal
observation, and Stedman, in his narrative of Surinam,
quotes with an almost suspicious profusion of circum-
stantial details, the reports of the Africans :—

“T should not forget,” he observes, “to mention that
the Gango negroes are supposed to be anthropophagi or
cannibals, like the Caribbee Indians, instigated by habi-
tual and implacable revenge. Among the rebels of this
tribe, after the taking of Boucou, some pots were found
on the fire with human flesh, which one of the officers
had the curiosity to taste, and declared it not inferior to
some kinds of beef or pork. I have since been assured
by a Mr. Vangills, an American, that having travelled
for a great number of miles inland in Africa, he at length
came to a place where human legs, arms, and thighs hung
upon wooden shambles, and were exposed for sale like
butchers’ meat in Leadenhall Market.”

Cameron, in his work “Across Africa,” speaking of
the inhabitants of the district of Manyuema, states that
they are filthy cannibals.

“ Not only do they eat the bodies of enemies killed in
battle, but also of people who die of disease. They pre-
pare the corpses by leaving them in running water until
they are nearly putrid, and then devour them without
any further cooking. They also eat all sorts of carrion,

A FEW WORDS ON CANNIBALISM. 51

and their odour is very foul and revolting. I was enter-
tained with a song setting forth the delights of canni-
balism, in which the flesh of men was said to be good,
but that of women was bad, and only to be eaten in time
of scarcity ; nevertheless, it was not to be despised when
man meat was unobtainable.”

Du Chaillu asserts the following with a precision of
detail derived only from personal observation and in-
quiry :—

“The next morning we moved off for the Fan village,
and now I had the opportunity to satisfy myself on a
matter on which I had cherished some doubt before, viz.,
the cannibal practices of these people. I was satisfied
but too soon. As we entered the town I perceived some
bloody remains which looked to me to be human, but I
passed on still incredulous. Presently we passed a
woman who solved all doubt. She bore with her a
piece of the thigh of a human body, just as we should go
to market and carry thence a roast or steak. . . I
was told by one of them afterwards that they had been
busy dividing the body of a dead man, and that there
was not enough for all. The head, I am told, is aroyalty,
being saved for the king.”

Again: “ Eating the bodies of persons who have died
of sickness is a form of cannibalism of which I had never
heard among my people, so that I determined to inquire
if it were indeed a general custom among the Fans, or
merely an exceptional freak. They spoke without em-
barrassment about the whole matter,and I was informed
that they constantly buy the dead of the Osheba tribe,
who in return buy theirs. They also buy the dead of
other families in their own tribes, and besides this, get
the bodies of a great many slaves from the Mbichos
and Mboudemos, for which they readily give ivory at
the rate of a small tusk for a body.”

Other recent travellers confirm the statement, and
Mr. W. C. Thomson, formerly, and for many years one
of the United Presbyterian missionaries at Old Calabar,
now settled and practising as a physician in Liverpool,

E 2

s

52 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

leans to the belief that it is true. He says, in a letter
addressed to my friend, the late Mr. Andrew Murray :—

“ All flesh—human flesh, and that of the leopard or
panther and the common vulture excepted—is edible in
Calabar ; indeed, some of the imported slaves, and above
all those who come from the Eboe country, do not except
even flesh of their human kind, and boast of the sweet-
ness of the human hand, and have been known to have
their flesh-pots extra busy and extra well filled when
the bodies of decapitated criminals have become acces-.
sible to them.” ;

We all know how like in personal appearance the
paws of a bear are to the hands of a man, and the paws
of the bear, like the pettitoes of a pig, are esteemed the
greatest delicacy of that animal, both in Europe and in
North America.

Human flesh, therefore, I think must be reckoned an
occasional article of food among the more savage tribes
of Western and Central Africa, when accidental circum-
stances give them a supply, and when they have an
excuse for eating it—such as tradition, custom, enmity,
or hunger.

A paper in the “Journal of the Ethnographical So-
ciety’ for 1869 testifies to the recent existence of com-
munities of cave-dwelling cannibals in the territory of the
Basutos, close to the frontiers of the Cape Colony.

Mr. Layland, the writer, after describing a cavern
near to the mission station of Cana, the floor of which
was strewn with human bones piled together and scat-
tered about at random in the cavern, adds :—

“ Skulls especially were very numerous, and consisted
chiefly of those of children and young persons. These
remains told too true a tale of the purpose for which
they had been used, for they were hacked and cut to
pieces with what appeared to have been blunt axes or
sharpened stones. The marrow-bones were split into
small pieces, the rounded points alone being left un-
broken. Only a very few of the bones were charred,
showing that the prevailing taste had been for boiled

A FEW WORDS ON CANNIBALISM. 53

rather than roast meat. These people inhabited a fine
agricultural country, which, moreover, abounded with
game, yet they were not contented with hunting and
feeding. upon their enemies, but preyed much upon each
other, many of their wives and children falling victims
to the practice in times of scarcity.”

They are reported to have abandoned the practice for
a good many years, but Mr. Layland observed remains
in which the marrow and fatty substances testified to
a recentorigin. He adds that thirty years ago the whole
country from the Moluta to the Caledon River was in-
habited by cannibals.

54 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

CHAPTER III.
FiesH Foop rroM MAMMALS.

Flesh of Monkeys Eaten in Africa, the West Indies, South
America, Ceylon, and Borneo—The Lemurs in Madagascar
—Bats Eaten in the East and in Australia—Insectivora—
The Hedgehog—Carnivorous Plantigrades—Bears—Skunk—
Badger—Sea Otter—Civet Cat— Dogs’ Flesh Eaten by North
American Indians, Chinese, Africans, and other People —
Foxes and Wolves Eaten—Lion’s Flesh—Jaguar—Hyeena—
Lynx — Carnivorous Marsupials—Opossums — Bandicoots—
Kangaroos— Wom bats—Phalangers— Marmots— Squirrels— °
Rats—Rat Pie—Dormouse—Hares and Rabbits—Prodigious
Increase of Rabbits in Australasia—Flesh of the Beaver—
Porcupines—Agouti—Sloth—Anteater—Armadilloes.

I now proceed to notice some of the mammals whose
flesh occasionally serves as the food of man. ’

Monkeys.—The flesh of monkeys is more extensively
eaten as food than is generally supposed. African epi-
cures esteem as one of their greatest delicacies, a tender
young monkey, highly seasoned and spiced, baked in a
jar or pan set in the earth, with a fire made over it,
gipsy fashion. Governor Connor, in one of his reports
to the Colonial Office, mentions that they are eaten on
the Gold Coast.

Young gorillas, it is said, are eaten when they can be
got, and their flesh, with that of the chimpanzee and
other monkeys, forms a prominent place in the African
bill of fare.*

Dr. Livingstone, in his last Journal, says, “The flesh ”
(of the Soko, a species of Gorilla) “is yellow, and the
eagerness with which the Manynema devour it, leaves
the impression that eating sokos was the first stage by

* Cassell’s “ Natural History,” vol. i, p. 9.

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS, 55

which they had arrived at being cannibals; they say the
flesh is delicious.”

But it is in Brazil, especially in the valley of the
Amazon, that they are most eaten, for the animals found
in the greatest numbers there are the monkeys.

Monkeys are said to be publicly sold in the markets of
Rio Janeiro.

The barrigudo (Lagothrix Humboldti, Geoff.) is much
persecuted by the Indians, on account of the excellence
of its flesh as food. From information given to Mr.
Bates he calculated that one troop of these Indians,
numbering about 200, destroyed 1,200 monkeys a year
for food.

Mr. Wallace tells us that having often heard how good
monkey was, he had one cut up and fried for breakfast.
He found the meat somewhat resembled rabbit, without
any peculiar or unpleasant flavour. My friend, the late
Sir Robert Schomburgk, told me that when travelling in
the interior of Guiana he had often tasted the smaller
kinds of monkeys, but could never bring himself to par-
take of the great spider monkey (Ateles sp.) and others
eaten by the Indians, which approach so nearly to the
human form.

It is a remarkable circumstance that among the
South American Indians, monkeys are much more fre-
quently used as food than among the inhabitants of the
Old World, and on the Orinoco the broiled limbs of the
marimonda (Ateles Belsebub, Geoffroy) was frequently
seen by Humboldt in the huts of the natives; and at
Emeralda he examined roasted and dried bodies in an
Indian hut, which were prepared for an annual harvest

Séte.

Roasted monkeys, particularly those that have a round
head, display a hideous resemblance to a child; the
Europeans, therefore, who are obliged to feed on them,
prefer separating the head and hands, and serve only the
rest of the animal at their tables.

It is not at all improbable, from the close resemblance
of a monkey, with the hair removed and ready to be

56 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

cooked, to the human body, that with regard to some
savage nations, accusations against them of cannibalism
have been unjustly laid.

Dr. Vidal, speaking of the mammals of Japan eaten as
food (Bulletin of the Society of Acclimatation, Paris, vol.
22, p. 436), says that the flesh of the monkey is publicly
sold there. A largé species he has seen exposed on the
butchers’ stalls of the markets, but he is not aware
whether other kinds are eaten. Monkeys are, however,
not very common there.

A French writer, speaking of monkeys as a dish, says,
“ They are excellent eating, and a ‘ soupe au singes’ will
be found as good as any other, when you have con-
quered the aversion to the bowillon made of their heads,
which look like those of little children.”

In Ceylon some of the natives feed upon them.
Several species of monkeys are relished as food by the
aboriginal inhabitants of the Malayan Peninsula and the
Dyaks of Borneo.

. The Indians and some of the negroes of Trinidad, used

to eat the flesh of the great red monkey, and reported it
to be delicious, and yet it is the most vociferous and un-
tameable of the Simian tribe.

Father Labat, in 1700, mentions the existence of mon-
keys in the West Indies. It was on this occasion, the
good Father informs us, that he first ate monkey. “It
is true,” he says, “I was a good deal shocked when I saw
four heads in the soup, very much resembling infants’
heads, but when I tasted of the dish I had no difficulty in
overcoming my scruples, and continued to eat with
pleasure ; for,” he adds, “ C’est une chair tendre, délicate,
blanche, pleine d’un bon suc, et qui est également bonne
& quelque sort de sauce qu’on la mette.”

The worthy Father feelingly dwells upon the admir-
able qualities of young monkey in the form of soup or
otherwise. The people of St. Christopher and Nevis
might benefit by the experience and example of good
Father Labat. Why not try young monkey as an
article of diet generally? The planters would thus

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 57

receive some compensation for the destruction of their
canes and provisions by this troublesome mammal.

The flesh of the red fronted lemur (Lemur rufifrons) of
Madagascar, is said to be as good as that of the hare, and
the flesh of a large bat in the same island is very deli-
cate eating.

Bats as Food—We come next to the bats, the finger-
winged animals, some of which are preferred to the finest
game by the natives of the Eastern Archipelago, their flesh
being compared to that of hare or partridge in flavour.
The large flying lemur (Galeopithecus volans), though it
diffuses a rank, disagreeable odour, is eaten. Yet bats
must be palatable, since one species has been specially
named by naturalists “the eatable” (Pteropus edulis).
Its flesh is stated to be white, delicate and remarkably
tender, and hence considered a dainty. The common
Indian fruit bat, or flying fox (Pteropus medius) of
Ceylon is eaten ; but unless great care is taken in skin-
ning them their flesh is said to acquire a musky and
unpleasant odour, which is a matter of some importance,
as the larger species constitute a favourite article of
food in the countries which they inhabit. It is a great
stretch of fancy, however, to imagine a frightful animal
like a weasel, with extended leathery wings of about
two feet each, being served up at table.

Dr. Leichardt found the fruit bat in Australia (Pteropus
Gouldit) an excellent article of food. After it had fed
upon the flowers of the so-called tea-tree it was un-
usually fat and delicate.

Dr. Oxley, speaking of the kalong (Pteropus Javanicus)
says, “Their flesh is eaten by the natives, but no real
fox smells, to my mind, so rank as they do. Methinks a
rat would be palatable food compared with these.”

The Mosaic prohibition of the bat as an article of food
to the Jews, no doubt related to a species of Cynonycteris,
which may have been commonly eaten in Egypt or in
Syria.

Insectivora.—Turning from the Cheiroptera to the In-
sectivora, we find a few animals here applied as food for

2

58 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

man. The mole is said to be eaten by some of those
who trap them.

The Greeks devoured the flesh of the hedgehog (Eri-
naceus Europeus). When it has been well fed it is said
to be sweet and well flavoured, and the flesh is eaten in
many places on the Continent. It is during winter in his
dormitory that the animal is fat and in good order. A
gentleman who tried them stewed, says they reminded
him a good deal of quail.

In the neighbourhood of Oxford I met an old gipsy
woman, who, although squalid and dirty, was proud in
being able to claim relationship with Black Jemmy, the
king of the gipsies. She informed me that there were
two ways of cooking a hedgehog, and seemed much sur-
prised at my question whether her tribe ever eat them,
as if there could exist a doubt on the subject. I ex-
pressed a wish to know the process, the receipt for which
I subjoin in her own words :—*“ You cut the bristles off
em with a sharp knife after you kills ’em fust, Sir; then
you sweals them,” (Oxfordshire, burn them with straw
like a bacon pig,) “and makes the rind brown, like a
pig’s swealings ; then you cuts ’em down the back, and
spits ’em on a bit of stick pointed at both ends, and then
you roasts ’em with a strong flare.” It appears that
hedgehogs are sometimes in season and sometimes out of
season. My informant told me that they are nicest at
Michaelmas time, when they have been eating the crabs
which fall from the hedges. “Some,” she added, “have
yellow fat, and some white fat, and we calls ’em mutton
and beef hedgehogs; and very nice eating they be, Sir,
when the fat is on ’em.” The other way of cooking
hedgehogs has gone out of fashion. The gipsy’s grand-
mother used to cook them in the following manner, but
it appears they are best roasted :—The exploded fashion
is to temper up a bit of common clay, and then cover up
the hedgehog, bristles and all, in it—like an apple in
paste, when an apple dumpling is contemplated,— then
hedgehog, clay and all, is to be placed in a hole in the
ground and a fire lighted over it ; when the clay is found

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 59

to be burning red, the hedgehog is done, and must be
taken out of the hole; the clay-crust of the pie being
opened, the hedgehog’s bristles are found sticking to it,
and the savoury dinner is ready.

The fashion of eating hedgehogs was not, in former
days confined to gipsies. There was a farmer’s family
living at Long Compton, near Oxford, who were supplied
with hedgehogs by our informant’s grandmother ; this
family used also to breed them, keep and fatten several
litters, “and,” said the gipsy, “they used to eat up every
litter they bred, dressing ’em just when they wanted ’em,
like they did the fowls.”

Sometimes a nest of young hedgehogs is found by the
gipsies: if they are too small for eating, they are pre-
served till fit for use, or, as it is called in Oxfordshire,
“ flitted,” that is, a string is tied to the hind leg, and the
doomed animal is allowed to wander about the length of
his tether, picking up what he can get ; under this system,
if well fed, he will fatten wonderfully.

Carnivora—We next come to the animals of prey.

Bears.—Of the carnivorous Plantigrades, the flesh of
our friend Bruin is occasionally devoured. The bear was
eaten by the Romans, but it is clear that it was con-
sidered a rarity, and not relished by everybody. In the
famous narrative which Petronius gives of the dinner at
Trimalchio’s, he represents a man who had dined at
another house dropping in to dessert, and describing the
feast enjoyed at the house he had just left. “We had,”
he said, “a joint of bear, which my wife Scintilla was
rash enough to taste. On the other hand, I ate more

‘than a pound of it, for it tasted like boar itself; and for
my part, I say, that if bear eats man, man has a much
greater right to eat bear.”

The liver of the American bear is a peculiar luxury
when dressed on skewers, kabob fashion, with alternate
slices of fat. The liver, however, of the Polar bear is
said to be unwholesome and dangerous.

Liver-sausage is regarded as an exquisite delicacy
throughout Germany, and it would appear from a quaint

60 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

achievement recently effected in Berlin that its maximum
of toothsomeness can only be attained when the material
composing it is extracted from the carcass of a bear. At
an Exhibition of Culinary Art lately, at Hamburg, the
Berlin committee of restaurateurs, desiring to contribute
thereto an edible worthy of their gastronomic renown,
applied to Dr. Bodinus, the managing director of the
Zoological Gardens, for leave to purchase and slay one of
the Society’s bears, in order to convert the ursine liver
into a sausage of paramount excellence. Having a bear
to spare, the learned doctor parted with one for the
moderate consideration of ten guineas, and the com-
mittee, twelve in number, proceeded to the doomed one’s
den, where Herr Wiese, the proprietor of “ Sommer’s
Salon,” shot Bruin through the head, and afterwards
narrowly escaped mutilation by venturing to stroke the
luckless beast’s furry coat before it had quite given
up the ghost. The beast’s liver was duly chopped up,
spiced, and manufactured into a gigantic sausage weigh-
ing twenty-five pounds; and, his remains having been
artistically set up by a noted taxidermist, he was then
made to occupy an honourable and rampant position at
the chief entrance to the Hamburg Exhibition, support-
ing upon his fore-paws a silvern platter containing the
dainty comestible prepared from his own body.*

In Sweden the State pays for the destruction of a bear
nearly £3, for a wolf or a lynx half as much, and for a
glutton 12s.; and this has greatly thinned them and
driven them off into the forests of Lapland and the
north. [See “ Lloyd’s Field Sports of North Europe.”]

Bears are fast passing away both in Northern Europe
and America. Many hundreds used to be killed in the
winter in some of the American States. The mode of
serving up the bear as a first course was, to roast it
whole, entrails, skin, and all, as one would barbecue a
hog. Most of the planters preferred bears’ flesh to all
other meat. Bears’ paws were long reckoned a great

* Daily Telegraph, March 31, 1880.

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 61

delicacy in Germany, and after being salted and smoked
were reserved for the tables of princes. The tongues
and hams are still in repute when obtainable.

A species of black bear, of medium height, is common
in the mountains of Japan, and is especially numerous
in the island of Yeso. The flesh is much esteemed by
the Japanese, who consider it an excellent game. But it
is only in winter that it is chased, when the snow obliges
it to descend into the valleys. It is during this season
that it is found in the markets, and the price ishigh. The
Europeans do not eat the flesh, except by way of curiosity.

The flesh of the Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is eaten
by the Esquimaux and the Danes in Greenland, and
when young and cooked after the manner of beefsteak,
is by no means to be despised, although rather insipid.
Dr. Scoresby tells us that the muscular fat is well-
flavoured and savory. “I once,” he adds, “treated my
surgeon to a dinner of bear’s ham, and he did not know
for above a month afterwards but that it was beef-
steak.” Some Russian sailors who wintered at Spitz-
bergen found bears’ flesh to be much more agreeable to
the taste than the flesh of the reindeer. The Esquimaux
prefer its flesh at all times to that of the seal.*

When care is taken not to soil the carcass with any of
the strong-smelling fluid exuded by the animal, the meat
of the skunk of America (Mephites Americana) is con-
sidered by the natives to be excellent food.

The flesh of the American badger (Meles Labradoris) is
said to be not inferior to that of the bear. That of the
European species (Jf Tarus) is reckoned a delicacy in
Italy and France, and may be cured like hams and
bacon. In China the flesh is a most common food, but
in Europe, the hind quarters are the only parts eaten ;
the hams being considered by many superior in flavour
to those of the hog.

In North America the flesh of the musk-rat (Fiber
sibethicus, Cuv.), is occasionally eaten in winter, being out

* See Parry’s “ Fourth Voyage 2

62 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

of season in summer, but itis insipid. With the Indians
however, it forms a constant article of diet at their
winter feasts. The animal is chiefly sought by the
trappers for its fur, the carcass being mostly thrown
away.

The flesh of the young sea otter (Enhydra marina) is
reported to be very delicate food, not unlike lamb in
flavour. Ido not know that the flesh of the European
land otter (Lutra vulgaris, Erkl.) is eaten, although many
hundreds are killed yearly in Hanover and other States.

The Muskars, a low class of woodmen in India, eat
the flesh of the Asiatic civet cat (Viverra Zibetha), and
the Chinese the flesh of the wild cat of Formosa (Felis
viverrina, Hodgson), although it has a strong civet
odour.

Dogs’ flesh as food—Arriving at the canine animals of
prey we find that among the ancient Greeks and Romans
the dog was dished up at table, and, according to Pliny,
roasted puppy dogs were considered excellent. Hippo-
crates was convinced that it was a light and wholesome
food. They were served up at sumptuous feasts and at
the festivals in honour of the consecration of the pontiffs.
Dogs were regularly fed by the Romans for the table,
and roast dog was one of the dishes most in vogue.*

Galen represents dog-meat as a highly desirable diet.
M. E. Blaze, a French author, remarks :—“J’ai mangé
plusieurs fois & l’'armée du chien et du chat; je préfeére
cette viande & celle du cheval.”

Many of the North American tribes look upon an
entrée of dog as the greatest possible bonne bouche they
can set before a stranger. Sir Leopold McClintock re-
lates that in the Sandwich Islands he had most profuse
apologies offered to him because there was no puppy
to be had for a feast to which he was invited. The
Esquimaux, too, look upon a dish of young dog as a
great treat; and it is related that a Danish captain pro-
vided his friends with a feast of this kind, and when

* Martin’s “‘ History of the Dog.”

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 63

they praised his mutton, sent for the skin of the beast
and exhibited it to them !*

Many nations still consider the flesh of the dog excel-
lent. In the Society Islands and parts of Africa, young
puppies are considered a great delicacy.

In China the poorer classes eat the flesh of all dogs,
but the rich only once or twice a year, under the idea
that dog’s flesh is a stimulant to the digestive functions.

“The dog mostly consumed by the Chinese is of a
small size, and usually of a light brown colour, covered
with a coat of soft, short hair, so thick as to look almost
like wool. But the Chinese housewife refuses to cook
dogs in the family pot, or in the domestic kitchen, and
they are driven to the alternative of being boiled in
the streets. On any morning, in certain open spaces at
street corners, the execution of a certain number of
unfortunate chow-chow dogs may be witnessed; after
which, being skinned, they are forthwith placed in a
suspended cauldron and the disjecta membra are then to
be seen simmering, and inviting the passer-by to stop
and dine, which they do, there and then.”

Captain Burton says the principal article of diet among
the Warori is fattened dogs’ flesh, of which the chiefs are
inordinately fond. Schweinfurth states the flesh of the
dog is not disdained by the Mittoo tribes inhabiting the
territory within the 5° and 6° northern latitude. The
Niam-niam also consider dogs dainty food. Lapdogs
are fattened and used as food by the Western Balonda.
The Somrais of Central Africa raise dogs, their flesh
forming an article of food luxury.

Bosman, in his “ Description of Guinea,” says, “the
negroes are great lovers of dogs’ flesh, and they will
willingly give a sheep for a good-sized dog. They preter
dogs’ flesh for their eating to that of cattle, and accord-
ingly esteem a meal of that the best treat they can take
or give.” The Africans of Zanzibar hold that a stew of

* Cassell’s “ Natural History ” and Ellis’s “ Hawaii.”
+ Collingwood’s “ Rambles of a Naturalist.”

64 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

puppies, as amongst us in the days of Charles IIL, is a
dish fit for a monarch.

Humboldt tells us that, though the custom of eating
the dog is disused on the banks of the Orinoco, it still
exists in some parts of Guiana and Mexico.

In Australia the aborigines will even eat the wild
dingo when hard pressed for food.

The Chinese, it is well known, have more curious’

habits and customs than any other people under the
sun; fattening dogs for the purpose of human food is
one of them, and in which a considerable trade is done.
They are small, and fed on an exclusively vegetable
diet. Mr. Cooper, who has been labouring to establish
an overland route from China to India, says that one
morning, as he was sitting down to breakfast at a “tea-
shop” in Hung-zachien, in the country of the Upper
Yang-tse-Kiang, he was informed that he was in luck,
as the proprietor just then happened to have a dog-ham
in cut, some slices of which he should have fried, a-deli-
cacy reserved only for mandarins like himself. At first
he was on the point of ordering away the horrid dish,
but, on second thoughts, he proceeded, with “ stoical
fortitude to taste doggie; one taste led to another,” and,
in summing up, he pronounced the dog-ham to be de-
licious in flavour, well-smoked, tender, and juicy. “It
was small, not much bigger than the leg of a good-sized
sucking-pig; the flesh was dark, and the-hair had been
carefully removed, while the paw had been left as a
stamp of its genuineness, as the proprietor remarked.
Dog-hams are justly considered a great delicacy in
China, and as such bring a very high price, costing as
much as five taels (1 tael = 6s. 6d.) per pound. They
are chiefly cured in the province of Hoonan, where
dogs of a peculiar breed are fattened for the purpose.
Hoonan is also famous for its pigs, and possesses a large
trade in bacon and ham, especially in pig-hams which
have been cured in the same tubs with dog-hams, and
are thereby considered to have acquired a finer flavour.”
In Cochin-China also dogs and foxes are eaten,

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 65

Mr. Gray, in his work “Fourteen Months in Canton,”
thus speaks of cats and dogs as human food :—“ The
black cat is much more prized for food than any other
of the feline race. We went upstairs leading to the
saloon, where several small dining tables were placed.
At one of these tables we saw a man with a little basin
full of steaming stew. We went to him and said ‘Meau?’
(cat), and he answered ‘ Yau’ (yes). It had a very dark
appearance (warranted black cat, I should think), and
had a most savoury smell. On the wall a bill of fare
was placed, stating the cost of a repast of dog and cat.
This is the correct rendering: ‘One tael of black dog’s
flesh, 8 cash ; one tael weight of black dog’s fat, 3 kan-
dereens of silver; one basin of black ecat’s flesh, 100 cash ;
one smal] basin of black cat’s flesh, 50 cash; and one pair
of black cat’s eyes, 3 kandereens of silver.’ These restau-
rants are crowded at the celebration of the Hachi, or fes-
tival of the summer solstice, by men of all ranks. To
eat dog’s flesh, especially black dog’s flesh, on that day
is to secure the eater against sickness for the summer.”

The young dogs are brought to market in baskets

made of bamboo, as also are young cats intended for the
table. When delivered to the cook they are killed,
scalded in boiling water, and the skin scraped with
the blade of a knife to remove the hair, as is done with
a pig.
When boiled, the flesh is cut up into small pieces that
can be eaten with the chopsticks, each piece being dipped
in soy and mixed with fish or rice. The young dogs
and cats are highly esteemed as food dainties by the rich
Chinese, while the poorer classes do not disdain the old
animals. The Japanese eat dogs’ flesh, but only ex-
ceptionally.

Never was the ancient adage, “there is no accounting
for tastes,” more quaintly illustrated than in a surprising
story related in the London Daily Telegraph of March 20,
1880 :—“One Peschka, an innkeeper of Neustadt, in
Bohemia, was bitten some weeks ago by his own house-
dog. Unwilling to slay the animal on bare suspicion of

F

66 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

its sanity, he consigned it to the town grave-digger,
enjoining that functionary to take care of it until fur-
ther orders respecting its ultimate fate should be im-
parted to him. A few days later, however, Peschka was
attacked by hydrophobia, of which horrible malady he
died in excruciating agony. The sanitary authorities of
Neustadt forthwith applied to the gravedigger for the
mad dog committed to his custody, intending to have it
destroyed. Their astonishment may be more readily
conceived than described when the sexton, in answer to
their requisition, calmly observed, ‘The mad dog? I
have eaten him!’ ‘You have eaten the mad dog?’ in-
credulously exclaimed a horror-stricken sanitary official.
‘ Better that than he should eat me!’ rejoined the philo-
sophical grave-digger. It would appear not only that
this man of strange appetites had swallowed and digested
the rabid animal, but that it had agreed with him; for,
as the story runs, he is still in the enjoyment of robust
health, and pursues his professional avocations with
unabated vigour.”

In May, 1842, a butcher of Besancon was sentenced
by the Tribunal of Correction to three months’ im-
prisonment for selling dog instead of kid to his cus-
tomers.

How the tastes of men differ! Forster, in his “ Voyage
Round the World,” thus expresses himself: “In our cold
countries, where animal food is so much used, and where
to be carnivorous perhaps lies in the nature of man, or
is indispensably necessary to the preservation of health
and strength, it is strange that there should exist a
Jewish aversion to dogs’ flesh, when hogs, the most un-
clean of all animals, are eaten without scruple. Nature
seems to have expressly intended them for this use by
making their offspring so very numerous and_their in-
crease so quick and frequent.” ‘a

Mr. Wilson, who quotes the above, adds: “There is
no reason why it should not be more extensively prac-
tised in Europe. We know, for example, that Captain
Cook’s recovery from a serious illness at sea, if not

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 67

entirely owing to, was at least greatly ameliorated by
the broth and flesh of a dog.” *

“ Amongst the Society Islands,” says Mr. Frederick
Bennet, “the aboriginal dog, which was formerly eaten
as a delicacy by the natives, is now extinct or merged
into mongrel breeds by propagation with many exotic
varieties. At the Sandwich group, where the inhabit-
ants have been more remarkable for the use of this
animal as food, and where that custom is yet perti-
naciously retained, the pure breed of the Poe dog has
been better protected, and although becoming yearly
more searce, examples of it are yet to be met with in
all the islands, but principally as a delicacy for the use
of the chiefs. As late as October, 1835, I noticed in the
populous and well-civilised town of Honolulu, at Oahu,
a skinned dog suspended at the door of a house of enter-
tainment for natives, to denote what sumptuous fare
might be obtained within.” +

Anson, in his voyage round the world, speaking of
Juan Fernandez, says: “These dogs, who are masters of
all the accessible parts of the island, are of various kinds,
some of them very large, and are multiplied to a prodi-
gious degree. They sometimes came down to our habi-
tations at night and stole our provisions, and once or
twice they set upon single persons; but assistance being
at hand, they were driven off without doing any mis-
chief. As at present it is rare for goats to fall in their
way, we conceived that they lived principally on young
seals; and indeed some of our people had the curiosity
to kill dogs sometimes and dress them, and it seemed to
be agreed that they had a fishy taste.”

Foxes as Food—tThe flesh of the Arctic fox, particularly
when young, is edible, whilst that of the red fox is ill-
tasting, rank, and disagreeable, and eaten only through
necessity. Sir John Franklin’s party and other Arctic

* Wilson’s “Essays on the Origin and Natural History of

Domestic Animals.”
t “ Dogs, etc.,” by Lieut.-Colonel C. Hamilton Smith, p. 211.

F2

68 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

voyagers agreed with Hearne in comparing the flavour
of a young Arctic fox to that of the American hare.
Captain Lyon considered it to resemble the flesh of a
kid. In Ross’s voyage they were named lambs, from
their resemblance in flavour to very young lamb.

“The flesh,” observes Sir James Ross, “ of the old fox
is by no means so palatable, and the water it is boiled
in becomes so acrid as to excoriate the mouth and tongue.
During our late expedition they constituted one of the
principal luxuries of our table, and were always re-
served for holidays and great occasions. We ate them
ae or more frequently parboiled, roasted in a pitch

ettle.”

Mr. Kennedy, in his “ Voyage to the Arctic Regions,”
speaks of the delicacy of a fox pie, which was pronounced
by competent authorities in his mess to be equal to rab-
bit, but then he honestly admits that there were others
to whom it suggested uncomfortable reminiscences of
dead cats, and who generally preferred the opposite side
of the table when this dish made its appearance. Tastes,
however, seem to differ, and much no doubt depends on
the keenness of the appetite and the choice there may
be at table. °

Ata dinner given after a grand wolf hunt at Genis
(Dordogne) by M. Piston d’Aubonne, master of the wolf-
hounds, a dish of cutlets was served from one of the
animals killed, but they were found very tough and
insipid.

At another sportsman’s dinner in the department of
Correze, fillets of fox flesh were cooked and declared to
be excellent eating. They eat foxes in Italy, where they
are sold dear, and thought fit for the table of a cardinal.

Passing now to the feline or cat-like animals of prey
—the terrible wild hunters of the forests and deserts—
we find many of these are in turn devoured by man.

Lions.—The flesh of the lion is eaten by the Hotten-
tots; and a tribe of Arabs between Tunis and Algeria,
according to Blumenbach, live almost entirely upon it
when they can get it. After a lion has been killed and .

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 69

the skin ‘removed the flesh is divided, and the mothers
take each a small piece of the animal’s heart and give
it to their male children to eat, in order to render them
strong and courageous.

It would seem from the Journal of the Marquis of
Hastings, when Governor-General of India, that this
superstition as to eating lion’s flesh is as strong in India,
for it is stated :—“ Anxious interest was made with our
servants for a bit of the flesh, though it should be but
the size of a hazel-nut. Every native in the camp, male
or female, who was fortunate enough to get a morsel,
dressed it and ate it. They have a strong conviction
that the eating of a piece of lion’s flesh strengthens the
constitution incalculably, and is a preservative against
many particular distempers. The idea that a person
imbibes the characteristics of an animal which he eats is
very widely distributed. The Malays at Singapore used
to give a large price for the flesh of the tiger, not be-
cause they liked it, but because they believed that the
man who eats tiger’s flesh will become as wise and power-
ful as that animal.” The Dyaks of Borneo have a pre-
judice against the flesh of the deer, which the men may
not eat, though it is allowed to the women and children.
The reason given is that if the men were to eat venison
they would become as timid as deer.

The Caribs will not eat the flesh of pigs or of tortoises,
lest they should get small eyes. The Dacotahs of North
America eat the liver of the dog that they may become
as wise and brave as that animal.

The flesh of the lion has been eaten with gusto even
by Europeans ; for Madame Bedichon, in her work on
“ Algeria,” states that at Oran a lion was killed which
three days before had eaten a man, and the Préfet gave
a grand dinner, the principal dish being part of the lion,
which the French guests assembled ate with great relish.

More recently a magnificent quarter of a lion, shot in
the neighbourhood of Philippeville, Algeria, by M. Con-
stant Cheret, was sent to the Restaurant Magny, Paris,
and served up to a party of nineteen guests, who enjoyed

70 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

with gusto “Estouffade de leon & la meridionale,” and
“ Coeur de leon a la Castellane.”

The flesh of the American jaguar or panther is con-
sidered not bad eating, and that of the wild cat of
Louisiana is also reported to be excellent. The former
is eaten in Central and South America. Mr. Darwin,
in his “ Journal of a Naturalist,” tells us that he supped
on it, and found the meat very white and remarkably
like veal in taste.

Mr. Wallace, when travelling up the Amazon, one day
had some steaks of a jaguar (Fels onca) on his table, and
found the meat very white and without any bad taste.
“Tt appears evident to me,” he adds, “that the common
idea of the food of an animal determining the quality of
its flesh is quite erroneous. Domestic poultry and pigs
are the most unclean animals in their food, yet their
flesh is highly esteemed, while field rats and squirrels,
which eat only vegetable food, are in general dis-
repute.”

Carnivorous fish are not less delicate eating than
herbivorous ones, and there appears no reason why
some carnivorous animals should not furnish whole-
some and palatable food. The low Arabs do not object
to the flesh of the hyzena, although the smell of the car-
cass is so rank and offensive that even dogs leave it with
disgust.

The natives eat the flesh of the Canada lynx (Felis
Canadensis, Geoffroy), which is white and tender but
rather flavourless, much resembling that of the Ameri-
can hare. The European species (/ lynx) is also eaten
in Switzerland and in Siberia.

Opossums and Bandicoots——We have not quite done
with the Carnivora, for the flesh of some of the carnivo-
rous marsupials, such as the opossums, bandicoots and
tiger cats, are eaten by man.

The vulpine or brushtailed opossum (Phalangista vul-
pina) is the staff of life to the natives of Australia.
Mr. Gerardt Krafft says:—“I often admired my native
friends, when, after a hard day’s unsuccessful hunting,

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 71

they dropped in at the camp empty-handed, how care-
fully they would examine the large flooded gum-trees
fringing the river banks, how nimbly they would get a
footing upon some” hollow limb, and with what perse-
verance ‘ Possum’ was dislodged and perhaps accidentally
dropped into the river, whence it had to be rescued by
the black fellow’s better-half; for it was the question of
‘to eat or not to eat.’”

The flesh of that most malodorous marsupial, the com-
mon opossum (Didelphys Virginiana) is eaten in some of
the States of North America, and is said to be white and
well tasted.

In Rio Grande do Sul and other provinces of Brazil,
they bury it in the earth until the flesh is free from its
characteristic offensive smell; before cooking, the axil-
lary glands must first be extracted.

An American named Chancey has lately started a
novel business at Hawkinsville, near Savannah, for
raising opossums on a farm enclosed with wire fencing.
As the average piney wood opossum finds a ready sale
at about 2s., a fine fat stall-fed opossum will bring double
that amount.

The flesh of the Australian bandicoot (Perameles
obesula) is delicious, especially when done in the native
style, that is, the hair removed and the game roasted
upon the coals. The native tiger cat (Dasyurus Geof-
Jroyi), the most bloodthirsty of the marsupial animals of
Australia, is eaten by the natives.

Kangaroos.—The flesh of all the herbivorous marsupials
is good. The forequarters indeed of the larger kangaroos
are somewhat inferior, and are usually given to the dogs ;
but from the hinder quarters some fine steaks may be
cut. These cooked in the same manner as venison col-
lops, are, to- most palates, very little inferior to the latter.
The flesh of the large kangaroo, as well as that of the
wallaby, is often dressed in the shape of a hash, and in
this form also it is excellent. But the most admired part
of the kangaroo is his tail. This is of enormous size in
proportion to the rest of the body, the tail of a full-

72 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

grown forester usually weighing ten or twelve pounds.
It makes a superb soup, very much superior to ox-tail.

The wallaby, too, is most commonly used for soup.

The early settlers in the Australian colonies were
more driven to eat kangaroo flesh than the present ones.

On the 21st April, 1806, we find the following entry
in a book on ‘Tasmania :—

“There being a necessity for making every possible
saving of the salted meat remaining in His Majesty’s
stores, the commissary will receive kangaroo or emu at
one shilling per pound, if brought to the stores on Mon-
days and Fridays, taking in only the hind quarters
perfectly sweet, and issuing the same at the rate of two
pounds of fresh for one of salted meat.”

The forester is the largest of the kangaroo family, and
is frequently found of two hundred pounds weight. The
large male of the species is generally called the “old man
kangaroo” by the colonists. The wallaby (Halmaturus
sp.) and the pademelon (H. thetidis) are much smaller ;
the average weight of the wallaby is about twelve or
fourteen pounds, and that of the pademelon nine or ten
pounds. The pademelon when cooked like a hare affords
a dish with which the most fastidious gourmand might
be satisfied.

The kangaroo rat (Bettongia rufescens) seldom weighs
more than three or four pounds; it is not, as its name
would import, anything of the rat species, but a perfect
kangaroo in miniature. The flesh of the kangaroo rat
resembles that of a rabbit, and it eats best when cooked
in the same manner. This small animal is but little
eaten, except by thorough bushmen, owing to the pre-
judice excited by the unfortunate name which has been
bestowed upon it; but those who have once conquered
this prejudice usually become fond of it, as the flesh is
very palatable.

The flesh of the great red kangaroo (Osphranter rufus)
is very palatable, indeed more so than that of Macropus
major. That of the bridle nail-tailed kangaroo (Onycho-
galea frenata) is white and well tasted.

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS, 73

The flesh of the hare kangaroo (Lagorchestes leporoides)
is delicious ; in fact Mr. Kreft says it yields some of the
best meat he ever tasted.

The wombat (Phascolomys wombat) is another Aus-
tralian marsupial, which sometimes weighs 140 lbs. The
flesh is said by some to be not unlike venison, while
others compare it to lean mutton.

The flesh of the taguar or great flying phalanger
(Petaurista taguarioides), a native of Australia, is said to
be very good, and as the animal is a tolerably large one,
it is a favourite article of diet among the white and
black inhabitants of the country. It is, however, so
extremely difficult of capture, that without the assist-
ance of native aid, the white man would seldom be able
to make a dinner on this creature.*

The oil which can be obtained from a fat woodchuck
(Arectomys mona, Lin.) has some value, and when rightly
killed the meat is relished by some as food; the Indians
consider the flesh of the hoary marmot (A. pruinosus,
Pennant) as delicious food.

Considerable parties of Indians have been known to
subsist for a time on the tawny marmot (Arctomys
Richardsonti, Sabine) when the larger game is scarce ;
their flesh is palatable when they are fat.

The flesh of the Hudson’s Bay squirrel, or red
chickaree (Sciurus Hudsonius, Pennant), is tender and
edible, but that of the male has a strong murine
flavour.

Among the squirrels which are eaten are the fox
squirrel (Sciurus cinereus), the gray squirrel (S. caro-
inensis), the California gray squirrel (S. jfossor), the
tuft-eared squirrel (S. aberti), and the flying squirrel
(Sciuropterus volucelila). In the San Francisco market
squirrels sell at 3s. to 4s. the dozen, and wild rabbits at
7s. to 8s. per dozen. The flesh of the squirrel is said to
taste like that of the rabbit, but more juicy.

All the rodents are eaten by the natives of Australia,

* Routledge’s “ Natural History.”

74 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

but only in case of no other food being at hand, as a
large number of these little creatures are wanted to
satisfy the hunger of a black fellow.

Rats.— Williams, in his Account of China, tells us that
rats are very abundant, and furnish the common people
with meat. Rats and mice, that shun the light of day, are
not only eaten now by the Mongol races, but by other
more civilised people. The Mongol fattens them like
pigs, butchers them with care, and carries them on long
white poles to market. © :

The wild cat is a very dainty dish among the West
Indian negroes.* The negroes in Brazil, like the abori-
gines in Australia, eat every rat they can catch.

It is a remarkable fact that there are no rats in the
islands of the Pacific Ocean. Repeated attempts have
been made to acclimatise the rodents there, as the
flesh is much relished by the natives as an article of
food, but the attempts thus far have failed, for they
invariably die of consumption. _

The mouse, to the Esquimaux epicure, is a real bonne
bouche, and if he can catch half-a-dozen he runs a piece
of horn or twig through them, in the same manner as
the Leadenhall poulterers will larks; and, without stop-
ping to skin or divest them of their entrails, broils them
over the fire, and considers them a tit-bit.

I do not see why field rats should not be well tasted
and wholesome meat, seeing that their food is entirely
vegetable, and that they are clean, sleek, and plump.

The negroes on the West India plantations will often
roast the cane-piece rats in the stoke-holes of the sugar-
boiling houses, and those who have tasted them declare
them to be very good eating.

So fat do the rats become in the West Indies, from
feeding on the sugar canes, that most of the blacks
esteem them highly, and, with the addition of chillies
and other spiceries, make of them a delicate fricassee,
not to be surpassed by a dish of frogs. As there is a rat-

* Brown’s “History of Jamaica.”

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 75

catcher on every estate, who is paid a reward of so much
per dozen for the rats’ tails he brings in, rats are very
cheap. These rats’ tails might perhaps be utilised, for a
paragraph going the round of the papers tells us, that at a
recent banquet at the Trois Fréres, Paris, the novel
feature of rats’-tail soup was introduced ; but it did not
come up to ox-tail by any means.

Everyone has heard of rats being eaten during the
siege of Paris; but perhaps it is not known that in
Belgium a society of rat-eaters has been formed.

After the siege of Paris, when rats’ flesh was at a
premium and the rodents were nearly exterminated in
the crusade carried on against them, these animals once
more increased prodigiously, until the great sewers which
run beneath the streets of the city now swarm with
them, and hence frequent battues have to be made with
packs of terriers by the municipal authorities.

The Rev. J. G. Wood, a well-known naturalist, lec-
turing recently, spoke very favourably of rat pie.

“Tt is made,” he says, “in precisely the same manner
as rabbit pie, the only difference being that in the case
of the rat pie the result is far more delicious. The cook
should be careful to procure as fine rats as possible, cut
off their tails, skin, dress, and wash them, then cut
them into four pieces, and add a few morsels of pork fat.
When cooked and cold the pie is full of the most
delicious jelly.” He had often, he added, been ‘dining
with his friends when they left the most delicious viands
on the table untouched, while every scrap of the rat pie
had been devoured.

Dr. Buller says a native rat formerly abounded to such
an extent in the wooded parts of New Zealand, that it con-
stituted the principal animal food of the Maori tribes of
that period. The introduced Norway rat (Mus decumanus)
has now exterminated and supplanted its predecessor.

The loir or dormouse (Myovus glis, Lin., Desm.) was
once in great request as a dainty for the table, numbers
being cooped up and artificially fattened by the Romans.
Tt is even now eaten in Italy.

76 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Hares and Rabbits—Of the rodents the hares and
rabbits are, however, best known as food, and con-
tribute very largely to the European meat supply.

In France about 70,000,000 of hares and rabbits are
consumed annually, and in this country some estimates
set the numbers down at 30,000,000. Those sold by
the dealers form but a small proportion of what are
eaten. A few years ago the average price of a hare was
half-a-crown or three shillings; but it has now risen
considerably, not owing to a decreased supply, but, as is
the case in many other instances, to the increase of the
number of persons who can afford to indulge in luxuries.
It is a forbidden food to Jews and Mahomedans, and our
British ancestors also refused to eat hares, from some
religious objection to them.

The rabbit is very popular with the working classes,
and in almost any form is good and acceptable food.
The flesh in its general character more resembles that
of a fowl than does the hare. Both wild rabbits and
Ostend bred rabbits have advanced a third in price of
late years.

Each case of Ostend rabbits contains, on an average,
six dozen. They are sent from Antwerp, Flushing, and
Calais, as well as Ostend, but are all sold as Ostend.
About 200 tons come in weekly. About 2,000,000 rabbits
were imported in the first five months of 1880; but this
was far below the average of the previous years, the wet
season of 1879 having killed large numbers of rabbits.

So rapidly have rabbits increased in the Australian
colonies since their introduction, that the colonists find a
difficulty in keeping them down, and they are slaugh-
tered wholesale merely for their skins, their flesh being
a drug. Some establishments have, however, set to
work to preserve them in tins, and they are now shipped
to England, stewed, boiled with onions, curried and
fricasseed.

As an instance of how the work of rabbit extermina-
tion is going on in some of the up-country districts, the
Tuapeka Times, of New Zealand, states that on one day

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS, 77

40,000 skins were brought to the railway station, there
to be despatched to Port Chalmers for shipment to the
London market. Those skins were brought from Strode
and Fraser’s Earnscleuch Station, Clyde. These gentle-
men employ eighteen poisoners on the station, while six
men with pack-horses (known as “ packers”) are engaged
in conducting traffic between the Home Station and the
rabbiters’ camp in the ranges, carrying. out poisoned
wheat and necessary supplies, and returning with the
rabbit skins. Two men and a clerk find full employ-
ment at the station in making up poisoned wheat, and
fixing up and despatching the bales. A waggoner is
engaged in conveying wheat to the Home Station, and
bales of skins from there to Lawrence. Some days pre-
vious he brought down 22,000 skins; on one day, as
we have said, he had 40,000, and at the station, when
he left it, there were other 40,000 in readiness to be
despatched to the railway; and still there are no symp-
toms of the traffic diminishing. Messrs. Strode and
Fraser supply the rabbiters with poisoned grain at the
rate of 8s. per 100 lbs., and purchase the rabbit skins at
2d. each. The men are earning from 20s. to 30s. a day,
and more men would be taken on, but cannot be had.
Some of the so-called “unemployed ” were offered work,
but declined it, preferring their chance of loafing on the
industrious along the road. While these particulars
refer to Karnscleugh Station, it is only fair to mention
that the other runholders are pursuing similar measures
in concert, and by arrangement arrived at in public
meeting.

South Australia has gone in largely for preserving
rabbits for shipment to Europe. At Kapuna Factory
the rabbits are caught at night, disembowelled on the
ground, and then carried to the company’s works. Here,
one after another in quick succession, heads (subse-
quently boiled down for jelly) and legs are removed, and
the skins pulled off in a twinkling. The bodies are
slightly salted (to remove the blood) and then washed.
Thirty men are employed by the company, and more lads

78 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

are required. The tins are made by three or four men in
the same room, each man turning out 300 or 400 tins a
day. These tins—the chopped up rabbits having been
placed in them—are tied in a crate, and then lowered
into a tank, where being hermetically sealed, they are
boiled for eight hours by steam. At the end of this
period the tins are removed and the little hole at the
top is reopened in order to permit the steam, which has
accumulated during the process of cooking, to pass off.
Before any air can enter, the hole is again soldered.
The tins are then left to cool, and subsequently painted,
branded, and boxed. In 1877, 764 cases of these tins
of preserved rabbits were received here from South
Australia.

During 1881 83 millions of rabbit skins were exported
from New Zealand, valued at £84,744, and in 1883 we
received from thence 12,361,224, valued at £119,461.
From Victoria there were shipped in the same year
5,570,341 skins, valued at £67,271, but we have no in-
formation as to what quantity of the rabbits were con-
sumed for food. A premium of 3d. per skin is given by
the Government.

Although rabbits are plentiful in the southern parts
of Chili and on the islands of the coast, the Spaniards
and Indians have as great a prejudice to their flesh as
the Jews to pork; hence they are never eaten. The
negroes in the West Indies also dislike rabbits, while
they will eat almost any other kind of animal food.
The inhabitants of many islands in the Greek Archi-
pelago live almost entirely on rabbits’ flesh.

Beaver.—The flesh of the beaver is much prized by the
Indian and Canadian voyageurs, especially when it is
roasted in the skin, after the hair has been singed off. In
some districts it requires all the influence of the fur trader
to restrain the hunters from sacrificing a considerable
quantity of beaver furs every year, to secure the enjoy-
ment of this luxury ; Indians of note have generally one
or two feasts in a season, wherein a roasted beaver is the
prime dish. The meat resembles pork in flavour, but

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 79

the lean is dark-coloured, the fat oily, and it requires a
strong stomach to sustain a full meal of it. The tail,
which is considered a great luxury, consists of a gristly
kind of fat, as rich, but not so nauseating, as the fat of
the body.

Porcupines—The Indians and hunters in the United
States and about the Rocky Mountain ranges, eat the
flesh of the Canadian porcupine (Hystrix pilosus, Catesby),
but to a more refined taste it would be unpalatable.

The flesh of the common crested porcupine (Hystriz cris-
tata), like that of most purely vegetable-feeding rodents,
is considered very delicate food, and is often eaten at din-
ners in Rome, being sold at 5d. per pound, the porcupine
being not uncommon in the Campagna. It is said there
that they should be cooked like a hare, or with wine
sauce, like a wild boar. Porcupines are common in
Algeria and parts of the west coast of Africa, and their
flesh is much liked. Porcupine and palaver sauce is an
esteemed dish at Fernando Po.

The flesh of the young porcupine is very good eating
and nutritious food. To be cooked properly it should
be boiled first and roasted afterwards. This is necessary
to soften the thick, gristly skin, which is the best part
of the animal. The Dutch and the Hottentots in
Southern Africa are very fond of it. The flesh is said
to eat better when it has been hung in the smoke of a
chimney a couple of days. ;

The flesh of the tree porcupines of South America
(Synetheres prehensilis and S. villosus) is also said to be
delicate and tender. If soit very much belies the odour
which proceeds from the body.

There are two species of paca or agouti, the Celogemys
JSulvus and C.'subniger. The flesh of the agouti is white,
tender, and well-tasted, and when fat and well-dressed
is by no means unpalatable food. Waterton, however,
says its flesh is dry, with scarcely any fat. It has been
sometimes termed the rabbit of South America. The
flesh of the cavy, a smaller species, also resembles it.
The paca or spotted cavy (Celogemys paca), is one of

80 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

the best game animals of Brazil. Its flesh is said to be
much esteemed, and forms a staple article of food in
many parts of South America.

The flesh of the guinea pig is white and savoury. It
used to be served up at table as a rarity in former
times. That of the wild species (Cavia caprera), common
in Central America, is very delicate.

The flesh of the biscacha (Calomys biscacha), when
cooked, is very white and good, but is seldom used, other
animal food being so abundant in South America.

There are a few of the toothless animals (Edentata)
which are laid under contribution for food. Wallace
tells us he found the flesh of the sloth tender and palat-
able; it is esteemed a great delicacy by the Indians,
who hunt the animal for the purposes of food. The
echidna, or native porcupine of Australia, which belongs
to this order, is said to taste well.

The flesh of the great anteater (Myrmecophaga jubata)
is esteemed a delicacy by the Indians and negroes in
Brazil and Western Africa, and though black and of a
strong musky flavour, is sometimes even met with at
the tables of the Europeans. Feeding largely on the so-
called ants’ eggs, the flesh of the anteater of Australia 3
delicate meat, resembling that of a young sucking pig,
and is considered superior to hare.

Most of the varieties of armadillo are used for food in
South America. Waterton considered their flesh strong
and rank, but throughout the whole of South America
roast armadillo is highly esteemed, and may be seen in
all the cafés and restaurants of the cities turned on their
scaly backs feet uppermost, and the interior filled with a
rich sauce composed of lemons and spices. _

Peludos, or armadillos (Dasypus sexcinctus), are con-
sidered a very dainty dish by the natives and colonists
when roasted in their skin, and served up in their shell
or case. Mulitas (D. hybridus) are almost the same as
peludos, and have such powerful claws, that if once
they get their heads underground it is impossible to
pull them out. The flesh of another species, the tatou

fo}

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS, 81

(Dasypus villosus), of the River Plate, is one of the most
exquisite meats that can be eaten.

“ Possessed of a most overpowering and unpleasant
smell of musk, the taurec (Centetes ecaudatus) is not an
animal which would be supposed to furnish an agreeable
article of diet to any one, except to a starving man in
the last extremity of hunger. Yet the natives of Mada-
gascar esteem it among their rarest luxuries, and are so
tenacious of this very powerful food, that they can
hardly be induced to part with a specimen which they
have captured, and which they have already dedicated
in anticipation to the composition of some wonderful
specimen of the cook’s art.”*

They hybernate from June to December, and as they
are very fat when they first burrow, they are regarded
as delicacies in Madagascar and Réunion, and pursued
with great avidity.

* Routledge’s “ Natural History.”

82 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.
FLesH Foop rrom MamMMALs.—Continued.

Pachyderms — Elephants — Hippopotami — Rhinoceros—Tapir—
Peccary—Swine — Immense Numbers in North America —
Our Large Imports of Bacon, Hams, etc., from the United
States—Wild Boars—Statistics of Swine in Various Countries
— Consumption of Pork in France — Horseflesh Haten in
China, Europe, and America—Statistics of Horses—Increase
of Consumption of Horseflesh in Europe—Asses and Mules
also Eaten—Quagga and Zebra—The Ruminants—Statistics
of Horned Cattle over the World—Consumption in the United
Kingdom — Average Weights in Different Countries — Beef
Imported into England — Quantity Sold in the London
Markets— Averagé Prices — Buffaloes — Statistics of Sheep
in Various Countries—Large Imports of Carcases from New
Zealand — Imports of Sheep to the London Markets and
Comparative Prices—Average Weight of Different Kinds of
Sheep—Goats’ Flesh—Flesh of the Camel Tribe—Alpaca—
Giraffe — Venison — Reindeer — Moose or Elk-—Antelopes—
Eland—Bison—Marine Mammals—Whales—Seals—Sea Lion
—Sea Elephant—Walrus—Dugongs—Dolphins—Porpoises.

WE now have to treat of flesh food obtained from the
pachyderms, ruminants and amphibious mammals. We
will take first the thick-skinned quadrupeds.

The great pachyderms belong chiefly to the African
continent, although some are common to Asia. Among
them are the elephant, hippopotamus, and rhinoceros.

Elephants’ flesh—The flesh of this great animal, when it
cannot be eaten fresh, is in Africa, Asia and Ceylon either
simply sun-dried or salted and smoked. The whole of
the flesh is cut into thongs like the reins of a bridle,
which are hung in festoons on the branches of trees till
they become perfectly dry.

Gordon Cumming thus speaks of it :—*The flesh of
the elephant is cut into strips, varying from six to twenty

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 83

feet and about two inches in breadth and thickness. It
is then placed on poles and allowed to dry in the sun
for two or three days, after which it is packed into
bundles, each man carrying off his share to his wife and
family.” He then speaks of the dainty dishes of baked
elephant’s feet and elephant’s trunk.

The flesh of the elephant is relished by the inhabitants
of many districts of Africa and Asia. Major Denham
speaks of it as being esteemed by all, and even eaten in
secret by the first people about the Sheik, and he adds
that though it looked coarse, it was better flavoured than
any beef he found in the country.

The ancient Romans considered the trunk as the most
delicious part, but others fancy the foot to be the best.
What are sheep’s trotters and insipid boiled calves’ feet
compared to baked elephants’ feet? Gordon Cumming
thus describes the whole art and mystery of the pro-
cess of preparing them :—

“ The four feet are amputated at the fetlock joint, and
the trunk, which at the base is about two feet in thick-
ness, is cut into convenient lengths. Trunk and feet are
then baked, preparatory to their removal to headquarters.
The manner in which this is done is as follows :—A party,
provided withsharp-pointed sticks, dig a hole in the ground
for each foot and a portion of the trunk. These holes are
about two feet deep anda yard in width; the excavated
earth is embanked around the margin of the holes. This
work being completed, they next collect an immense
quantity of dry branches and trunks of trees, of which
there is always a profusion scattered around, having
been broken by the elephants in former years. These
they pile above the holes to the height of eight or nine
feet, and then set fire to the heap. When these strong
fires have burnt down, and the whole of the wood is
reduced to ashes, the holes and the surrounding earth
are heated to a high degree. Ten or twelve men then
stand round the pit and take out the ashes with a pole
about sixteen feet in length, having a hook at the end.
They relieve one another in quick succession, each man

G2

84 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

running in and raking the ashes for a few seconds, and
then pitching the pole to his comrade, and retreating,
since the heat is so intense that it is scarcely to be en-
dured. When all the ashes are thus raked out beyond
the surrounding bank of earth, each elephant’s foot and
portion of the trunk is lifted by two athletic men, stand-
ing side by side, who place it on their shoulders, and, ap-
proaching the pit together, they heave it into it. The
long pole is now again resumed, and with it they shove
in the heated bank of earth upon the foot, shoving and
raking until it is completely buried in the earth. The
hot embers, of which there is always a great supply, are
then raked into a heap above the foot, and another bon-
fire is kindled over each, which is allowed to burn down
and die a natural death; by which time the enormous
foot or trunk will be found to be equally baked through- .
out its inmost parts. When the foot is supposed to be —
ready, it is taken out of the ground with pointed sticks,
and is first well beaten, and then scraped with an assegai,
whereby adhering particles of sand are got rid of. The
outside is then pared off, and it is transfixed with a sharp
stake for facility of carriage. The feet thus cooked are
excellent, as is also the trunk, which very much resembles
buffalo’s tongue.”

These certainly not “petit” toes when pickled in strong
toddy, vinegar and cayenne pepper, are considered an
Apician luxury in Ceylon.

Le Vaillant tells us that he found baked elephant’s
foot was food fit for a king. “I had often heard (he
adds) the feet of bears boasted of, but I could not con-
‘ceive how an animal so heavy and coarse as the elephant
could produce so tender and delicate flesh. ‘Never (said
I to myself), never can our modern Luculli display upon
their tables a dish like that which Inow enjoy. In vain
with their riches do they change and reverse the seasons;
in vain do they boast of laying all Nature under contri-
bution; their luxury has never yet attained to this grati-
fication ; bounds are prescribed to their sensuality.’ And
I devoured without bread my elephant’s foot, while my

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS, 85

Hottentots seated near me regaled themselves with other
parts, which they found no less excellent.”

Opinions seem to differ on this head, for Captain A.
Lindley, an African traveller, observes: “I cannot say
much in favour of elephant’s foot, though it is the bonne
bouche of all Kaffirs. The Umzielas cooked it in an oven
they made in the ground and then piled up fire on top.
In flavour it was more like very soft leather and glue
mixed together than anything else that I can compare
it to.”

Cuvier remarks that the trunk, being composed of a
mixture of delicate muscular fibres and rich fat, would
necessarily, when properly prepared, afford an article of
food that might be very palatable. Pliny, in his
“Natural History,’ having never perhaps tasted this
viand, observes :—“ Luxury has discovered even another
recommendation in this animal, having found a particu-
larly delicate flavour in the cartilaginous part of the
trunk, for no other reason, in my belief, than because it
fancies itself to be eating ivory.” But ivory is ab- ,
solutely frequently eaten now, for the ivory dust col-
lected from the ivory turners is sold at about 6d. a
pound and makes excellent jellies.

Hippopotami.—The ivory hunter on the bank of an
African river having killed a hippopotamus for the sup-
per of his negro attendants, leisurely watches their pro-
ceedings in preparing the feast, and observes that the
entrails, without being cleansed, are carefully preserved
as the choicest morsel, and subsequently cut up and dis-
tributed in shares to the party according to rank.
When slightly roasted they are devoured with unmis-
takable signs of enjoyment. Being disposed, philoso-
phically, to inquire into the nature of things, the hunter
tries the taste of the extraordinary food, and leaves on
record that the savages are certainly not without reason
for their preference.

The flesh of the hippopotamus is much eaten by the
natives of Africa, and even by Europeans it is not to be
despised, although travellers seem to disagree as to its

86 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

merits. Cumming says the flesh is excellent eating,
and Baker appears to agree with him, while Dr. Living-
stone speaks of it as being pretty good food when one is
hungry and cannot get anything better, but that it
is a coarse-grained meat, having a flavour something
between pork and beef. :

The flesh of the hippopotamus is well esteemed, and
the meat, according to Du Chaillu, does not taste unlike
beef. He considers it rather coarse-grained, and not
fat, but a weleome and wholesome dish.

A fine young specimen which was exhibited in the
Crystal Palace was roasted alive when the eastern wing
of that palace was burned, in December, 1866. The
hippopotamus was a black, leathery-looking, charred
mass. Upon being more closely examined, it did not
at all appear so distasteful a morsel as at a first glance.
True, the skin was leathéry and charred, but it had
split in places, like cracknel, exposing a beautifully-
delicate white meat or fat underneath. Dr. Crisp se-
cured it, and he has given an account of his dissection
of it in the “Proceedings of the Zoological Society,
1867,” p. 601.

He there tells us that one side of the animal was well
roasted, and that he supplied some of his friends with
the meat thus cooked—gipsy fashion—and partook of
it several times himself. He reports the flavour as ex-
cellent, and the colour of the flesh whiter than that of
any veal he ever saw. The fat lay under the skin as in
the hog, and not in the interior as in the elephant; it
was about 14 inches in thickness.

In South Africa hippopotamus meat is in request both
among natives and colonists, and the epicures of Cape
Town do not disdain to use their influence with the
country farmers to obtain a preference in the matter of
“sea cow's speck,” (as the fat which lies immediately
under the skin is called,) when salted and dried.

Dr. Schweinfurth says he always found hippopotamus
bacon unfit for eating, and when cut into narrow strips
and roasted it was as hard and tough as so much rope.

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 87

The same may be said of the tongue, which he often had
smoked and salted. The meat is remarkably fibrous and
is one continuous tissue of sinews.

Captain A. Lindley, in his work “ After Ophir,” says:
“We dined off hippopotamus steak. It was not much
relished, however, and we did not care to try it again ;
but then the dark-coloured, coarse, and peculiarly
flavoured flesh—a little more beef than fowl, and a
little more fish than beef—though pretty tender and
fairly succulent, could not be compared with the
sweet wild-fowl and delicious venison we generally
had at table.”

The flesh of the rhinoceros is devoured in Abyssinia,
and by some of the Dutch settlers in the Cape Colony it
is held in high esteem. So is hippopotamus meat, as
we have seen, which is eaten either roasted or boiled.
The fat with which these animals are covered is con-
sidered delicious; it is used in making puddings instead
of butter. When salted it is greatly prized not only
for the table, but for its reputed medicinal qualities.
The Portuguese settlers on the east coast are per-
mitted by their priests to eat the flesh of this animal
in Lent, passing it off as fish, from its amphibious habits,
and hence their consciences are at ease.

The flesh of the American tapir (Zapirus Americanus)
-although described by Europeans as unsavoury, coarse
and dry, is considered palatable by the Indians. It
somewhat resembles beef. The fatty protuberance on
the nape of the neck is a delicacy which would do
honour to the table of a modern Lucullus. The feet
and groin cooked to a jelly are also morsels for a king.
Most wild swine are, however, horribly rank, but by
proper feeding they become delicious. A boar’s head is,
however, an appreciated delicacy of old reputation.

There are two species of peccary (Dicoteles) met with
in South America. Both have on the back a fetid open
gland, which must be cut out as soon as the animal is
killed, for if allowed to remain the flesh would be un-
eatable. The peccaries are said by all those who have

88 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

partaken of them to be excellent eating, and Sonnini
ey mentions his delicious repasts on them in the
orest.

Swine-—The wild boar, the peccary, and other of the pig
tribe are less common than the domestic hog, but the pig
plays an extensive part in the culinary service of man-
kind in nearly all parts of the world; and a delicate
sucking pig, a Bath chap, or a good rasher of bacon are
tit bits not to be held in light esteem, common as they
are with us.

There are nearly three million pigs in the United
Kingdom, and about half of these are slaughtered
annually. Ireland has nearly half the number—1,348,314.

Lord Brougham hoped to see the day when every man
in the kingdom would read Bacon. To which Cobbett is
said to have replied that it would be much better if his
Lordship would use his influence that every man in the
kingdom could eat bacon. The phrase of “going the
whole hog” must certainly have originated in Chicago,
for in that American city they slaughter annually four
or five millions of pigs, and the inhabitants are therefore
certainly the most hoggish community in the world.
Pigs’ ears, a dainty and gelatinous morsel, are at the
pork-packing establishments in the United States pre-
served and canned.

American bacon is not so fat as good English or Irish
bacon; it is better boiled than grilled or fried; when
grilled it is apt to waste, and some of it also emits a
peculiar flavour.

The pig may be considered quite a classical animal.
The ancients sacrificed it to Ceres the goddess of har-
vests. In the island of Crete, the pig is considered
sacred and honoured as such. It was highly esteemed in
Rome, but not in a religious point of view, only for
raising and fattening for food. Sensuality elevated it
to such a point.that the Emperors made a suniptuary
law for it. The rich Romans cooked the animal in two
very costly ways. The first consisted in serving the pig
entire, cooked in such a way that one side was roasted

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 89

and the other boiled, without.the two modes being con-
founded. The’ second way was the Trojan, because it
represented the wooden horse fraudulently introduced
into Troy. The pig was gutted and cleaned, deli-
cately cooked and stuffed with thrushes, beccaficoes,
oysters, and a great quantity of birds or of rare and
costly fish, soaked with exquisite wines.

Among the Gauls, pork was the principal article of
food, and that most esteemed; of this many proofs may
be cited.

The Salic law treated more at length of this than of
any other animal, for there is an entire chapter devoted
to laws against stealing pigs. The principal revenue of
the Church consisted of the tithe of pigs. The dishes
on which their flesh was served had a particular name,
they were called baccon or bacconique, derived from
baco, which signifies fat pork.

It was only permitted to eat pork in Egypt once a
year, on the feast of the new moon, and the Egyptians
vied with each other in sacrificing a great number to
this planet.

The pig is not less honoured among modern nations ;
the taste of the Germans for fat pork has almost passed
into a proverb. In Spain the sausage (chorigo) is a
national meat. In France and in England it forms the
base of public feasts. In Ireland the pig deserves even
more public notice, for it is there the friend and the
sustenance of the poor peasant; it shares with him his
hut, and his potatoes, and its flesh affords the sole agree-
able and strengthening animal food he can obtain.

The net weight of available flesh food in the pig is
much higher than in the ruminants. The quantity
will of course vary somewhat according to the breed. In
well fed animals there will only be a total loss of 10 or
15 per cent. of offal not available for food, but then as
the blood, intestines, liver and heart are eaten, this waste
is reduced to about 6 or 7 per cent.

North America has more swine than any other country ;
nearly 443 millions of pigs are officially recorded in the

90 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

latest statistics of the United States. Russia stands
second of all countries for its pigs, having about 12
millions. Pork. raising is an important element in the
agricultural wealth of the great transatlantic republic, and
they ship annually for foreign consumption an enormous
supply of pork products.

According to the Census returns of 1880, there was
exported from the United States—

Quantity. Value.
Live hogs... ic ees 83,434 ...... £84,000
Bacon and hams... Ibs. 759,773,109 ...... 10,200 000
Pork ee bite » 95,949,780 ...... 1,200,000
Lard 5 we gg~=— 374,979,286... 5,600,000
£17,084,000

rather a large figure for hog products.

The following are the official figures of the imports of
foreign pork into the United Kingdom. We received
from various countries in 1883 38,863 live pigs; and
of—

Quantity. Value.
Bacon... een .. ewts. 3,080,162 ...... £8,178,123
Hams ... vag wy 602,025 ...... 1,823,352
Pork, salted ... air (say 328,768 ...... 635,280
» fresh 3 47,346 1.000 124,371
ard 45 852,150 ...... 2,243,956

4,910,451 £13,005,082

Nearly all this came from the United States.

Now, judging from these imports (none of which are
re-shipped, and adding our home production of pork,
there are about 4,000,000 pigs in the United Kingdom),
the flesh of swine enters more largely into the British
food-supply than would be generally supposed.

More than 250,000 pigs are annually sold in the Paris
markets, besides those killed annually for domestic use
in the households, and some 500 tons of smoked flesh is
disposed of at the annual ham-fair.

To give an idea of the importance of the elevation of
swine in America, we have only to look at the figures of

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 91

the wholesale annual slaughter in the States, where pigs
are salted by millions.

Official data gave the following as the number of pigs
slaughtered in the different States in 1871, but the trade
has largely increased since then :—

Cincinnati and Ohio... aes ails wee 626,305

Chicago and Illinois... a ais w. 1,425,079

St. Louis and Missouri... sie cee wes 538,000

Milwaukie and Wisconsin ied sie age 303,500

Louisville and Kentucky ai aaa ae 302,240

Indianapolis and Indiana Bea ga ae 196,317
Kansas City and Missouri... as for 180,922

Total tee owe ave ws» 8,572,699

At the Vienna Exhibition in 1873 many models of
special American slaughter-houses were shown, where
pigs are prepared for export in astonishing numbers.

The comparative number of hogs packed in

1860 were as as es cag ine 2,350,882

1871 ,, ry am
1880 >, wi nak eee «eke DOU

Fifteen or sixteen years ago the swine in America
were nearly all of the white breed, now they are all
‘black. The Berkshire breed has been found to have
hardier skins, and are therefore less affected than the
white variety by exposure to sun and wind, mud and
.frost, incident to their crude management in that
country.

Pork occupies the third place in nutritive value of the
animal food substances, ranking after beef and mutton.

All the world now-a-days knows that the nitrogenous
animal substances or meats are the most easy of diges-
tion and the most nourishing, because they approximate
most closely to our nature, but occasionally there is a
necessity for special hydrogenous products, such as fat,
starch, etc., to assist respiration, and the development of
animal heat. For this object pork may be considered the
best of foods, because it contains both of these matters
—tlesh and fat, while beef and veal contain more flesh

92 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

and less fat. The following comparative analysis shows
the composition of pork compared with other flesh :—

Beef. Veal. Pork.
Water ... ae ce TTD cee TOM 182
Fleshy fibre, vessels, nerves... 175 ... 150 ... 168
Albumine and red’ colouring
matter 22 wes BD cee 24
Non- -coagulable: matters soluble
in water... oe V3 «ac 10 a O08
Matters soluble in alcohol ... 15 ... Ll... 17
Phosphate of lime -... a» 008. O1 _—

(Schlossberger, in Berzelius’ “ ‘Annual Reports. ”)

Pork forms part of the food of the people in Greece,
but it is chiefly consumed in- winter, with the exception
of sucking pigs, which are eaten in summer. In general,
however, pork is not much eaten in Greece, but in the
Tonian Islands and some of those of the Archipelago,
smoked hams and sausages are eaten, and even exported.

In China the domestic pigs are believed to be derived
from the stock. of Sus leucostymar, Temm., of Japan.
Pork is undoubtedly the favourite meat in China, and
pigs are kept in great numbers.*

In the Austrian forests about 1,700 wild boars are
killed yearly. Wild boars were formerly very common
in Algeria. To the Arabs pork is forbidden meat.
Numbers used, however, to be brought into the markets,
and were sold to the French at 5s, or 6s. each. Although
the Moors regard the boar as an unclean animal, many.
of them make no scruple of eating the flesh.

The proportion of foreign bacon and hams consumed
per head in the United Kingdom is about 16 lbs.
annually. The quantity of pork products imported into
the United Kingdom have been as follows :—

Pork, salted and Bacon and

‘fresh. Hams. Lard.

ewts. ewts. ewts.
1861... w» 136,416 ...... 515,953... 324,691
1871... w. 296,144 ...... 1,093.838 ...... 477,568
1881... sox B81,526 srsess 4,627,484 00... 854,322
1888... se 876,899 cause . 3,695,992 0... 853, 541

* Collingwood’s “Rambles of a Naturalist.”

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 93

The aggregate value of these imports in 1883 was
£13,045,213.

The average price of salt pore the last few years has
been about £1 18s. per ewt.; of bacon, £2 13s.; of hams,
£2 16s.; of lard, £3 10s.

The price of pork has not risen proportionately with
other meat :—

Large Small neat

Hogs. Porkers.

8. d. s. d.
1861... ae és sa 4.1 eeases 4 113
1871... a 5 ant 310 we 4 82
1880... a sie se 4A oeeuee 4 112

The number of pigs imported into London from abroad
is about 20,000 annually.

The City of Rio Janeiro consumes about 18,000 pigs
annually, besides bacon and salt pork, and 19,000 sheep,
and 102,000 oxen.

It may be interesting to give the numbers of swine
in various countries :—

AFRICA, &e.

Cape Colony oes ows 1875 aasaee 132,373
Natal ese is ore 1882 ase 18,512
Mauritius ... ie ewe 1875 sever - 30,318
Réunion ... ae ag 1874 seas 71,490

252,693

AMERICA AND THE West INDIES.

United States... ons 1883 a. 44,200,893
Dominion of Canada ... 1881 sees: 1,218,253
Newfoundland ... eee 1870 sae 6,417
Uruguay ... ise 1874 wees 12,000
Argentine Republic See 171 nee 257,368
Falkland Islands . ice TS1DY ceciess 6,000
French Guiana... Bes 1874 aeeeee 5,311
Jamaica _... 1870) weae 9,086
Other British WL. Islands 1874 a 20,000
Guadeloupe a3 1874 aaa 12,123
Martinique a ive 1874 aaaeae 15,352

45,762,803

94 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Europe.
Russia rrr ade ae 1877 seeeee 10,839,093
Sweden... ats se 1882) as ; 430,648
Norway... are ees 1875 eens 101,020
Denmark ... ae aes 1881 wae 527,417
German Empire ... ast 1883 eee 9,205,791
Holland ... ia oe 1882) sssaee 403,618
Belgium ... se wie 1880) was 646,379
France ae sae aus 1880 aa 5,565,620
Portugal ... oes $e 1870 ae 776,868
Spain eee aes ae 1865 waa 4,264,817
ltaly ge ‘vs 1881 a. 1,163,916
Austro- Hungary ... aie 1880 esa 7,164,820
Switzerland we wa 1866... 304,428
Greece... wee aoe 1867 aeeaee 55,776
Roumania . a 1873 esse 836, 944
United Kingdom .. sss 1883) ae 3, 986, 427

46,273,582

Inpia, 1879.
Assam ... ae aos sig ba se 293,677

Punjab ... ea sie aes aes 41,161
Central Provinces eae sie ave sia 93,681
Mysore ... oe ae es he aes 29,221
Coorg... aie ae se 28 ats 10,551
Berar... ves ass a at ae 2,726
Madras ... ake tee ise me. Case 232,174

703,191

AUSTRALASIA, 1883.
New South Wales... aes wee saa 154,815

Queensland... ae or ses aes 52,809
Victoria .. ee te whe eas 237,917
South Australia aa aes ae ae 108,714
Western Australia... ve wea a 18,512
Tasmania es ae as see ae 55,774
New Zealand ... a aes ate ea 200,083

828,624

In Tasmania and other Australian Colonies, there are
very fine breeds of pigs, and they are frequently fattened
up to 1,000 lbs. weight. Shepherds invariably keep pigs

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS, 95

and make a good addition to their wages, and their table
thereby, as pork forms an agreeable change to continual
mutton.

Pork is the meat most used in France, and, indeed, in
most of the countries of Europe. Almost all the country
people depend chiefly on pork. Some localities will not
eat mutton, others do not like beef; but there is not a
village or hamlet, not a cottage where pork is not the
basis of the daily food. It is with pork that the soup is
made, and with the fat that the vegetables are cooked.

The statistics give under 6,000,000 as the quantity of
swine in France, but the number must be much larger
than this, and may be fairly estimated at 8,000,000.
Pigs are also imported, and much dead meat. There are
about 12,000,000 heads of families in France, and there
are very few that do not consume one pig ayear. There
are many that use three, four, or five annually.

In France the consumer of pork deems the lean part
not so good as the fat. The Frenchman likes the firm
and savoury fat of his prime Celtic pork, and not the
oily, soft melting fat of the English breed. In many
parts of France beef and mutton are beyond his means,
and pork is his only meat; hence it is important that
this should be of the best quality. The French peasant
farmer prefers to sell his milk and his butter, and to
supply his domestic wants with fat pork, or as it is termed,
“Tard,”

Pig butchery in Paris is conducted upon a novel plan.
The pigs are taken into a large round house, having a
cupola in the roof to let off the smoke, the floor being
divided into triangular dens. A dozen or so of pigs are
driven into each den at a time, and a butcher passes
along and strikes each one on the head with a mallet.

‘After being bled, the defunct porkers are carried to the
side of the room and arranged methodically in a row.
They are then covered with straw, which is set on
fire, and the short bristles quickly burned off. After a
thorough scorching the pigs are carried into the dressing-
room, hung up on hooks, and scraped by means of a sort

96 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

of drawing-knife, handled by a skilful operator, who
performs his work at the rate of about one pig a minute.
Then the bodies are washed, and the entrails taken out
and cleaned.

Every part of the animal is utilised in Paris and much
which the American throws away as worthless is. made
to subserve some use in the Frenchman’s economy.
The blood is employed in the manufacture of the large
ae sausages which. meet with such extensive sale in

aris.

Roast pork, with its delicious crispy rind, is very gene-
rally relished. Pig once tasted could never hope for a
reprieve from the butcher’s knife. Though forbidden to
the Jews by the Mosaic law, the Greeks ate him in the
heroic ages, and before the advance of luxury had given
birth to professional butchers the warriors of Homer
killed their own pork as well as dressed and devoured it.
With the advance of refinement came the butchers, who
spared their patrons the disagreeable task of slaughter,
and sold meat by the pound in the markets of Athens,
weighed in the scale as now. The Romans were especi-
ally a pig-eating race, and retained their fondness for
pork from the foundation to the decline of their empire.
The Cretans abstained from it in order to offer it to
Venus; the Egyptians fled from the sight of pigs as un-
clean beings whose presence defiled:them. Neither the
Pheenicians, the Indians, nor the Mahomedans would eat
them. On the other hand, the Greek and Roman sages
maintained that nature had created the pig for man’s
palate—that he is especially good to be eaten, and that
there are many ways in which his flesh can be cooked
—an opinion which seems to have been practically fol-
lowed down to our own day. The Romans discovered fifty
different flavours in pork, and under the hands of their
skilful cooks swine’s flesh was often transformed into
delicate fish, ducks, turtle-doves, or capons. With them
the Trojan hog, as we all know, was a favourite dish—
it was a gastronomic imitation of the horse of Troy, its
inside being stuffed with asafcetida and myriads of small

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 97

game. The mode of its preparation is described by M
Soyer, in his celebrated work.

The ancient mode of killing swine was as refined in
barbarity as in epicurism. Plutarch tells us that the
gravid sow was actually trampled to death to form a de-
licious mass fit for the gods. At other times pigs were
slaughtered with red-hot spits, that the blood might not
be lost.

The famous Hungarian pork sausage or “salami,” as
big as a man’s arm, is very largely consumed throughout
Austria. It is a great favourite with the poorer classes,
who not only eat it at home, but take it to the beershops
with them. Indeed, in the smaller suburban gardens it
is the only solid food, besides bread and cheese, to be got,
and is generally purveyed by a provision pedler, who
carries Emmenthaler cheese and salami with him, together
with an enormous pair of scales. A good deal of the
salami comes from the Tyrol. With the prevalence of
trichinous pork both in America and Europe, great care
ought to be exercised in eating any products of swine
not thoroughly cooked.

The number of “ Wurst,” or sausages, sold in Austria
is bewildering to those who are unacquainted with the
German love for this style of food: there are “ Mett-
Wurst,” “ Leber-Wurst ” (liver sausages), “ Blut-Wurst ”
(black puddings), ‘‘ Hammel-Wurst” (mutton sausages),
etc. In many country and farm-houses a “ Rauchkam-
mer,” or smoking chamber, is frequently attached for the
sole purpose of smoking sausages, but modern houses
dispense with them, and modern science teaches the
dubious substitute of brushing the sausages over with
pyroligenous acid, so as to give the smoky flavour.

Many of the sausage-makers know that a small quan-
tity of starch or ordinary flour boiled, absorbs a great
quantity (about one-fifth) of the water, and forms a thick
paste. They take advantage of this property to incorpo-
rate the paste in their sausages. To overcome the ab-
sence of colour in this fraudulent addition, they. add
fuchsine to the sausages. This food product, while con-

H

98 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

taining 27 per cent. of meat and 67 per cent. of a com-
bination of flour and water, has the appearance of a
perfect sausage. It is asserted by some that an addition
of flour is necessary, but this is not true. This addition
becomes unwholesome when the sausages are kept for
any time, for a fermentation is developed of the flour
and the water, and as the value of the sausage is largely
diminished, in Germany the sale of these adulterated
products is prohibited, when discovered.

Horseflesh—We now come to speak of horseflesh, which
has of late years become largely utilised for the food of
man, instead of being given to the dogs. There is much
ancient testimony in favour of its use although repug-
nant to many minds. The nomad tribes of Northern
Asia make horseflesh their favourite food, though they
have numerous herds of oxen and flocks of sheep. ‘The
flesh is eaten in China, and the leg and hoof are left on
by the butchers to indicate the animal. .

Monseigneur Perny (“ Bull. de la Société d’Acclimata-
tion,” 1884, p. 607,) tells us that in nine out of eighteen
provinces of China horseflesh is eaten by the poorer
classes, who let nothing go to waste, and its use seems
to be extending, as there are horse-butchers’ shops in
all the principal towns.

Mungo Park mentions wild horses being eaten in
Africa. Dr. Duncan tells us, in “ Cassell’s Natural His-
tory,” that “The horse was universally used for food by
man before the historic period, and would be used now
in Europe more generally than it is, were it not for an
edict of the Church in the eighth century. During the
Roman occupation of Britain, it formed a large portion
of the diet of the inhabitants. As Christianity prevailed
over the heathen worship, it was banished from the table.
It appears, however, that it was used in this country as
late as the year 787, after it had been prohibited in
Eastern Europe. The ecclesiastical rule, however, was
not always obeyed, for the monks of St. Gall, in Switzer-
land, not only ate horseflesh in the eleventh century, but
returned thanks for it in a metrical grace, which has

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 99

survived to our times on account of its elegance and
beauty.”

Mares’ flesh is the choicest morsel, the daintiest bit, of
the Chilian Indians, who do not eat cows’ flesh except
when pressed by necessity. _

There is one fact connected with the use of horseflesh
as an article of human diet, which, with other considera-.
tions, is likely to interfere with its general adoption.
The Pampas Indians, who habitually live on mares’ flesh,
exhale a peculiarly disagreeable and even sickening
odour. In the saladeros of Buenos Ayres and Monte-
video, the Indian labourers are subject to the same nau-
seous emanations. At Buenos Ayres, when Rosas re-
turned from his expedition against the Pampas Indians
in 1835, bringing with him several young captives, these
children, who were most hospitably received, severely
tried the endurance of their protectors by the smell of
the wild horse which emanated from their persons for
several months. The Argentine General Mansilla, well
known for his elegant and distingué manners, having
on one occasion requested a young Corrientine lady to
dance with him, was pertinaciously refused, and when
he urged her to assign a reason for this affront she at
last said to the General: “You smell like the Indians!”
General Mansilla had that very day been making a re-
past of mare’s flesh, not having been able to procure
beef.

Sir John Richardson in his zoology of the northern
parts of America, states that the Spokans, who inhabit.
the country lying between the forks of the Columbia, as
well as other tribes of Indians, are fond of horseflesh as
an article of food; and the residents of some of the Hud-
son’s Bay Company’s posts on that river were at one
time under the necessity of making it their principal
article of diet.

By way of curiosity we may give the number of horses.
in different countries, although but a very small propor-
tion are consumed as food, especially in those countries
where other domestic animals are plentiful :—

H2

100 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

EuROrE.

Austro-Hungary ... a 1880 a... 3,282,790
Belgium ... eas Pe 1880 satoge 271,974

France (with mules and
asses) ... a5 an 1880 —..seee 3,515,478
Germany ... aa ao 1883) wae 3,522,316

Italy (with mules and
asses) ... ese oe IST? ssezex 1,625,658
Russia in Europe sia TBTE seine 17,589,188
Sweden and Norway ... 1882... 621,519
Denmark ... ans an 1881 we 347,561
Holland ... ave ete 1882... 270,456
Spain and Portugal... 1870). 752,275
Turkey... sty as 1874 aa 1,100,000
United Kingdom x 1884 x. 1,904,515
34,803,730

AMERICA.
United States... ous 1883 ln. - 11,169,683
Canada... aes adh 1881. 1,059,358
River Plate States a 1876 kaa 5,600,000
17,829,041
AUSTRALASIA IN 1883.

Victoria ... bus sia ao waa a 286,779
New South Wales se ae ea aie 328,026
Queensland aan sin Sale eee ase 236,154
South Australia ... ais eae aiaté ie 164,360
Western Australia oe ee ae ia 32,884
Tasmania... ig a8 si ae a 26,840
New Zealand... eee ine sia oe 161,736
1,236,779

One of the most important revivals of late years is
the use of horseflesh, which for centuries had been under
ecclesiastical ban.

Curiously it was through the people whose prejudice
against horseflesh remains most intense that the revival
began. During the siege of Copenhagen by the English, in
1807, the scarcity of provisions compelled the Danes to eat
their horses; and the practical knowledge of the quality
of the meat thus gained led them to continue its use
after the original necessity had passed away. Possibly
the example of their Icelandic allies may have had a

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 101

good deal to do with the breaking down of Danish pre-
judice in the matter. In Iceland, the practice had sur-
vived from the first. The islanders were willing to have
their souls saved by the Church, but they would not
submit to any interference with their stomachs; so,
rather than lose them, the Church gave them special per-
mission to eat the “execrable food,” which they have
continued to do to this day.

The first State to imitate the example of Denmark
was Wiirtemburg, which legalised the sale of horseflesh
in 1841. Bavaria followed in 1842, Baden in 1846, and
Hanover, Bohemia, Saxony, Austria, and Belgium the year
after. In 1853 the prejudices of Switzerland and Prussia
were overcome, and two years later Norway and Sweden
were added to the list of countries authorising the sale
of the long rejected food.

The ancient Germans and Scandinavians had a marked
liking for horseflesh. They possessed a certain race of
white horses to be sacrificed to Odin, and after the sacri-
fice they boiled the flesh and feasted on it.

The struggle against religious prejudice continued
long in France, and now an impression prevails that the
revival is a Gallic eccentricity, rather than the result of
Germanic good sense.

In 1841 horseflesh was openly adopted at Ochsen-
hausen, where it continues to be publicly sold under
the surveillance of the police, and five or six horses are
weekly brought to market. A large quantity of horse-
flesh is also sold at the Lake of Constance. In 1842
a banquet at which 150 persons assisted, inaugurated
its public use at Konigsbaden near Stuttgart. In 1846
Schaffhausen authorised its public sale, and in 1857
Weimer and Detmold witnessed public banquets of
the hippophagists, which went off with much éclat ;
in Karlsbad and its environs the new beef came
into general use, and at Zittau 200 horses are eaten
annually.

At one time the feeling against the use of this here-
tical diet must have been exceedingly intense in the land

102 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. °

of good cooking, for it is on record that as late as 1629

aman was condemned to death and executed in France

ss the crime of eating horseflesh on a Saturday in
ent.

A hundred and fifty years later, the use of the ab-
horred flesh was publicly advocated by a French phy-
sician. Not many converts to the doctrine were made,
however, until the retreat from Moscow. During that
terrible march, when the alternative was starvation, the
French soldiery ventured to eat their disabled horses,
and discovered that horseflesh would not only sustain
life, but was really savoury and inviting. Several of
the surviving officers afterwards endeavoured to break
down the prejudice against horseflesh, and advocated its
regular use in times of peace, but without much effect.

Hugard, an eminent veterinary surgeon, states, that in
the scarcity which followed the Revolution of 1789, the
greater part of the meat consumed in Paris for six months
was horseflesh, and that it caused no ill effect on the
vublic health.

In Russia the custom has always prevailed, the Greek
Church never having meddled with the matter.

The distinguished army surgeon, Baron Larry, made
his wounded patients eat horseflesh in the campaigns of
the Rhine, of Catalonia and of the Maritime Alps, and
he ascribes to it the cure of a great number of his sick
in Egypt. The sale of horse-meat has now become a
legalised and recognised trade in many of the Conti-
nental States, especially in France and Germany.

The Prefect of Police of Paris before legislating, ap-
pointed a commission of eminent and competent judges
to inquire into the quality as human food, of the flesh
taken from horses which had died, or were killed, in the
city and its environs. Although prejudiced at first
against horseflesh like the general public, the commis-
sion ultimately reported that the meat was good and
savoury, and there was little sensible difference found
between it and beef.

Since 1860, when the first slaughtering of horses for

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 103

food took place in Paris under the patronage of the
“Society for Promoting the Use of Horseflesh,” the eon-
sumption of this meat has been steadily increasing.
About 66,000 horses were slain in Paris in 1871 to fur-
nish food during the siege of the city by the Germans.

The piéce de résistance then was curried horseflesh, or
a cat’s thigh, strong with garlic. The distaste for horse-
flesh among the besieged led to the invention of many
bouquets of garlic, peppercorns, cloves, coriander, and
ginger to impart a pleasant flavour to the insipid meat.

According to M. Decroix’s full statistical tables pub-
lished in the “ Bulletin of the Society of Acclimatation,”
for February, 1873, p. 98, there had been slaughtered in
Paris from the opening of the first horse-butcher’s shop,
in July, 1866, to the end of December, 1872, 83,071
equine animals for food, yielding a net weight of over
344 million pounds of meat. The net weight of meat he
calculated at 418 lbs. for horses and mules, and 110 lbs.
for asses, not including the offal, liver, heart, tongue,
brains, etc., which are sold like those of oxen.

In 1875 the horse butcheries of Paris furnished for
public consumption 6,865 horses, asses, and mules; in
1876 they supplied 9,271, giving over 3,700,000 lbs. of
meat. At Lyons the number killed for food in the two
years 1875 and 1876, was 2,350. There are sixty horse
butcheries in Paris, and seven in Lyons.

At Marseilles there were slaughtered at the horse
butchery in 1881, 321 donkeys, which were chiefly con-
sumed in the town, and in the first three months of 1882,
182 horses, 140 mules, and 118 asses were killed for
food.

Some very interesting statistics have been published
by the Society for promoting the use of horseflesh and
the flesh of asses and mules as food, showing how steadily
the consumption of these articles of diet has been in-
creasing in Paris and the provinces since the foundation
of the society in July, 1866. These show that 160,080
horses, 6,690 donkeys, and 395 mules, had been sold in
Paris alone for food up to the end of 1881, furnishing

Pf

104 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

67,809,460 Ibs. of meat. The weight had increased from
171,300 kilos. (21 lbs.) in 1866 to 1,789,010 kilos. in 1881.
In the principal cities of the provinces the consumption of
horseflesh may be considered to have fairly taken root.
At Marseilles, in 1870, there were 599 horses eaten;
1,031 in 1875; and 1,533 in 1878. At Nancy, 165 in
1873, over 350 in 1876, and 705 in 1878; at Rheims,
291 in 1874, 423 in 1876, and 384 in 1878; at Lyons,
1,839 in 1873, and 1,813 in 1875. In both the latter
cases some difficulties had been thrown in the way by the
town authorities, as was the case recently at Chalons-sur-
Marne, where the Mayor fixed the price of horseflesh
at a higher rate than that of beef. Horseflesh is capable
of being prepared in many by no means unappetising
ways, such as porau seu, boiled, roast, hashed, haricot,
jugged, fillet, &e.*

The official calculation now is, net meat from the horses
and mules, without including tongue, heart, brains, liver,
and kidneys, 456 lbs.; for the asses, 120 Ibs.

Horses which formerly were only worth 15 to 20
francs in the knacker’s yard, now fetch 90 to 150 frances,
according to the season and the condition of the animal.

Horseflesh is sold at half the price of beef, for corre-
sponding pieces, thus fillet is 1s. 2d. per lb. instead of
2s. 6d., and pieces of the breast and ne parts, 23d.
and 3d., instead of 5d. and 6d. per Ib.

A banquet of horseflesh was served at the Langham
Hotel, London, on 6th Feb. 1868, to about 150 persons,
including Sir Henry Thompson, Sir John Lubbock, Dr.
Buckland, and others. Attempts have been made to
keep open butcher’s shops for the sale of horseflesh in
London, but they proved unsuccessful, and the en-
deavours to popularise the use of this meat in England
have utterly failed.

The innovation gains ground rapidly on the Continent,

* An elaborate paper on “ Hippophagy, the Horse as Food for
Man,” by A. 8S. Bicknell, in the “ Journal‘of the Society of Arts,”
vol. xvi. p. 349, may be consulted with advantage.

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 105

and the public sale of horseflesh for human food is now
general in Austria, Bohemia, Saxony, Hanover, Switzer-
land, and Belgium. At least ten thousand of the
inhabitants of Vienna are hippophagists.

A recent American paper says:—It may be de-
monstrated that, in not utilizing horseflesh as food,
we are throwing away a valuable and palatable
meat, of which there is sufficient quantity largely
to augment our existing aggregate food supply. Sup-
posing that the horse came into use here as food, it
can be easily shown that the absolute wealth in the
country would thereby be materially increased. In
France the average price for horse-meat, as compared
‘ with similar cuts from the steer, is about two-fifths less.
A horse is there sold to the slaughterer for from £2
to £3.

Estimating from this that £2 is the gross value of
every horse in the United States, over and above his
worth for working purposes, it remains to be seen how
much of that sum may be set apart as to be derived
from his utilization for food alone. As will be seen
further on, the French butchers derive a revenue from
hide, hoofs, hair, etc., and, as is well-known, the same
portions of the animal find industrial uses here. Placing
the value of these parts of the carcase at 30s., we find that
12s. is the net value of each horse for alimentary pur-
poses. In round numbers there are about eleven million
horsesin the country. According to the above showing, we
must add 12s. to the value of each horse, since, in addition
to his value as a worker or as a raw material for manu-
facturing, he now has a new one as food. Consequently
the aggregate value of all the horses is increased by about
£6,000,000. But this accretion to the wealth in the
country is of course not convertible into actual money,
for, so long as the working value exists, the food value
as well as the manufacturing value are practically at
zero; neither could be realised without great loss, and
hence both are negatived. But there is a certain easily
ascertained annual proportion of the horses of which the

\

106 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

working value becomes less than the sum of their food
and manufacturing values, and this proportion includes
the class of which the working value is more than their
manufacturing value, but less than the above sum. We
may estimate roughly that one-tenth of all the horses
reach this condition yearly. Then, on this million
animals, the food value is directly realisable, and there-
fore the wealth of the country may be considered as
actually increased by the £6,000,000 derivable therefrom.

Moreover, in order that the horses should be available
to the butcher, they must not be diseased or worn out.
By this the owners are directly benefited, since, while on
one hand they are obliged to sell their horses in fair
condition, they are saved the expense of keeping the
animals when the latter become used up and are unable
to do but light work, though requiring more attention
and more feed. So also with colts, which, whether they
become good or bad horses, cost about the same to raise.
If the animal bids fair to turn out poorly, he can be dis-
posed of at once and at a remunerative price. The
result of this weeding out in youth and destroying
when old, coupled with the facilities which the former
affords of selection of the best types, will naturally con-
duce to the improvement of breeds and a general benefit
to the entire equine population of the country.

We can adduce no more striking example of the art of
utilisation than the mode in which the French deal with
their superannuated chargers. On the Ist of January
last, France contained fifty horse abattoirs, and during
last year consumed 2,850,144 lbs. of horse, mule, and
ass meat. The flesh of each horse weighs about 450 lbs.
The skin is sold to the tanner for 10s. 6d. The hair of
the mane and tail fetches 13d. The hoofs are bought by
comb, or toy, or sal ammoniac, or Prussian blue, makers.
The tendons are taken to glue factories. There are
about ninety pounds of bone, worth 2s. 6d. The intes-
tines, for purposes of manure, or as food for dogs, cats,
and pigs, bring 23d. The blood is purchased principally
by the sugar refiners, but also by fatteners of poultry and

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 107

fertilizer manufacturers. Twenty pounds of dried blood,
which is the average, are worth nearly 2s. The fat goes
to the soap kettle, or is transformed into genuine “bear’s
grease,” which, delicately perfumed and elegantly put
up, fetches some exorbitant prices in the apothecary
stores of the United States; or else it is used as harness
grease or as lamp oil. The yield is from eight to twelve
pounds, at a value of 5d. a pound. Finally, it is said
that even the waste flesh is allowed to decompose, and
the maggots*gathered as pheasant food, but this seems
rather apocryphal. These utilisations are of course
entirely outside the food supply.

Horse flesh, in comparison with the price of ordinary
meat, is not dear. The relation of nitrogenous material
oe by analysis to be higher in horse than in ox-

esh.

In two horses, both lean and healthy, the following
was found by analysis to be the composition (the ash
not estimated being about one per cent.) :— ~

Horse A. Horse B.

CONSTITUENTS.
Neck. | Loin. |Thigh.| Neck.| Loin. |Thigh.

Waiter ... as ».. | 75°02| 76°0 | 75°22] 75:1 | 77:3 | 79°28
Fixed material «.. | 24°98] 24°0 | 24°78} 24:9 | 22:7 | 20°72
Muscle-substance ... | 22°85| 21°76} 23:26) 22:16} 20°64] 18°35
Fat. «a aes a. | O95} 1:24] 0°52) 1°76; 1:06] 0°86

M. Deeroix, the strongest advocate for the use of
horseflesh, says that this meat is to that of bullocks what
seconds bread is to fine bread—not quite so palatable but
more nutritious.

M. Engstrom, in his Consular report from Gothenburg,
in December, 1855, stated that the great rise in the price
of beef and other meats (averaging 54d. per lb.), had led
of late to the use of horse-flesh among the poorer classes,

108 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

at a cost of 14d. to 12d. per pound. But the advance
in the price of meat in the 30 years that have elapsed
since then has been enormous.

At Gothenburg horseflesh is generally sold to the
poorer classes, who cannot afford the higher prices of
beef. In the last seventeen years nearly 30,000 horses
have been killed and their flesh used as food in Berlin.
In 1853 there were but five slaughter-houses, and only
150 horses sold ; in 1865 the number had increased there
to 2,240. .

Setting aside the prejudice against the flesh of the
horse which most Englishmen entertain on the subject,
we confess we see nothing that is repulsive in adopting _
it as an article of food. The horse, like the ox and the
sheep, is granivorous and herbivorous, and a far more
cleanly feeder than the pig, which will devour any filthy
garbage; and the flesh of a young horse cannot but be
good eating. The mother of the celebrated William
Godwin once had a fine young horse, three years old,
that broke its leg in a gate. She instantly had it killed;
and being a strong-minded lady, and free from prejudice,
she directed a butcher to dress it and cut it up exactly
as he would do a bullock. She then sent presents of it
to her friends, requesting them to cook it the same as
“ other beef.” Her request was complied with, and one
and all pronounced it to be equal to any beef they ever
partook of.

Whether this movement will be followed up by a
partial adoption of horse-flesh in England, is a question
that time alone can determine. There is, however,
another view of it that must be decided before the
middle and upper classes can be brought to patronise
the plan. At what age then are horses to be fattened
and slaughtered ? and is the slaughtering for sale to be
confined to the poor, old, broken-down hacks of the cabs,
omnibuses, and costermongers? On the face of the pro-
position it appears so, for assuredly a horse under ten or
twelve years, generally speaking, is too valuable for
work, if he has been well treated by his owner, to be

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 109

sold for such a purpose. Young horses are quite out of
the question, unless, as in the case of Mrs. Godwin’s
horse, they by an accident are rendered unfit for work
and useless. The slaughtering for the market will there-
fore, in England, be confined to the old and worn-out
horses that are past work.

Ass’s Flesh—Mules and asses are numerous in many

countries, but although in some parts of Europe their
flesh is eaten, it is not usual. In Spain there are about
2,500,000 mules and asses, in the United States about
1,500,000, in Italy and Morocco each about 1,000,000, and
in the South American States from one to two millions.
The Greeks ate donkeys, and we must suppose they had
their reasons for it. The flesh of the ass is still esteemed
a delicacy in some countries. The northern climate,
pasturage, and freedom may have some effect on the flesh.
The Roman peasants found the flesh of the ass palatable.
and the celebrated Meecenas having tasted it, introduced
it to the tables of the great and rich; but the fashion of
eating it lasted no longer than his life. Galen compares
the flesh of the ass to that of the stag. The flesh
of the wild ass is said to be very delicate and good,
but when killed in a tame state it is hard and unfit for
food.
_ The skin of the wild ass is used for making a gela-
tine, which, scented with musk, is prescribed in chest
diseases. It is sold in flat, rectangular, reddish pieces,
translucid, and, like all the substances of great value,
is wrapped by the Chinese in paper of vermilion colour.
A gelatine made with cow-skin, is often substituted.

The wild ass, called Koulan by the Persians, is still
common in many parts of Central Asia, from 48°
North latitude to the confines of India. The Persians
and Tartars hold its flesh in high esteem, and hunt it in
preference to all other descriptions of game. Olearius
assures us that he saw no fewer than thirty-two wild
asses slain in one day by the Shah of Persia and his
court, the bodies of which were sent to the royal kit-
chens at Ispahan; and we know from Martial that the

110 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

epicures of Rome held the flesh of the Onager, or wild
ass, in the same estimation as we do venison.

Cum tener est Onager, solaque lalisio matre
Pascitur ; hoc infans, sed breve nomen habet.
Martial, xiii. 97.

From a passage in Pliny (lib. viii., c. 44) it would ap-
pear that the Onager inhabited Africa; and that the
most delicate and best flavoured Jalisiones, or fat foals,
were brought from that continent to the Roman markets.
Asses’ milk is universally known and approved of as a
specific in many disorders. It is light, easy of digestion,
and highly nutritious.

The Hottentots and other natives are very fond of the
Quagga (Equus quagga, Lin.), the flesh of which, though
coarse, is eaten.

Lieutenant Moodie (“Ten Years in South Africa”) says
— Being one morning at the house of a neighbouring
farmer who had just shot one of these animals, I re-
quested that he would have a piece of the flesh cooked
for my breakfast. His ‘frow’ expressed some disgust at
my proposal, but ordered a small bit to be grilled, with
butter and pepper. I did not find it at all unpalatable,
and certainly it was better than horse-flesh.”

Capt. Burton, in his “ Central Africa,” says, “Of wild’

flesh the favourite is that of the Zebra; it is smoked
or jerked, despite which it retains a most savoury
flavour.”

Ruminants.—We come now to a better-known class of
food-yielding animals, the Ruminants.

A writer in “The Farmer” well observes that “the
consumption of meat increases with the increase of popu-
lation, and in a higher ratio, as the world progresses in
civilization, it consumes more animal food, as the best
restorative of the daily exhaustion of bodily and mental
forces. Farinaceous food and feebleness occupy the same
zone. To get up and keep a good meat-appetite, man
must live and work several degrees from the Equator.
And in this truth the whole future meat question is con-

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS, lll

tained. The Northern nations, who are the meat eating
people, multiply and govern the earth, and thus the future
demand must be immense, and such as the herds and flocks
of the whole world will but satisfy. To English, Scottish,
and Irish pastures and feeding-stalls, North and South
America, Asia and Australia, may join supplies, but
Europe is not likely to see over-cheap meat; and Christ-
mas fat stock may always be looked for as a characteristic
of the season.”

Professor Atwater has tabulated the results of several
authoritative investigations as to the nutritive value of
different kinds of foods. Asa basis the professor has
taken medium quality beef—that is, beef neither very
fat nor very lean—as having a nutritive value of 100,
and upon this standard he forms the following table :—

Meat Game, and Fowl. Nutritive Value
Beef (lean) ... ge aoe _ are sis 91°3
Beef (medium)... wes iss eile eee 100-0
Beef (fat) ... ae see got we ous 112°0
Veal (fat) ... ae oe ees wee aia 92-4
Mutton (medium) ... wi ate a a 86°6
Pork (fat) ... oe aisle se sea dea 1160
Smoked beef as ae soe aes moe 146°0
Smoked ham ot its ae a ace 157-0
Venison de aay Efe woe age ie 88°8
Hen ... Bi sa a ade aan is 93°9
Duck... 50 a5 eee ae aie ea 104°0

There are probably two or three facts here which will sur-
prise the uninitiated. Few, for instance, would imagine
that smoked beef, or smoked ham, contained nearly twice
as much nutritive value as venison or mutton, nor will
the fact that pork is more nourishing than any other
kind of meat not cured, be generally received as a tru-
ism. The great nutritive value of the smoked meats is
due to the evaporation from them of all moisture, and
the compression of the tissues, and the same circum-
stances apply in the case of other cured meats, of which
the nutritive value averages very high. A second set of
figures, computed on the same basis and proportion,
shows the strength of various kinds of animal produce

112 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

—milk and its manufactured products and eggs, in the
following table :—

Animal Produce. Nutritive Value.
Cows’ milk (normal) ne oe aes ace 23°8
Cows’ milk (skimmed) sas avs ea re 18°5
Cream from cows’milk ... cae bee ae 56:0
Butter ons ste ay ous 124-1
Cheese (from whole aly ats as se 1510
Cheese (from skimmed milk)... wa nee 159°0
Cheese (from milk with cream added) .. oh 103-0
Hen’s eggs ... sit ate de oie ona 72:2

The salient feature here is the nutritive value of skimmed
cheese, a food which in common with the fat pork whose
great nutritive properties we have already mentioned, is
most largely consumed by the rural classes. It is a little
curious to note that the cheese made from skimmed milk
is much more nutritive than the product of milk and
cream mixed, and equally notable is the nutritive excel-
lence of eggs, which weight for weight seem to be nearly
equal to that of mutton. Professor Atwater states that
the calculation as to the value of eggs is based upon
several hundreds of analyses, which, however, only
showed a variation of from 71:0 to 73'5 5, so that one
egg seems to be practically as good as another.

Some fair idea of the amount of beef amd veal con-
sumed may be gained from the official returns of cattle in
various countries. Thus, if we take Europe first, we find,
according to the latest statistics available, the following
numbers :—

HORNED CATTLE.

EUROPE,
United Kingdom ies 1884... 10,422,762
European Russia = ... 1877 aaa 27,323,219
Sweden .., aa Si 1882. 2,257,048
Norway ... ase nag 1875 sae 1,016,617
Denmark i ait 1881)... 1,470,078
Holland . a6 ay 1882 a... 1,427,936
Austro- Hungary sis 1880 a. 13,181,620
France ... ane aoe 1880) a. 11,446,253

Hialy eas yok nee ABST. — weerne 4,783,232

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 113

Germany... ae See 1873 ase 15,785,322
Belgium ... ae aes 1880) a... 1,382,815
Spain... ihe ii 1865... 2,904,598
Portugal... © 1... .. 1870 eee. oo "520, ATL
Switzerland... ses 1866 ‘ 993, 1241
Greece ... size see 1875 188, "651
Roumania aes avs 1873 1 866,990
“96,970,856
AMERICA.

United States ... me 1883 a. 42,547,307
Dominion of ‘Canada ... 1881 a... 3,514,989
Uruguay ... 1876 a 6,092,488
Argentine Confederation 1876 a. 13,493,000
Brazil... can 1880 a... 20,000,000
Falkland Isles ... vee 1879 esas 15,610
Newfoundland ... sot 1875 ae 13,938
85,677,332

For Paraguay, Chili, Peru, Venezuela, and other South
and Central American States, there are no reliable data
on which to form even an estimate. The West Indian
Islands have about 500,000, of which 84,206 are in
Jamaica.

AFRICA.
Egypt... ee es 171 132,666
Algeria ies a 1861 a. 1,053,086
Cape Colony... <n 1875 wae 1,329,445
Dutch Republics and
Kafirs ... ee ide — ease 1,000,000
Natal... aes vee 1882 nae 545,010
4,060,207
ASIA,
British India, about... — eseeee 50,000,000
Asiatic Russia (half in
Siberia) sts we 1863 a. 2,628,000
Java wie a aie 1873 a : 4,358,105
Ceylon... ws 38 1883 seoeee 1,091,500
Mauritius 525 we ==: 1875 sieules 29,545
Reunion ..,. see eae 1866. . 6,000
58,113,150

114 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

No. or Horxep CattLe (Cows, Buttocks, aND BuFrFraLoEs)

In 1879.
Assam .., ove een aie oe ie 1,436,706
Punjaub ave i oe ane oe 6,121,417
Central Provinces’... ies hie ar 5,374,234
British Burmah aoe os ies at 1,404,168
Berar... a oat er ise ee 1,728,786
' Mysore ... oa ase ae nes ove 2,361,615
Coorg ... 35 digs wes 116,419
Aymer and Mhatwarra es ea aad 143,161
Madras Presidency ... soe au wee 2,938,838
Bombay +3 es wee Sti ice 2,808,794

24,434,138

For Bengal there are no statistics available.

Nearly 25, 000 head of cattle are imported yearly into
British Burmah from countries ‘beyond the border.

Of China, Tartary, Japan, and other Eastern States
there are no returns to be obtained.

According to the census taken in the Punjab, Central
Provinees, etc., in 1879, there were supposed to be in India
about one head of horned cattle to every two human
beings. This would give about 100 millions of cattle,
worth at the very lowest calculation £75,000,000. But
this assumption is clearly too high, and 50 millions of
cattle may bea fair estimate. About. 8,000,000 hides are
annually exported; so that number must certainly be
killed or die, exclusive of the hides locally tanned.

The River Plate Republics cannot consume their
abundance of animal food; and they export largely
dried meat, extract of meat, tongues, etc. In 1872 and
1873 as many as 19,000 tongues were shipped from
Montevideo, but in 1875 this number had fallen to
7,000. From the,republic of Uruguay there is also
shipped annually from 30,000 to 40,000 tons of dried
salted meat, known as tasago or charqui. It is estimated
that the cattle slaughtered yield on an average 117 lbs.
of meat when salted and dried.

The late Sir Harry Meysey Thompson, i in a paper con-
tributed to the Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal in
1872, calculated that 25° per cent. of our entire stock

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS, 115

went annually to the butcher, and Mr. J. W. Pease, M-P.,
in a later paper read before the South Durham and
North Yorkshire Chamber of Agriculture at Darlington,
in 1878, assumed the same proportion. This would ¢ give
for 1883 2,600,000 animals, the whole number of cattle in
the United Kingdom i in that year being over 10,400,000.
These may be “estimated to weigh 600 lbs. per head,
equal to’ 13,928,571 cwt. The total foreign imports in
that year were 288,530 head of cattle. These would
average 520 lbs. per head, or 1,339,603 cwt.; besides this.
we received 764,260 ewt. of dead meat from America
and the Continent. This refers alone to the supply of
beef.

Agricultural returns recently issued contain some in-i
teresting estimates of the respective average weights of
the animals imported from various countries. Cattle:
Danish, 560 lbs., French, 828 lbs., Schleswig-Holstein,
and Netherlands, 680 lbs., Norwegian and Swedish,
624 lbs., Portuguese, 692 lbs., Spanish, 568 lbs., Canadian,
720 lbs., United States, 808 lbs.

CaTTLE IN AUSTRALASIA (RETURNS OF 1883).
Queensland... éae sss a6 ae 4,246,141

New South Wales... aaa ox wei 1,859,985
Victoria .. nee ee6 ass cee 1,297,546
South ‘Australia ais ee Per aks 319 620
Western Australia ... ace is ii 64, 558
Tasmania res oe sits sae ees 130, 525
New Zealand ... a aoe aay is 698, 637

8,617,012
Hawaiian Isles... aie 1866... 60 000

The very large number of cattle and sheep in Aus-
tralia not only makes meat cheap, but it is impossible
to consume the flesh for food. Sheep are not now boiled
down as formerly, simply for their tallow; strong efforts
are being made to obtain a field for their consumption
by exportation as frozen cargoes of meat, and preserved
or tinned. The-exports of preserved meat from the

12

116 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Australian colonies were:—From New South Wales in
1879 to the value of £136,613, from Victoria in the same
year to the value of but £69,054. The shipments which
in 1871 were 14,876,000 lbs. from Victoria féll in 1879 to
2,867,633 Ibs. Queensland shipped preserved meat to
the value of £24,563 in 1879, against £79,962 in 1871.
New Zealand shipped 20,815 ewts. in 1879, about one-
third of what was exported in 1872.

The quantities of meat received in England from New
Zealand were in 1882 8,839 carcases of mutton, in 1883
120,893 ditto, and 728 quarters of beef.

The shipments this year are expected to be about
300,000 carcases, and this will probably reach soon to
400,000 to 500,000 carcases per annum, a quantity that
can easily be increased to a million a few years hence.

The salted beef imported into the United Kingdom is
shown by the following figures :—

Quantity. Value.
cwts. £
1861 wee wee wee 141,683 231,502
1871 ote ae ses 280,075 a. 581,211
1880 see tee e 290,564 we 535,213
Fresh or slightly salted beef—
ewis. £
1861 a ee 10,952 sesee 30,666
1871 os _ ote 22,004 we 54,142

1880 oe es hie 727,392 sseee 1,889,730

Of unclassed beef, salted or fresh—

cwts. £
1861 ais ae Sais m0 Ct) 2,754
1871 sua ies oe 42,340) ..eaee 107,814
1880 te wee its 149,010 a... 429,073

Preserved meat and tongues, ete.—

cwts. £
1861 aoe wee vas 4,334 ised 15,944
1871 sie ais sire 254,833 ease 662,280

1880 sins pena 655,800 see 1,905,717

*y

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 117

The quantity of dead meat imported into the United
Kingdom in 1883 was as follows :—

Cwts.

Beef, fresh rr ai aa he axe 804,794
» Salted oh oes ae tee ata 289,214
Mutton, fresh ... ss ves tee tee © 236,496
Pork, fresh ae aes aes aoe arn 47,346.
» salted wee eee gee 8 ws 829,553
Bacon... age ae woe se - 3,089,830.
Hams... ses si ae ve 2¥8 606,162
Fresh or salted meat, unenumerated ... Pan 36,353
Preserved otherwise than by salting... As 610,400
6,050,148

The beef was principally from America, Russia, Ger-
many, and Australasia; the mutton from Australasia,
Holland, and America. The fresh pork from Belgium
and Holland, Germany and France ; the salted pork from
the United States, Germany, and Denmark; the pre-
served meat from Australasia, North America, and the
River Plate States. ; :

In 1864 we only imported 1,650,796 ewts. of meat of
all kinds from abroad ; in 1883 the quantity had risen
to 6,050,148 ewts., besides 6,283,472 cwts. of fish, lard,
butter, and cheese, and a quantity of game, poultry, and
eggs, valued at £3,323,950.

The number of live cattle imported into London from
abroad in 1880 was 170,366, and the home supply to the
Metropolitan Market then 173,290 beasts.

The quantity of each kind of meat and produce de-
livered at the London Central Meat and Poultry and
Provision Markets in 1883 was as follows :—

Cwts.
Country killed meat and produce ... ses 2,172,820
Town killed ‘3 3 ies ay 1,492,700
General Foreign killed meat and produce... 228,280
American killed Fresh meat... ie eee 535,980
Australian and. New Zealand killed Fresh ..
meat ... one ea an ats eae 93,420

—_—_

4,523,200

118 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

The fluctuations in the price of butchers’ meat in the
Metropolitan Cattle Market (at per stone of 8 lbs. sink-
ing the offal) has been as follows :—

1861. 1871. 1882.
s. d. s. d. s. d.
Inferior beasts ... 3 3h 83 114 4 32
2nd class ... oes - 4 0 4 10} 4 93
3rd class, large prime ... 4 6 5 4d 5 74
Ath class, Scots ... o. 4 103 5 84. ... 5 105
Coarse calves 4 34 4 03 5 43
Small prime- wo 5 2 oo. 5 4B. 5 118
In 1883 the prices were as follows for live meat :-—
° Beer.
Foreign. British.
s. d. s, d,
Inferior oc éxs ons AD sebives 4 4
Second ... + eee ees Bie) aay 5 7
First = sis OKO caedews 6 1
Morton.
Inferior ... ais aes its DO ccanezs 6 2
Second ... wes ait Per GOR sbeess 6 9
First... ao sa GBS asks 7 3

Taking the prices by the carcass, they were as follows
in the London Central Meat Market, per lb. :—

1864. 1883.
Beef... aw. 48d. to 64d. gee 5d. to 84d.
Mutton ... ae 53d. to 7d. wee 53d. to 93d.

The imports into the United Kingdom of preserved
meat, which in 1860 were only 6,131 cwt., advanced in |
1870 to 83,081, and rose in 1880 to 655,800; much of
this was, however, mutton.

The following were also other Foreign supplies we
received in the same periods :—

Fresh or slightly

Salted Beef, salted Meat.
ewts. ewts.
1860 aie ee bse 261,259. 935
1870 ae on ate 215,748 kas 34,300
1880 ove Ke ws $1,017,956 a. 149,060

The beef product of the United States in 1873 was
stated at 2,926,571 tons, of which 2,866,365 tons were

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 119

-consumed, leaving a surplus of 60,206 tons, of which about
12,000 tons were exported. Since then the horned cattle
have increased by more than 6,000,000 head, and many
live animals (in 1880 to the value of £3,177,000) are now
shipped from thence to Europe. In 1880 there was ex-
ported from American ports 84,717,000 Ibs. of fresh beef,
and 45,237,000 Ibs. of salted beef, or nearly 65,000 tons.

Very many of the European States besides our own
are obliged to import supplies of foreign meat. France
imported in 1880 55,400 tons of fresh and salted meat,
Belgium 42,500 tons, Denmark about 5,700 tons, and
Italy 6,000. Greece imported in 1875 about 4,500 tons.

Buffaloes.—This species of ox (Bubalus buflus) is found
in large numbers in various parts of India ‘and the East-
ern islands, and to'a limited extent in Eastern Europe
and Africa. It is the chief draught animal of Asia. There
are five or six millions in British India. In India animal
food is hardly at all used by the natives, but in the large
towns there are markets for buffalo beef for the low caste
and poorer Mussulman population, The flesh is stringy,
and gives off a musky odour; but the veal is considered
good. The hump on the back is considered a delicacy.
In Java the inhabitants cook the fresh hide for food,
esteeming it a dainty beyond any other morsel. There
are about 3,000,000 buffaloes in Java. In Sumatra they
dress their meat immediately after killing it, while it is
still warm, which is conformable with the practice of
the ancients, as recorded by Homer and others, and in
this state it is said to eat tenderér than when kept for a
day ; longer the climate will not admit of, unless it is pre-
served by the method of sun-drying and called “dendeng.”

The flesh of the young yak or grunting ox (Poephagus
grunniens), according to Sir J. Hooker, is delicious, much
richer than common veal. Opinions differ as to that of
the old yak. Pallas says the flesh is hard and bad-
tasted ; Huc, on the contrary, asserts.it to be very good.
The Lepchas eat not only the flesh, but the entrails, and
singe and fry the skin. They also jerk the meat, which
when dried is called “shat-chew,” and is a very common

120 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

and palatable food in Thibet. A large trade is carried
on in dried meat from the islands of “the Eastern Archi-

pelago to China and Japan.

Sheep and Mutton—Passing now to mutton supplies,
T will start with the number of Sheep and Lambs in

various countries.

EUROPE.
Russia ae sue as 1877
Sweden... age mae 1873
Norway... ies as 1875
Denmark... ... she 1880
Iceland * ... ave bg 1866
German Empire ... 355 1883
Holland ... Biss dee 1879
Belgium ... ae ie 1880
France siete tae we 1880
Portugal ... an Pe 1870
Spain ede sat oe 1865
Italy wii Sas vue 1881
Austro-Hungary ... nie 1880
Switzerland ee ee 1866
Greece... ine cee 1875
Turkey... Se ss 1870
Roumania.. aie 1873
United Kingdom... si 1883
AFRICA.
Egypt a aa 1871
North Africa and. Persia
about —_
Algeria... aaa a 1873
Cape Colony ae ove 1875
Natal his wes wee 1882
AMERICA.

United States ... Ses 1883
British America ... ase 1881
Uruguay ... 1876
Argentine Confederation... 1880
Falkland Islands ... ae 1875
Newfoundland sai 1875

Remainder of America ... —

eeeeee

eveees

we eece

eeneee

300,000
19,185,362
"745,187
365,400
22,516,084
2,706,777
29,054,967
8,596,108
13,093,463
447,001
2,291,917
16,000,000
4,786,294
29,256,528

199,290,574

184,899

55,000,000
9,699,111
11,279,743
454,235

76,617,988

50,626,626
3,048,678
12,200,000
70,000,000
60,000
28,766
6,000,000

141,964,070

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 12k

ASIA.
India, estimated about . Ss aehes 30,000,000
China, Japan, &c. , ditto .. Te 20, 000, 000
Ceylon... eee 1883)... 68, 672
Mauritius ... ar beg 1875 ae 28, 036

50,096,708

The following figures are from a census taken in 1879,
but both sheep | and ee a are mixed up in the returns
marked with a *

*Bombay ee, is a ae 2,728,866
Madras... sia eos ads see oie 4,544.904
‘*Mysore... ave eats eas ans a 1,693,108
*Berar ... ae ee as ais tts 391,959
*Coorg . ss sta wee 6,373
*Aymer. and Mhairwarra oe eee 186,823
*Assam . bea nea ai ai ee 317,445
*Punjaub_ a ae es aée ne 3,864,013
*Central Provinces... aa ab sae 702,359
*British Burmah aee xed eee we 16,389
14,452,239

No returns for Bengal.
AUSTRALASIA, 1883.

New South Wales... ae ie ose 31,796,308
Queensland ... ans ose si aos 11,507,475
Victoria rer ae Boe sis ae 10,739,021
South Australia ats etd ah oes 6,677,067
Western Australia ... tee ae sy 1,315,155
Tasmania ae aan set ng ite 1,831,069
New Zealand ... aie ae wie ies 13,384,075.
77,250,170
West Invizs.

Jamaica sats 1869 esasee 21,761.
Martinique and Guadaloupe. i 1865... 23,607
45,368

It was stated recently in The Times that in the nine
months, January to September (1884) we received from
Australia and New Zealand no less than 238,130 ewts.
of frozen mutton, compared with 60,532 cwts. in the

122 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS

corresponding period of 1883, and 32,063 cwts. in 1882.
Reckoning at 60. lbs. the weight of a carcass, this import
is at the rate of 592,600 sheep in the year, or an aver-
age of 11,400 sheep per week. This is equivalent to
doubling the number of sheep, though not doubling the
weight of mutton, at the Metropolitan Cattle Market, as
there were shown in that market in the year 1882 just
561,600 head, or 10,700 per week. The year’s total of
home and foreign live sheep at the Metropolitan and
Deptford market together gives an average of 25,800
head per week.

The prices of sheep in the Metropolitan Cattle Market
have been, per stone of 8 lbs. (sinking the offal), as fol-
lows :—

1861. 1871. 1881. 1882.

s. d. s. d. s. -d. s. d.
Inferior ... eis « 38 62..4 1 2.5 03.2.5 7
2nd class .. e 4 31.4 10} .. -5 8..6 12
3rd class, long coarse wool 5 ae ee OF 6 62...6 92
Ath class, Southdowns... 5 53 6 5 ...6 94... 7 OF
Lambs 6 5 7 3 ..8 1£..7 10

The quantity “of sheep imported into London from
abroad in 1883 was 803,341, and the home supply sent
to the Metropolitan Market was 465,450. Ireland ex-
ports about 500,000 sheep and lambs.

The average weight of the sheep we import is found
to be about as follows :—Belgian 70 lbs., Danish 64 Ibs.,
French 56 lbs., Schleswig-Holstein . 64 lbs., Netherlands
70 lbs., Norwegian and Swedish 48 lbs., Canadian 68 lbs.,
United States 60 Ibs.

In Spain and Southern Europe, the mutton is better
than in the north, and replaces beef at the tables of the
rich. Mutton is the flesh food almost exclusively of the
pastoral people of Asia and Africa. In Holland and
Germany mutton is held in disrepute.

Goat’s flesh is much eaten by the Arabs in Northern
Africa. Goats being very plentiful in Greece, their flesh
forms the principal animal food in the provinces. That
of the kid is considered as good as lamb, and the flesh
of the she-goat and buck are both eaten.

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS, 123

Flesh of the Camel tribe—Camels are less numerous
than other domestic animals, and are limited to a few
countries. Their flesh is not so generally eaten as that
of other animals. In the north of Africa there are very
many camels. Algeria has about 200,000, Tunis probably
half as many. In Central Asia and parts of India there
are large numbers; the Punjaub possesses about 130,000.
Wild camels are met with occasionally in troops about
Lake Lobnon in Asiatic Russia. Their flesh, which is
fat in autumn, is eaten by the natives.

The flesh of the camel was eaten both by the Greeks
and Persians. Heliogabalus had camel’s flesh and
camel’s feet served up at his banquets, and by the Arabs
the flesh of the young dromedary is considered equal to
veal. The natives of Africa esteem camel’s flesh more
than that of any other animal, but in other quarters it is
not held in equal favour, being considered hard and un-
savoury and little esteemed even by the Tartars. They
however use the hump cut into slices, which dissolved
in tea serves the purpose of butter. In Barbary the
tongues are salted and smoked for exportation to
Italy and other countries, and they form a very good
dish.

Alpaca Tribe-—The flesh of the alpaca of South
America is but little inferior to mutton, and it yields
about three or four times the weight of flesh that a
sheep does. The meat of the fawn is best and most
delieate, but it is used sparingly, the principal object
being the wool. The flesh of all the tribe, either fresh
or dried, affords a wholesome meal. That of the wild
guanaco is the best of the class and is highly esteemed.
The flesh of the vicuna, salted and dried under the name
of “charqui,” is eaten, but is not generally considered so
good as that of its congeners the. guanaco and alpaca.
Opinions on this point however seem to differ, some con-
sidering the flesh of the vicuna equal to venison.

The giratfe is hunted in Kordofan chiefly for its flesh ;
that of the young is said to be very delicate. The
Hottentots in Southern Africa used to hunt the animal

124 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

principally on account of its marrow, which is a delicacy
they set a high value on.

Venison—tThe deer tribe, both in their wild and domes-
ticated state, contribute largely to human food, their
flesh being wholesome and nutritious. It will only be
necessary to instance a few of the least common.

The flesh of the little Japanese deer (Cervus sica) is ex~
cellent. They fatten well, and their legs contain layers
of fat, which are highly appreciated by connoisseurs.
Lord Powerscourt acclimatised them in Ireland, and has
more than a hundred head, and the young are sold in
the London market for venison. These deer, however,
attain rarely a weight of more than 100 lbs. in our
‘southern climate, while in the north they are double
that weight.

Reindeer —In the winter many families of Laplanders
arrive in St. Petersburg bringing with them herds of
reindeer for sale to the rich proprietors. These are
killed, and the saddle of meat is considered an exquisite
dish ; but the tongue is the most dainty morsel.

The stomach of the reindeer, distended with well
masticated willow sprigs in a half digested state, is
highly esteemed. This is dried over the fire or in the
smoke of the huts for winter use, and when mixed with
melted suet, oil and snow, is highly relished. It is
deemed a powerful anti-scorbutic.

Every part of the carcass of the reindeer serves the
natives of the northern regions for food. In the Russian
Empire there are computed to be about one million rein-
deer, in Norway about 100,000, one-fifth of the domesti-
cated ones are yearly killed for food, and in North America
there are many thousands. A fine reindeer will sometimes
yield 120 lbs. of meat and forty of tallow. The Esquimaux
hunter breaks the leg of a recently slaughtered deer and
swallows the marrow still warm, with avidity ; the kid-
neys and other parts of the intestines are also eaten raw ;
the large gut, when roasted or boiled with all its fatty ap-
pendages, is one of the most savoury dishes that can be
offered, either to Indian or white settler in North America.

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS, 125

Some Indians and Canadians leave this savoury mix-
ture to ferment or season for a few days before they eat
it. The blood, if mixed in proper proportion with fat
meat and cooked with some nicety, forms a rich and
highly nutritious soup. After all the flesh is consumed
the bones are pounded, and a large quantity of marrow
extracted by boiling; this is employed in preparing
pemmican.

Reindeers’ tongues are much liked by many in ‘this
country, large quantities being imported annually from
Russia. They are snow-cured, no salt whatever being
used, the mildness and richness of flavour in the meat is
preserved, and they are rendered extremely acceptable to
refined palates.

The flesh of the moose or elk is more relished by the
Indians and persons resident in the fur countries of
America than that of any other animal. It bears a
greater resemblance in its flavour to beef than to venison.
It is said that the external fat is soft, like that of a
breast of mutton, and when put into a bladder is as fine
as marrow. In this it differs from all other species of
deer, of which the external fat is hard. A. buck in its
grease will weigh as much as 800 lbs. without the offal.
‘When in good condition the flesh is sweet and tender,
and is highly esteemed as.an article of food. The
“moufle” or loose covering of the nose is considered
by epicures the greatest delicacy of the North-west, con-
testing the palm with bear’s paw, beaver tail, reindeer
tongue, and buffalo boss. ,

. Ina few years, unless legislation interferes, there will
be no elk, buffalo, mule-deer, or antelope left to hunt in
the Western States and Territories. In Minnesota,
Montana, and Wyoming alone 20,000 deer are annually
slaughtered, and in one year between the Yellowstone
and the head waters of the little Missouri 25,000
buffaloes were killed. Even if this extermination of
the noble fauna of America was the result of legitimate
sport it would be matter for regret. But sport has
nothing to do with it. The price of an elk’s skin is

a

126 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

three dollars, and the trade in buffalo robes is always
brisk. Hence all the resources of civilisation are en-
listed in the cause of the almighty dollar against the
wild nature of the New World. A large party of hunters
with repeating rifles, each man killing from six to twelve
beasts from every herd they come across before it can
get beyond range, are calculated to thin the magnitude
of those herds rather rapidly; and as the number of
hunters increases annually while the herds decrease, it
is an easy calculation to determine when the bottom of
the basket will be reached.

There are a considerable variety of antelopes in South
Africa, and a very great number of species in every dis-
trict. The flesh of most is in universal esteem among
all the people. It is well flavoured when fat, and of a
delicate taste. It makes very fine venison when pro-
perly dressed, and the legs and shoulders of the anima
are much esteemed as a relish when dried down into
“piltong,” a most convenient and palatable article of diet,
perfectly familiar to the colonists. In this form it can
be kept almost any length of time, and has frequently
been brought to England. It is extremely nourishing
and digestible, and can often be taken by individuals.
when other food is rejected by the stomach.

The flesh of the gemsbok (Oryx Gasella) of Africa.
ranks next to the eland, and at certain seasons of the:
year they are very fat.

Sir Cornwallis Harris, speaking of the Eland, says :—
« By all classes in Africa its flesh is deservedly esteemed
over that of any other animal. Both in grain and colour
it resembles beef, but is far better tasted and more deli-
cate, possessing a fine game flavour and exhibiting the.
most tempting looking layers of fat and lean, the surpris-
ing quantity of the former ingredient with which it is
nterlarded, exceeding that of any other game quadru-
ped with which I am acquainted. The venison fairly
melts in the mouth, and as for the brisket, that is abso-
lutely a cut fora monarch. During the greater part of
our journey it was to the flesh of this goodly beast that

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 127

we principally looked for our daily rations, both on ac-
count of its vast superiority over all other wild flesh, and
from the circumstance of its being obtainable in larger
quantities with comparatively less labour.”

We have now to examine the food furnished by other
mammals, which is an important necessary to many of
the northern tribes.

Bison.—The existence of the North American Indians
is bound up inseparably with that of the so-called
“buffalo” (Bos Bison). These animals exist in vast
numbers on the prairies, and it is computed that half a
million are killed yearly, mainly for their furs or “ robes”
and the tongue, much of the flesh being wasted. The
late Horace Greeley, writing from the plains, remarks,
“What strikes the stranger with the most amazement is
their immense numbers. I know a million is a great
many, but I am confident we saw that number yester-
day. Certainly all we saw could not have stood on ten
miles of ground. . . I doubt whether the domesticated
horned cattle of the United States equal the numbers,
while they must fall considerably short in weight of the
wild ones.”

The flesh of a bison in good condition is very juicy
and well flavoured, much resembling that of well-fed
beef. The tongue is reckoned a delicacy, and may:be
cured so as to surpass in flavour the tongue of an Eng-
lish ox. The hump or flesh covering the long spinous
processes of the first dorsal vertebre, consisting of fat
and muscles, is much esteemed. It is named bos by the
Canadian voyageurs, and zig by the Orkney men in the
service of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The wig has a
fine grain, and when salted and cut transversely it is al-
most as rich and tender as the tongue.

The flesh of the bison is largely used as food, and the
hunch on the shoulders is esteemed a great delicacy.
Each buffalo will produce from 50 to 70 lbs. of tallow,
but a bull bison, when fat, will frequently yield 150 lbs.
weight of tallow, which forms a considerable article of
commerce.

‘128 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

One of the most useful applications of buffalo meat
consists in the preparation of pemmican, an article of
food of the greatest importance from its portability and
nutritious qualities. Thisis prepared by cutting the lean
meat into thin slices, exposing it to the heat of the sun
or fire, and when dry, pounding it into a powder. It is
then mixed with an equal weight of buffalo suet and
stuffed into bladders. Sometimes venison is used instead
of buffalo meat. One bison cow in good condition fur-
nishes dried meat and fat enough to make a bag of pem-
mican weighing 90 pounds.

Marine Mammals.—The flesh of the whale has been
already alluded to as furnishing food to the natives in
many countries—New Zealand, Brazil, Japan, and espe-
cially the Arctic regions. In Barbados, when obtain-
able, the flesh of the hump-backed whale (Megaptera
Americana) is eaten by all classes, being preferred to beef,
which is there tough. The flesh of the whale is also
eaten in Tobago, St. Lucia, and the Grenadines. A
South Sea harpooner will tell you that, excepting the
delicacy of a draught of the yellow, creamy milk taken
from a freshly-speared she-whale, whale fins, properly
cooked, are the greatest of conceivable dainties. The
xank, rich, heat-producing flesh of the seal vies, in the
opinion of an Esquimaux, with the merits of blubber
cut from the flanks of a stranded whale. He will eat
the raw flesh of the whale with the same apparent
relish, when newly killed, or after it has been buried in
the ground for several months.

7 There is no food more delicious to the taste of the
Esquimaux than the flesh of seals, and especially
that of the common seal (Phoca vitulina). Whales
and walruses they capture when they come in their
way, but the seal is their daily food. This animal
is as useful to them as the sheep to us. This
meat is so unlike the flesh to which Europeans are
accustomed, that it is not surprising that we should
have some difficulty at first in making up our minds
to taste it; but when once that difticulty is over-

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 129

come, everyone praises its flavour, tenderness, digesti-
bility, juiciness, and its decidedly warming after-effects.
Its colour is almost black, from the large amount of
venous blood it contains, except in young seals, and is
therefore very singular looking and not inviting, while
its flavour is unlike anything else, and cannot be de-
scribed except by saying “delicious.” To suit European
palates there are certain precautions to be taken before
it is cooked. It has to be cut in thin slices, carefully re-
moving any fat or blubber, and is then soaked in salt
water for from 12 to 24 hours, to remove the blood,
which gives it a slightly fishy flavour. The daintiest
morsel is the liver, which requires no soaking, but may
be eaten as soon as the animal is killed.

The heart is good eating, while the sweetbread and
kidneys are not to be despised. The usual mode of
cooking seal’s flesh is to stew it with a few pieces of fat
bacon, when an excellent rich gravy is formed, or it may
be fried with a few pieces of pork.

The flesh of the hair-seals is said to be more juicy
and sweet for food than that of the fur-seals, which are
chiefly composed of blubber., The flesh of a young fur-
seal, placed in running water overnight and then broiled,
is, however, far from disagreeable, in fact it is said to taste
exactly like mutton chop. The young sea-lion (Otaria),
of which there are several species, is said to be even
better eating. Anson, in his “Voyage Round the
World,” speaking of Juan Fernandez, writes :—

“There is another amphibious creature to be met with
here called a sea-lion, which bears some resemblance to
a seal, though it is much larger. This, too, we eat, under
the denomination of beef. They are extremely fat, so
that after having cut through the skin, which is about an
inch in thickness, there is at least a foot of fat before
you can either come at lean or bones; and we experi-
enced more than once that the fat of some of the largest
afforded us a butt of oil. We killed many of them for
food, particularly for their hearts and tongues, which we
esteemed exceeding good eating, and preferable even to

K

130 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

those of bullocks.” The flesh of the female sea-lion is
said to be delicate, while that of the cub can scarcely be
distinguished from roast pig.

Capt. J. N. East, R.N., says that the tongues, fins, and
kidneys of these enormous animals are excellent eating.

The flesh of the sea-elephant (Macrorhinus angustirostris y
is not only black, oily and indigestible, but not easily
separated from the fat. The tongues alone supply good
aliment, and they are salted with care and sold in some
markets. The heart is sometimes eaten, but it is hard
and indigestible; and the liver, which is esteemed in
some seals, according to Dr. Hamilton after repeated
trials, would appear to be hurtful.

Among the savage inhabitants of the Arctic regions
the flesh of the walrus (Trichechus rosmarus) is much
valued and esteemed ; it is greedily eaten along with the
blubber, and even the'skin. The flesh is strong, coarse,
and of a game-like flavour, but the large tongue, heart
and liver are often eaten by whalers for want of better
provisions, and are passably good.

The animals of the Sirenia family are hunted for their
flesh both in the eastern and western hemispheres.
Being herbivorous animals their flesh is much appre-
ciated. The dugong (Halicore Indicus or H. Dugong) is
the eastern representative of the family, and it is cap-
tured about Ceylon and Northern Australia. The wes-
tern species is the Manatus Americanus. The dugong is
considered by the Malays a royal fish, and the king is en-
titled to all that are taken. The flesh when roasted has
the flavour of pork combined with the taste of veal. It
is esteemed a great delicacy by the Mahometans, who
naturally seek a compensation in this dish for the pro-
hibition under which they suffer respecting the porcine
tribe terrestrial. When cured the flesh is considered in
Queensland a relishing article of diet for the breakfast.
table, having the flavour of good bacon with just an
agreeable “bloater” twang added. The tail, which is

very fat, is much esteemed, and is generally soused or ©
pickled.

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 131

The flesh of the full grown dugong is good and palat-
able, resembling fair beef. The meat of the young ani-
mal, salted and cured with the ficsh and fat in its alternate
layers, produces excellent bacon which cannot readily be
distinguished from the orthodox pig, and meets with
ready sale in Queensland. The oil properly boiled out
from the fat and used on hot toast is equal to fresh but-
ter, and it can also be made to serve exactly the same
purpose in cooking.

The oil from the fat is free from that rancid odour
common to animal oils, and is held in high esteem.

The flesh of this animal affords excellent food in the
countries where it is captured. Humboldt compares it
to ham, and Von Martius says he never tasted better
meat in the Brazils. When properly dried and salted in
the sun, the flesh will remain sweet for a whole year,
Amongst the South American monks, it is regarded, from
an ecclesiastical point of view, as a fish, together with
whales, seals, and other water-loving mammals ; hence
they fare sumptuously upon its flesh during Lent. Mr.
Bates describes the capture of a manatee or vacca marina,
during his canoe voyage on the Upper Amazon; but
does not praise the flavour of its flesh as other travellers
have done. He says :—‘ The meat was cut up into cubi-
cal slabs, and each person skewered a dozen or so of these
on a long stick. Fires were made, and the spits stuck in
the ground, and slanted over the flames to roast. The
meat has somewhat the taste of coarse pork ; but the fat,
which lies in thick layers between the lean parts, is of a
greenish colour, and of a disagreeable fishy flavour.”

The flesh of the manatee of South America is edible,
and pronounced by Humboldt and others sweet and palat-
able. When salted and sun dried it will keep for a year
or more. The true manatees or lamantines are contined
to the Atlantic Ocean. The largest species (Manatus
Jaterostris) is found in the United States upon the
Florida coast; another species inhabits the mouths of
the rivers in South America.

In Africa, the M. Senegalensis and a second species,

K 2

132 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

provisionally named by Professor Owen, Manatus Vogelii,
is a royal perquisite, like the sturgeon in Britain, and is
generally taken to the chief's table. Dr. Vogel speaks of
it as very good, its flesh and fat being like pork and very
well flavoured. There is no reason why it should not be
so. It reaches ten feet in length, and becomes very fat.

Dolphins and Porpoises—At the Faroe Islands, the
inhabitants of which principally live on fish, about 2,000
dolphins or bottle-noses (Delphinus globiceps) are taken
annually; the flesh is eaten either fresh or salted, and
tastes like coarse beef.

The fat is removed, some being used for domestic pur-
poses. The flesh is cut into long bands as thick as the
arm, salted, and hung around the houses in the air to
dry. It has a black exterior coating and soon exhales a
disagreeable odour, which passes away when it becomes
thoroughly dried, and it may then be kept a long time.

In former years a dolphin was thought a fit and
worthy present to be made to a Duke of Norfolk, who
again divided its flesh among his friends; it was roasted
and eaten with porpoise sauce.

The flesh and blubber of the dolphin (Platanista gange-
tica) are eaten by some low caste Indians. That of Del-
phinus tursis and D. Delphis is eaten along the coasts of
the Adriatic.

Brand states that porpoises were sold for food in the
Newcastle market in the year 1575. In the time of
Edward I. the price for the best sea-hog was 6s. 8d.

At the dinners of the Goldsmiths’ Company in olden
times we find, besides ordinary fish, the seal and porpoise
mentioned. The porpoise then constituted one of the
standard dishes of a public feast. It was eaten with a
sauce composed of sugar, vinegar, and crumbs of fine
bread. Sailors will, however, scarcely eat it. M. de
Bouganville, in his “Voyage to the Falkland Isles,”
writes: “We had some of the porpoise served up at
dinner the day it was taken, which several others at the
table besides myself thought by no means so ill-tasted
as it is generally said to be.”

FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 133

Porpoise flesh is sold at Bridgetown, Barbados, to the
negroes at 3d. to 6d. per pound, and the flesh of the shark
at a penny per pound.

The porpoise was at one time, even in this country, es-
teemed a voluptuous article of food. Malcolm IV. granted
to the monastery of Dunfermline, those which were
caught in the neighbourhood; and it is said to have
been introduced at the tables of the old English nobility
as late as the time of Queen Elizabeth. Much later than
this, it was a great article of consumption in some coun-
tries professing the Roman Catholic faith, especially dur-
ing the season of Lent, and accordingly, in spring, it was
the peculiar object of pursuit. Sailors on long voyages,
in lack of fresh provisions, were often happy to have
recourse to it. Thus, Capt. Colnett, in 1793, mentions
that, when off the coast of Mexico in the Pacific, they
saw porpoises in abundance, and took many of them,
which they mixed with their salt pork, and so made
excellent sausages: “They became,” he adds, “ our ordi-
nary food.”

Like most of the cetacea, its flesh has a very strong
oily flavour, which, however, relished by an Esquimaux,
is not very agreeable to the palate of a European epicure
of the present day.

With modern times a change has taken place in the
tastes of cultivated society ; but in high northern lati-
tudes porpoises are still, as they have ever been, highly
esteemed as articles of food. Thus Egede states that
“The flesh is by the Greenlanders reckoned a great
dainty ; and the oil they find a beverage, than which,
according to their taste, nothing can be more delicious.”*

© Naturalists’ Library, Mammalia,

134 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

Fieso Foop FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES.

Buzzard, Kite, and Other Birds of Prey Eaten — Beccafico —
Guacharo — Larks —Thrushes—Blackbirds—Buntings—Fried
Canaries—Starlings—Rooks—Ortolans—Hdible Birds’ Nests
—Statistics of Supply—Parrots—Toucans—Domestic Poultry
—Fowls in Egypt and Morocco— Weight of Different Fowls
—Statistics of Poultry in the United Kingdom—in France—
in Austria —in the United States— Value of the Poultry
Imported from Abroad — Turkeys — Christmas Supplies —
Statistics of Turkeys in France—Wild Turkeys of America
—Peacocks—Formerly Served at Royal Banquets—Bustards
—Partridges — Game Birds Consumed in Great Britain —
Snipes —-Woodcocks — Grouse — Pheasants — Capercailzie —
Game Birds of Sweden—Prairie Hens—Ruffs, Reeves, and
Godwits—Quails—Game Pies of France--Patés de Foies Gras
—Tragopins—Pigeons, Domestic and Wild—Ostrich Meat—
Flamingoes, Cranes, and Herons— Ducks and Geese—Statistics
of in France—Wild Geese—Swans—Plovers—Teal—Canvas-
back Duck—Pelicans—Penguins.

THE class of Birds, like that of Fishes, furnishes the
most abundant resources to various people who depend
a good deal for their daily food on the fisheries and the
chase, and there are very few, with the exception of
birds of prey, that are refused. The flesh of those birds
which feed on grain or other vegetable products, is less
strongly flavoured than that of carnivorous birds. One of
the chief characteristics of the flesh of fowls (observes
Prof. Church), notably those which are wild, is the almost-
entire absence of fat. When much fat is present the
flavour of the meat is often less delicate and its digesti-
bility, especially when roasted, decidedly difficult. As
game, numerous wild birds, especially the water fowls,
contribute largely to human food.

Raptores— Among birds of prey there are not many that
furnish food for man, or that are relished when they have

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 135

been tasted. The buzzard (Buteo vulgaris) used to be com-
monly eaten in France, and the Pern or honey-buzzard
was also there esteemed a delicacy. The Chinese and
Japanese eat the flesh of the kite and other birds of prey.
In the “ Annals and Magazine of Natural History,” for
July, 1857, we read of the carrion kite of Northern
Australia (Milvus affinis), which is hardly distinguishable
from the common kite of India and China, that “these
birds are excellent eating, and certainly excel any other
game we have in flavour and tenderness.” The kite
stands A 1 as a table delicacy in the estimation of Dr.
M. Elsey, surgeon to the North Australian expedition
under Gregory. True he states that they feed entirely
en grasshoppers; but what brought them in hundreds on
the trees round the camp? Why to pick up all sorts
of refuse undoubtedly that is edible by a carrion bird
in any shape. The flesh of the hawk tribe is regarded
by us as totally unfit for food, yet one species is so
much in request in South Morocco, that the birds are
sent from Mogador as presents to the Sultan; it is
a small bird resembling the sparrow-hawk. (Leared’s
“ Morocco.”) :

Passeres.—In this order we do not find many which
contribute generally to human food.

The beccafico (Sylvia hortensis), a bird about the size
of a linnet, is highly prized by the Italians for the deli-
eacy of its flesh, particularly in autumn, when it is in
excellent condition for the table. The Cypriots preserve
them for winter use partially boiled in Commanderia
wine.

The guacharo (Steatornis caripensis) is much sought for
in certain caves in the West Indies and Central America
for the fat obtained by melting down the young birds.
The oil is semi-fluid, transparent, inodorous, and so pure
that it will keep above a year without turning rancid.
If eaten when taken from the nest these birds are pro-
nounced by epicures unrivalled, and their flesh is also
considered a delicacy when salted.

Preserved larks have been shown in the Italian section

136 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

at several of the International Exhibitions. They will

keep good, it is said, for three years.

The griveas (Alauda arvensis) and thrushes are much in:

esteem and generally introduced at table at Nice, roasted
on toast with a thin layer of bacon fat over them.

We have our delicate tit-bits in spitted larks; as many.

as four thousand dozen have been known to be taken in
the neighbourhood of Dunstable between September and
February. What the number sold in our metropolitan
markets may be annually, it is impossible to say, but
400 dozen can be bought in one day. A few centuries
ago larks were sold in London at 6d. a dozen, and black-
birds at 10d. a dozen. Larks are chiefly the produce of
Cambridgeshire, with asmaller proportion from Bedford-
shire. They are of easy sale now at about 1s. a dozen,
and are generally roasted; at one time they were
fashionable in pies. Larks are taken in much larger
numbers in Germany, where there is an excise upon them,
which has yielded as much as £1,000 a year in Leipsic.
The larks of that place are famous all over the German
Empire as being of a most delicate flavour.

In the Italian markets, besides carrion crows, strings
of thrushes, larks, and even robin redbreasts are sold.

Each year in the autumn, in the south of France and
Italy, there is an enormous destruction of small birds,
which migrate to pass the winter in a warmer climate.

Owing to the number of robin redbreasts which are
eaten in Lorraine, these pretty songsters are becoming
scarce. Swallows, redbreasts, and larks are all shot for
eating.

The flesh of the young fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) is ac-
counted very good eating, and preferable to that of the
thrush. It is much eaten in Germany. They migrate
here in October staying till February, and are best in
December and January.

The flesh of the white Lapland sparrow is so good
that in Sweden it is considered equal to the ortolah.

The Italians are said to be fond of the flesh of the
cuckoo, and those who have tasted it state that the

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 137

young cuckoo is a most delicious morsel, but it has sel-
dom or ever been eaten in this country.

The great spotted cuckoo (Coccytes glandarius) passes
Greece in flocks from the north in August. This bird
with the guepier (Merops apiaster, L.), and the hoopoe
(Upupa epops, L.), are all sought for in Greece for food.

In winter they catch by thousands in Sweden, by means
of hair springs or snares, a number of small birds which
pass under the general name of grives, such as various
species of thrush, the waxwing of Bohemia (Ampelis
garrulis), the common bullfinch (Pyrrhula europea), ete.

There are annually sent to the Continent from Corsica
between 350,000 and 400,000 blackbirds (Turdus merula).
They come in vast numbers each winter to feed on the
berries of the myrtle and arbutus, with which the moun-
tains are covered. In the month of December they be-
come very fat, and the flavour and perfume given by
this food cause them to be much esteemed by the gourmets
of Paris. A pdte de fote de merle is considered a great:
delicacy.

The common bunting (Emberiza miliaria) is often taken
in nets and brought to market, where they are sold for
larks. The snow bunting (Plectrophanis [Emberisa]
nivalis) when fat is excellent eating.

When the ice on the Neva leaves St. Petersburg, innu-
merable flocks of snow buntings arrive. They almost
line the banks of the river, and are killed in great quan-
tities, being fat, but they do not merit the name of orto-
lans, given to them when served at table.

A favourite dish at some of the cafés of St. Michael’s,
Madeira, is “fried canaries” (Fringilla canaria, Lin.). They
don’t pay 10s. or £1 a piece for canaries there, only a
dollar the hundred: in the season. Was it not Vitellius
who betrayed a weakness for a stew of nightingales’
tongues? They are as materialistic in Madeira. It is
some satisfaction to know that cooked canary is no better
than sparrow pie.

Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris, Lin.) are frequently shot or
trapped in the winter and eaten.

138 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

The flesh of the stone-chat (Sazxicola enanthe) is rather
savoury, and that. of the bristly-bearded mouse (Calomo-
philus biarmicus) is palatable.

Dr. Daubeny, in his “Lectures on Roman Husbandry,”
says:—“The ancient Romans had large preserves, not
only of poultry and pigeons, but even of thrushes and
quails enclosed in pens which were called ‘ ornithones,
from which they could draw their supply for the table
at pleasure. We are told, indeed, of two sorts of orni-
thones, the one merely aviaries stocked with birds for
the amusement of the proprietor; the other kind, con-
structed with a view to protit, which were often of vast ex-
tent, to supply the demands of the Roman market for such
articles of luxury. In the Sabine country particularly,
we read of extensive pens, filled with birds for the latter
purpose. For thrushes alone there were large rooms pro-
vided, each capable of holding several thousand birds.
As they were put in to be fattened, the place had only
just light enough to enable the birds to see their food,
but there was a good supply of fresh water accessible.
And I may remark that, whilst nothing is said by the
Roman writers about the fattening of oxen and sheep,
particular directions are given for fattening poultry and
other birds—a strong additional argument of the little
importance they attached to the larger animals as articles
of food.”

One of the most delicious birds is the American rice-
bunting (Dolichonyx orysivora, Lin.).

This bird migrates over the continent of America, from
Labrador to Mexico, and over the great Antilles, appear-
ing in the southern extremity of the United States about
the end of March. Towards the middle and close of
August, they enter New York, and Pennsylvania on
‘their way to the south. There, along the shores of the
large rivers lined with floating fields of wild rice, they
‘find abundant subsistence, grow fat, and their flesh
becomes little inferior in flavour to that of the European
-ortolan, on which account the reed, or rice-birds, as they
are then called, are shot in great numbers. When the

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 139

cool nights in October commence, they move still farther
south, till they reach the islands of Jamaica and Cuba in
prodigious numbers to feed on the seeds of the guinea
grass. Epicures compare the plump and juicy flesh of
this delicacy to the ortolan.

As they go southward in the fall, the favourite
meadow singers, the bobolinks, take to the marshes and
become “reed-birds,” much sought after by sportsmen and
pot-hunters. At Chester, Delaware, the headquarters of
the bird shooters of the State, there are forty pro-
fessional. “pushers.” The shooting begins the 1st of Sep-
tember. The Philadelphia Times makes a brief estimate of
the results of a month’s shooting. “At Chester, at the
Lazaretto, and the two hundred club-houses that line both
banks of the Delaware from League Island to Marcus
Hook, there will be at least nine hundred shooters daily.
At the former two places 2,000 birds daily—taking the
scores of those who push themselves and of the pro-
fessional shooters—will be killed. Eight hundred
gunners daily from the private club-houses is but a fair
count, and, giving them each a score of 10 birds daily,
the total will be 10,000 birds killed every day in the
month of September, an aggregate of 300,000 scored at
the above places alone. This is but a meagre approxi-
mation of the grand total, probably ranging over
1,000,000 when the marshes from Bombay Hook to
Bordentown are included in the estimate.”

Lawson affirms that the flesh of the Carolina crow is
as good meat as a pigeon, for it never feeds upon any
carrion.

Young rooks, when skinned and made into pies, are
esteemed by some persons, but they are very coarse eat-
ing although wholesome food; rook pie can hardly com-
pete with a pigeon pie, although it is said to havea
fulness and lusciousness of flavour which excels any dish
of graminivorous birds.

The ortolan (Hinbirisa hortulana) is much esteemed by
epicures for the delicacy of its flesh. They are specially
fattened in dark chambers till they become mere lumps

149 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

of fat, and are so rich as soon to satisfy the appetite of
a professed gourmand. <A great traffic was formerly
carried on from the Island of Cyprus in these birds.
They are caught in vast numbers there, and pickled in
casks, each containing from 300 to 400, prepared with
spice and vinegar. In some years the number of casks
exported has “amounted to 400, or upon an average
140,000 of these highly-prized morsels.

In India they fatten what passes for ortolan, but are
birds quite of another kind, being a species of the
lark family (Calandrella brachydactyla, Temm). Those
commonly served at table in Calcutta are mostly un-
fattened birds, brought alive to the bazaar, of the
species referred to when procurable in abundance,
but often mingled with other kinds of larks and pipits,
more especially the Corydalla Richardi, and not unfre-
quently they are of this species exclusively.

Edible Birds’ Nests.—There is a curious Chinese food
dainty in the gelatinous nest of a species of swift, of
which about eight millions are said to be annually sold in
China. The nest and bird are figured in Gray’s “ Genera
of Birds,” where he names it Collocalia Troglodytes.
Bonaparte names it Salangana (Collocalia) fuciphaga.
Thunberg also gave it the name of Hirundo fuciphaga
from the supposition that the mucilaginous matter em-
ployed in the construction of the nests was obtained from
seaweed eaten by the birds. But it is now ascertained
beyond doubi that the substance in question is secreted
by greatly developed glands. The most recent analysis
of the nests we owe to Professor Troschel, of Bonn. He
finds that the material does not consist of specially
nourishing or stimulating substances, but is quite
similar in composition to any animal saliva.

Whether C. esculenta, C. fuciphaga, and C. nidifica are
one and the same species is not yet settled.

The bird producing this esculent nest is found all over.
the Malay and Philippine archipelagos, wherever there
are caves to afford it shelter and protection. But Java
and Borneo seem to be their chief resort. The celebrated

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 141

eaves of Karang-bolong, situated in the province of
Baglin in Java, and on the shore of the Southern sea,
may be taken as an example.

There are three periods for making the collection—
April, August, and December. The nest gatherers are
persons bred to their dangerous calling, and the nests are
collected with long bamboo ladders. After the crop has
been taken, the caves are hermetically sealed against
human ingress. The whole annual gathering here, which
is effected with little cost, amounts to about 28,000 Ibs.

These nests are by no means confined to the sea
coasts, for they are obtained in caves in the interior, both
of Java and Borneo, and no doubt exist also in other
islands. On the north-western side of Borneo, and not far
from the banks of the river Baram, birds’-nest caves are
found 140 miles from the sea by the course of the river.

The prices paid for these nests in the Canton market
vary greatly, according to the quality. Williams tells
us, in his work on China, that those of the best sort used
to fetch the enormous price of 3,500 dollars the picul of
183 lbs. or more than £5 10s. the pound; the second
quality produces 2,800 dollars per picul, and the third, or
uncleaned, not more than 1,600 dollars. But the prices
are now lower, viz., 2,500, 1,500 and 1,000 dollars. The
nests resemble much a piece of fibrous isinglass badly
cooked, of a reddish-white colour. They are little
thicker than a silver spoon, and vary in weight from a
quarter to half an ounce. When dry they are brittle and
rough on the surface. In size they are a little larger
than a goose egg. They are cleaned with great care,
dried in the shade, and packed away. A large portion
of the best quality nests are sent to Pekin for the use of
the Court. In some parts of China as much as £9 per
catty (rather more than 1} Ibs.) has been paid for
these birds’ nests.

The value of the collection of these birds’ nests in
Siam, where it is a government monopoly, was stated
by Crawfurd, many years ago, to be about £12,500
annually,

142 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

These expensive articles of food are principally em-
ployed in making soup, which owes most of its flavour
to the ingredients that are added; but they are also made
use of in various ways, and are regarded as a great
delicacy by Chinese epicures. When newly formed these
nests are perfectly clear, of a yellowish-white colour, and
wholly soluble in water; but when old they become
deeply.soiled and mixed with feathers, and their value
is immensely deteriorated. Hence they are broadly dis-
tinguished into white and black, of which the first are
by far the most scarce and valuable, being found in the
proportion of one only to twenty-five. The white nests
sell in China for nearly their weight in silver. Besides.
birds’-nest soup, it is made into a jelly, prepared in the
following manner :—They steep the nest in water during
one night, then with great trouble elean it. This being
done it is boiled in water, to which sugar candy is added
till the whole forms a jelly. A single nest prepared in
this way is enough for one person. These nests being:
very dear, only the wealthy Chinamen can obtain this:
delicacy. The rich opium smokers take in the mornmg
a cup of it, for the purpose of refreshing and strengthen-
ing their debilitated frames. Persons attacked by con-
sumption are advised by the Chinese practitioners to.
take these nests ; they prescribe them also to those who
are reduced by a protracted illness.

The birds which build these nests, of which there are
two or probably more species, are found in great abun-:
dance in all parts of the Eastern Archipelago, and also
on the Continent of India; the nests are collected in
great quantities, and constitute an important article of.
commerce with China.

About 250 Ibs. of these birds’ nests are collected:
annually in Lower Cochin China, and fetch from 290 to:
405 francs the kilo. The nests taken which are still:
inhabited by birds are clean, but those which have been
abandoned contain a great quantity of agglutinated:
feathers and excrements.

The gelatinous substance of which they are composed.

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 143

swells in cold water like gum tragacanth, and is only
partially dissolved in boiling water. 120 grammes are
required to make about half a litre of soup. They are
washed_in cold water, and cooked in a bain marie for
about eight hours. -A fowl is then boned and the flesh
pounded, the gravy of which is added to the nests, with
seasoning, and the whole is then boiled for a quarter. of
an hour.

Crawfurd in 1825 estimated the value of the nests
annually imported into China at £243,000, but this
appears excessive, judging by later returns. Some are
imported from Caltura on the western coast of Ceylon,
where the Chinese have rented caves from the Govern-
ment. The average annual imports of birds’ nests
into China in the four years ending 1870 were 531
piculs, and in the five yeats ending 1875, 645 piculs
(86,000 Ibs.)

The value of these birds’ nests exported from Brunt
in Borneo in 1857 was £2,800.

In the three years ending 1865, edible birds’ nests to
the value of £2,880 were exported from Sarawak, and:
in 1880 to the value of £2,567.

There were imported into Labuan from Borneo and
the Sulu Islands in the years 1869 and 1870, 26,730 cat-
ties of birds’ nests, valued at £17,000.

In 1872 672} piculs of birds’ nests were imported into
China in foreign vessels, which was a large increase on
previous years. From Singapore the quantity reshipped
to China in 1867 was 254 ewt., valued at £19,000.

Scansores.—Among the Scansores, or climbing birds,
there are very few that have been tried for food. The.
Indians of Guiana find the flesh of the Ara very good.

The flesh of the macaw of the West Indies is hard,
but it is in great esteem among many, especially the»
French. The green parroquet is a favourite food of the
natives of Paraguay, who make an excellent soup with
it, but the flesh is tough,

Parrots in Jamaica are generally reckoned very deli-
cate meat, and are not unlike pigeons in flavour ; they are

144 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

frequently served up at table in all the country parts of
that Island.* Parrots in Australia are in considerable
estimation for food. Mr. Gould describes the flesh of
the ground parroquet (Pesoporus formosus) as excellent,
and much more delicate in flavour than that of the snipe,
equalling, if not surpassing, that of the quail.

Mr. Davidson, in his book “ Trade and Travel in the
Far East,” tells us that cockatoos make an excellent
dish, and that they occasionally furnished part of his
dinner when in Australia.

The bluish flesh of the toco toucan (Ramphastos toco,
Gm.), notwithstanding its enormous and unsightly beak,
is a wholesome and delicate meat; and there are no
birds that give the epicure a more delicious morsel. It
is one of the most omnivorous of birds, and its powers
of digestion and impunity to poisons are remarkable.

Waterton also says the flesh of the large toucan (2.
maximus) is delicate.

Domestic Poultry—The great Gallinaceous tribe of
birds contribute most largely to human subsistence, and
all are esteemed, whether it be the domestic reared
fowls, turkeys and guinea fowl, the pheasants, par-
tridges, grouse and ptarmigan, or the pigeon tribe.

It is curious to observe the change of taste that epi-
cures have experienced with regard to different birds.
Even to-day the tastes of two neighbouring people—the
English and the French—are much more unlike in this
respect than one would imagine. In England, for ex-
ample, the goose is held in almost as much esteem as the
turkey, while across the Channel the former is sold at
scarcely half the price of the latter, and is regarded as
nothing better than a vulgar dish. But if we compare
our present habits with those of seventeen or eighteen
centuries ago, the contrast will be much more remarkable
still.

To-day we never see a poulterer’s shop adorned with
rows of peacocks ; and should one of these beautiful birds

* Brown’s “ History of Jamaica.”

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 145

appear upon the table at some grand public or private
dinner, none of the guests would go into ecstasies over the
dish, as if its delicacy was a fact universally known. But
at Rome no banquet was complete without the presence
of the peacock. Among the other large birds, the cranes,
the swans, and even the ostrich, were held in high esteem.
Geese were also greatly prized, and they were eaten not
with a sauce, but stuffed with small green apples. The
ducks and teal were served with the juice of the orange
and not that of the lemon, and they were preferred to the
heathcock and woodcock. As for larks and thrushes, they
were usually eaten at the end of the meal, with the idea,
true or false, that it would prove a sovereign remedy
against affections of the bowels. But, as already ob-
served, the bird most in esteem among all the subjects
of the Caesars was the common thrush. These birds
were raised and fattened in large establishments near
Rome, and brought very high prices. The artificial
rearing of these birds, which are excellent for the table,
would prove an easy matter.

Of all the conquests which man has made in the class
of birds, and they have been numerous, the most pro-
ductive and useful has been that of the cock and hen.
The eggs and the flesh of this race constitute in many
countries, and especially in France, an important part of
the general food. The egg has a marked place in the
most delicate dishes destined for the sumptuous table.
It is also the simple resource of the peasant. Thanks to
it, the labourer on returning from the fields can prepare
promptly and readily an evening repast.

The details of the production and consumption of Eggs
will be found in a subsequent Chapter.

All the world knows the excellence of the flesh of
domestic poultry. Without a fowl no feast is complete,
and the good King Henry, as a proof of his desire for the
wellbeing of his people, wished that every peasant might
be able to place a fowl in his pot.

In the early ages of the Church, poultry was regarded
as food for fast days, the rule of St. Benedict interdicting

L

146 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

only the flesh of quadrupeds, and that of St. Columbanus
permitting the consumption of poultry in default of fish.
The cock was an object of worship in Syria; among
the Greeks and Romans he figured more as a warrior
than an esculent, but was gladly eaten by the lower
orders. The hen was reckoned a bird of ill omen among
the ancients, who sought to diminish the number by
eating them. In Rome the art of fattening them, and of
imparting a peculiar flavour to their flesh, was perfected
by M. L. Strabo, a Roman knight. The rage for fat
hens grew at length so great, that C. Fannius, the
Consul, passed a decree forbidding the fattening process,
fearing that not a living hen would be left in the Empire.
Fortunately the new law said nothing about young
cocks, and the capon was invented, and was received
with such transports of delight that the destruction of
birds was greater than ever, and the Consul repented
too late that he had only named hens in his sumptuary -
law.

In old times the Egyptians hatched chickens in ovens ;
in the last century Réaumur recovered this art, which
was thought to be lost, and it is practised at the present
day with the most satisfactory results.

More than six million fowls and four million pigeons
are artificially reared annually in Egypt.

The Romans were so fond of various birds that some
Consular families assumed the names of those they most
esteemed. Catius tells us how to drown fowls in Falernian
wine, to render them luscious and tender.

The fowls of Morocco are of a very large size, often
weighing 14 lbs. or more.

For the table the French breed of fowls is preferable
‘ to the Asiatic. They have small bones, well-developed
muscles, the tlesh is tender, white, and savoury, the skin
white and thin; they fatten readily and attain to a
remarkable degree of perfection. The pullets of Mans
are noted for the delicacy of their flesh.

The average weight of barndoor fowls sold from farm-
yards is 34 lbs. From this must be deducted 8 ozs. for

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 147

feathers, and 12 ozs. for offal, before they become food.
The gamecock rarely exceeds 43 lbs., but by crossing
with the Malay they may be brought up to 6 lbs. or 7 lbs.
in weight. Dorkings, when not inbred, but well and
carefully fed as chickens, will reach to re Ibs. as pullets,
and to 9 lbs. as cockerels ; higher weights, such as 10 Ibs.
for hens and 12 lbs. for cocks, can be obtained, but these
are exceptional. The Dorking and Surrey fowls are
beyond question the best for the table, in delicacy and
weight of flesh; the game fowl the most savoury,
although deficient in size; the Brahmapootra not so
delicate in flavour as the others, but hardy, weighty,
and easily fattened; the Houdan have the good without
the bad qualities of the Dorking—are precocious and
small boned. A fattened pullet of the Houdan breed
killed at four months and a-half, weighs (the crop and
intestines empty) 2 kilos. 200 grammes, or about 44
pounds; thus divided :—

Intestines empty... oii 100 grammes.
Sand in the gizzard and feathers ats 50
Bones ‘ age 250 5

Flesh, including the liver and gizzard... 1.800 a

2200 ,,

If we abstract the weight of the flesh of the head and
feet, in fact all called “the giblets.” or about one kilo.
and a-half, we shall find that the bones of this species
form barely one-eighth, while the bones in butcher's
meat will average one-fourth of the weight.

It is difficult to arrive at any precise estimate of the
number of domestic birds and poultry in various
countries, but a few figures may not be out of place,
although statistics are by no means pleasant reading.

The number of poultry in Ireland in 1883 was
13,382,430, composed as follows:—796,187 turkeys;
2,052,372 geese ; 2,836,847 ducks; and 7,697,024 ordinary
fowls. Estimating the geese and turkeys at an average
market price of 3s. each, and ducks and ordinary fowl
at 2s. 6d. per pair, the poultry in Ireland would repre-

L2 :

148 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

sent a value of £1,085,651. The number of poultry was
about 600,000 more in the two previous years. For
Great Britain we have for the first time details this year
(1884). The numbers were given as follows :—

Great Britain. Treland.
Turkeys ... ba 500,770 sas eeoeee 706,567
Geese sia a 888,313 —— sesseseee 1,183,518
Ducks ie aes 2,368,390 sas seseee 2,618,530
Fowls aia egy «= 22:308.539 — aneasions 7,537,433

Including the Channel Islands, the number for Great
Britain is given at 28,944,249, but this must be taken with
all reservation, and is certainly far below the real total.
It can scarcely be believed that Ireland exceeds Great
Britain in the number of turkeys and geese, considering
that in the last two years there has been a very large
decrease in the number of Irish poultry.

It is probable that few persons are aware of the extent
of what may be termed the poultry industry, or can
appreciate the contribution to animal wealth in various
countries by the common barn-yard fowl.

According to official statistics published, the following
was the number of poultry returned for France:

1872. 1884.

Fowls ais ie 45,179,084 9... 43,858,780
Geese ae ai 8,296,023... 4,170,650
Ducks... ics SID22 992. sscacing 8,600,500
Turkeys ... ix 1,073,898 a... 1,800,500
Pigeons... oor 5,212,042 a... —
Guinea fowls... SS aegees 2,588,700

58,283,339 56,019,130

Mr. Masson, a French writer, estimated in 1884 the
number of fowls in France at 43,858,780, which at the
average price of 3 fr., is equal to 131,576,340 fr. Each
year a fifth of these are sold for food, viz., 8,771,756, at 3
fr., making 27,855,268 fr. Also 2,100,000 cocks or capons
sold at the same price for 6,300,000 fr. There remains,
therefore, 32,982,024 hens, producing yearly 101,000,000
chickens, from which are selected 11,000,000 as repro-
ducers, to replace those killed, and we may attribute to

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 149

disease and accidents a loss of 11,000,000; in all
22,000,000 chickens have to be deducted from the
101,000,000 produced; there remains, therefore,
79,000,000, which sold at 1 fr. 75. each, yield a sum
of 138,250,000 fr. To these figures must be added about
7,000,000 fr. for superior fowls, capons, and fat hens.
The summary for these fowls is 179,405,268 fr. Further-
more, the 32,787,024 hens lay each year on an average
100 eggs each. From this we must deduct 100,000,000
eggs employed for hatching, which leaves 3,187,702,400
at 07 cents each, which gives a product of 223,139,168 fr.
It may therefore be affirmed that the 43,858,780 fowls
would yield on the one hand 179,405,268 fr. for poultry,
and also 223,132,168 fr. for eggs, in all 402,537,436 fr.

Guinea-fowl are seldom met with on farms, and are
chiefly found in the poultry-yards of amateurs or large
proprietors; we are therefore surprised at the figures
given by Mr. Masson, which can scarcely be correct.
He states that there are in France 2,588,700 Guinea-
fowls, worth 4 fr. each, equal to 10,354,800 fr. Of
these, 647,740 are annually sold; at 4 fr. apiece, these
will yield 2,590,960 fr. There remain 1,940,960 hens,
producing annually 6,000,000 chickens. From these,
600,000 are chosen as reproducers, replacing those
killed, and about 600,000 are carried off yearly by sick-
ness and accidents. There remain, therefore, 4,800,000
young, which, sold at 2 fr. each, yield 9,600,000 fr. If
we add 500,000 fr. for fine and choice birds, we have
for those sold, 12,690,960 fr. Besides the eggs saved
for hatching, the 1,940,960 hens will lay on an average
200 eggs each yearly, or 388,192,000 at ‘05 cents, equal
to 19,409,600 fr., which, added to the value of the birds,
makes $2,100,560 fr.

In Paris in 1883, 26,000 tons of poultry and game
were sold. The price of poultry has increased very
much during the last few years, and fowls, the wholesale
price of which was rather less than 3 fr. in 1879, were
last year over 5 fr. The wholesale price of ducks has
gone up during the past ten years from 2 fr. 72c. to 4 fr.,

150 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

rabbits from 1 fr. 95c. to 3 fr. 50c., partridges from
2 fr. 10c. to 2 fr. 80c., and hares from 5 fr. 30c. to 6 fr.,
Pheasants, upon the other hand, have slightly fallen in
price, from 6 fr. 90c. in 1873, to 6 fr. 25c. The largest
portion of the poultry and game consumed in Paris
comes from the provinces, but 1,200,000 pigeons, 40,000
quails, 24,000 turkeys, and 20,000 fowls came from
Italy ; 230,000 hares, 11,000 deer, and 200 wild boars
from Germany; and a great number of partridges,
woodcock, and snipe from Spain. Most of the game
and poultry condemned as unfit for food are sold,
according to the report published by the Inspector of
Markets, by the railway companies, and this is accounted
for by so many boxes of game and poultry being unclaimed
or having had the addresses rubbed off. The contents
are then sold, and, as may be imagined, they are
generally very “high.”

Summarising the total annual value of poultry in
France we arrive at the following figures :—

Frances. Sterling.
Fowls ... «- 402,544,464 oe £16,021,780
Turkeys ... ies 33,701,120 1,348,045
Guinea-fowls ... 82,110,560... 1,284,422
Geese ae sea 82,344,836 =... 38,293,793
Ducks... ae 23,277,020 wees 931,081
573,978,030 £22,879,121

When we consider that we derive from France poultry
to the value of £130,000, and eggs to the value of
£3,100,000, besides eggs from other European States,
which bring up the total to close upon £9,000,000
yearly, the poultry trade of the Continent assumes large
proportions.

The consumption of poultry in Chili is very large.
There is not a family, rich or poor, that has not its
boiled fowl (poule & pot or cazuela) at least once or
twice a week. It is therefore no exaggeration to esti-
mate the number of fowls, ducks, and pigeons at two
millions, and these average in value about 10d. each.

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 151

The number of fowls in Austria is very difficult to be
ascertained, but official authorities state that there may
safely be quoted an average number of 60 millions,
valued at 10 million florins. Those annually consumed
are replaced, and 2,400 million eggs are supplied,
representing a value of 4 millions sterling. They are
chiefly consumed in Vienna, Prague, Steyer, and other
large towns.

In Roumania the domestic poultry are reckoned at
about 14,000,000, of which half are consumed yearly.

Thirty years ago the poultry in the United States were
valued at £4,000,000. The statistics of poultry and eggs
in the States were gathered for the first time by the
census of 1880. The number of barnyard fowl] reported,
exclusive of spring-hatching, was 102,272,135; of other
fowl, 23,235,187; the number of dozens of eggs,
456,910,916. At 12 cents. (6d.) a dozen, certainly a
moderate estimate, the annual value of the egg product
to the farmers would reach nearly £11,000,000; while
we may suppose 150,000,000 to 180,000,000 pounds of
meat sold annually out of the stock of fowls reported.
There were twenty-seven States which reported more
than 1,000,000 of barn-yard fowls each; seventeen
which report more than 2,000,000 each; thirteen
which report more than 5,000,000 each.

Not much can be said in praise of the poultry of the
United States, with the exception of the turkeys, which
are generally good, and are raised without much
difficulty. They do not, however, appear to reach the
great weight of our English birds, being of a slighter
form, approaching that of the wild stock.

The fowls are exceptionally badly bred. If it may be
said of the Texan cattle that they are all “legs and
horns,” the American fowl may be described as all “legs
and elbows,” and when plucked presents with his bright
yellow skin a most uninviting appearance. They are,
however, in request for a change from the perpetual
repetition of tender loin and fillet of beef. In Detroit
market ducks sell.at about 1s. each, fowls 10d., and

152 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

turkeys 63d. per lb. At Lexington, Kentucky, when the
loin of beef was from 5d. to 64d. per lb., turkeys ready
for cooking were 5d. per lb., geese, good birds, 4d. per
lb., and fowls 74d. each.

On the Continent generally fowls are bred on a much
larger scale than in England. In Egypt, China, and
some other countries, the quantity of fowls and ducks
used for food is so great, that it has been found neces-
sary from time immemorial to hatch the young by
artificial heat.

Our foreign supplies of poultry, etc., have progressed
as follows :—

166 ee la Ee BS
TOU. caus, oe |e ase cate ES
TOR cae Sie? os. ae: «ss gs. PE
fees ee. cee ee es es See.

The annual value of the poultry and game we import
from abroad (including rabbits) now exceeds £600,000.
In 1883 it came from the following countries :-—

Belgium ... ia se sels as «. £299,997

France... os oie ait nits ede 164,839
Other countries ... a5 sale a ae 126,575
£591,411

Turkeys are supplied to the London market chiefly
from Cambridge and Norfolk. Besides the general sale
to the public, usually in the Christmas week 10,000 or
11,000 turkeys are sent as presents to the metropolis,
and it is generally considered that a fine fat turkey with
sausages and hamper, carriage, etc., costs about £1.

They are killed simply by breaking their necks, and
the breast-bone is also broken before they are sent off
to the poultry salesman, in order to give the breast a
plumper appearance. The cocks, if sold out of their
feathers to the neighbouring gentry, will fetch 1s. 2d.
per lb:, and the hens 1s., or sometimes only 9d., when a
very plentiful season has knocked down prices, or they
are not fed up to the mark. The larger they are, the

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 153

higher their value per lb., on the same principle that
salmon of 20 lbs. and upwards fetch 6d. more in the
spring and early summer months for the large West-end
dinner parties. The great bulk of these go in their
feathers to the London salesmen; but the wives of the
small farmers take them picked to Norwich, and sell
them in the market, where very large ones, trussed and
ready for the spit, have made 1s. 6d. per lb. at Christmas.
Hen birds, which get fat sooner, and are generally killed
off before the end of November, are thought to be a
daintier morsel than the “gobblers.” Some two-year-
old cocks (beyond which age they are very seldom kept)
have been killed at 30 lbs., when a heavy weight is
wanted for an audit dinner; and with very high feeding,
in one or two rare instances, prize birds have turned the
seale at 40 lbs.

The turkey was long unknown to the Greeks, there
being no turkeys in Europe during their palmy days.
Sophocles is the first who mentionsit. In Egypt it was
still more rare. It wag first introduced into Rome in
the year 115 before our era, where it was regarded as an
object of uncommon curiosity. A century later they
had greatly multiplied, but afterwards declined again.
Two were exhibited as curiosities at Athens about the
middle of the sixth century. It is said that the moderns
owe their introduction to the Jesuits, who imported them
from America. Hurtant asserts that the first turkey
was introduced in France at the wedding dinner of
Charles IX., and that it was admired as a very extraor-
dinary thing. Bouche, the historian of Provence, de-
clares that the French are indebted for the turkey to
King Réné, who died in 1480; and Beckmann again
denies its existence in France previous to the sixteenth
esntury. The English first tasted this new dish in
1525, the 15th year of the reign of Henry VIII.

There are about 1,800,500 turkeys in France, worth 8
frs. apiece, equal to 14,404,000 frs. A fifth of these with
about 70,000 males, or 430,000, are sold for food, and,
valued at 8 frs. a-piece, yield 3,441,120 frs. The 1,370,360

154 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

females remaining produce annually 16,000,000 young
turkeys; 5,000,000 of these are reserved to replace those
killed, and an average of 5,000,000 are carried off by
disease. There remains, therefore, 6,000,000 turkeys
which, sold at 3 frs. each, produce 30,000,000 frs. The
higher price given for first-class birds may be estimated
“ 260,000 frs., which gives a total result of 33,701,120
rs.

The breast of the wild turkey of North America
(Meleagris gallo-pavo), nicely fried in the oil of the black
bear, would furnish a dish calculated to tickle the palate
of a London alderman. Its flesh has a very charac-
teristic flavour, different from that of the tame bird; it
has a gamey taste, and the flesh after cooking is blacker
than that of the domestic turkey.

“ Always partridges” has become almost proverbial,
and we find from Lawson (“ History of Carolina”) how
a repetition of the most delicious food palls. “We
cooked our supper,” says that traveller, “but, having
neither bread nor salt, our fat turkeys began to be
loathsome to us, although we were never wanting of a
good appetite, yet a continuance of our diet made us
weary;” and again he adds, “by the way our guide

killed more turkeys and two polecats, which he ate,

esteeming them before fat turkeys.”

The flesh of the turkey is unlawful food among the
Mohammedans. The prejudice arises, it is said, from
the tuft on the breast, which bears some resemblance
to hog’s bristles. :

Peacocks were carefully reared by the ancients in
the island of Samos. The guinea fowl was considered
delicious by the Romans, but they knew not the turkey.

We no longer hear of peacocks and pies of cranes’
tongues. As for peacocks, they have entirely gone out
of fashion, and it is doubtful whether anyone living ever
tasted peacock in England; yet peacock pies, with the
heads and tails of the birds protruding from the crust,
were formerly common enough at Christmas. William
IV. is said to have partaken of peacock when dining with

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 155

the Governor of Greenwich, and this is the last instance
on record of peacock eating.

The peacock had prodigious success among the Romans.
Quintus Hortensius was the first who had them served
in a banquet; and the novelty made an extraordinary
sensation at Rome, becoming so much the fashion that
no feast was thought complete without them. Marcus
Aufidius Livio contrived a way to fatten them, and made
above £50,000 by the sale. Horace preferred them to
the finest poultry. Tiberius reared them, and put to
death a soldier who had the misfortune to kill one.

The peacock was considered during the ages of chivalry
not merely an exquisite delicacy, but a dish of peculiar
solemnity. After being roasted it was again decorated
with its plumage, and a sponge dipped in lighted spirits
of wine was placed in its bill. When it was introduced
on days of grand festival it was the signal for the adven-
turous knights to take upon them vows to do some deed
of chivalry “before the peacock and the ladies.” Ulti-
mately they were voted indigestible, and were served
up in their skins and feathers to be looked at, but not
eaten.

The peacock is stated to have been one of the famous
dishes at the costly royal banquets of old, and the re-
ceipt for dressing it is thus given :— :

“Take and flay off the skin with the feathers, tail,
and the neck and head thereon; then take the skin
and all the feathers and lay it on the table abroad,
and strew thereon ground cumin; then take the pea-
cock and roast him, and baste him with raw yolks of
eggs; and when he is roasted, take him off and let him
cool awhile, then take him and sew him in his skin,
and gild his comb, and so serve him forth with the last
course.”

Game Birds.——The little bustard (Otis tetrar, Tetrax
campestris, Leach) is taken in nets in France like the
partridge; it weighs about 25 ounces. The flesh has
the appearance of a young pheasant. The Bengal flori-
ken (Sypheotides bengalensis, Gm.), an Asiatic species, is

156 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

much sought for by the Indian sportsman as a delicacy
for the table.

Many of the family of the Tetraonide, called by the
natives of Buenos Ayres partridges, are very much
hunted on account of their savoury flesh.

Perdriz grises is a name adopted in commerce, and by
cooks in France, for young partridges under a year old.

There are three stages very distinct in their culinary
appreciation. In the first three months they feed only
on ants’ eggs, insects, and tender herbs—food which
gives the flesh a bad taste; and they are only eatable
about the end of July, or in August or September, when
they have attained the fourth of their size, and have fed
upon grains. But they are really not delicious till the
close of the year, when they have amply fed on germi-
nated grain and young buds. It is at this period their
erop is filled with fermenting grain; this fermentation
continues in their stomach and gives them that succulent
gamey flavour. Their flesh is very delicate and easy of
digestion.

Among the game-birds largely sold are grouse and
blackcocks, ptarmigans, partridges, and pheasants, wood-
cocks, wild ducks, ete.

An estimate of the game birds consumed in Great
Britain, made in 1880, gave the numbers and value as
follows :—

510,000 grouse and black game, at 4s. ... £102,000
376,000 partridges, at 2s. ois see 37,600

335,000 pheasants, at 4s. Sia Poe 67,000
Woodcock, snipe, wild duck, &c. mes wat 80,000
£236,600

Snipes (Becassine of the French), are sent in great
numbers from St. Omer,in France, in the neighbour-
hood of which they are shot. They are generally fat
and in good condition; their fat is of an exquisite flavour.
This bird is always cooked ungutted.

The flesh of the woodcock (Scolopax rusticula) is
esteemed a great delicacy, and they generally attract a

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 157

good deal of the sportsman’s attention. Woodcocks have
occasionally been shot as heavy as 20 ounces, but 12
ounces is about the average weight. The curlew, com-
mon on our coasts, is often sold for woodcock when these
birds are scarce. The American woodcock is Philohela
minor.

The best woodcocks in France are sent to Paris from
Nancy, Ardennes, Burgundy, and Berry. To ascertain
their quality, the belly should be examined, this should
be hard and full when they are fat. The rump and the
loins should also be furnished with firm, white fat.
Around the neck will be seen a vein of the same fat of
the colour of ivory. In order to ascertain if the bird is
young and tender, the bones at the extremity of the
stomach should be tested ; if these bend the bird is young
and tender ; if not, it is old and tough, and only fit to
cook in a pasty or stew. Woodcocks weigh generally
450 to 500 grammes, or about one pound. The wood-
cocks sent from Nantes, Rennes, Brest, and all Brittany,
are about one-third less in size, and are rarely fat. They
are sent in great abundance to the markets of Paris in
October and November. The woodcock may be kept fit
for eating long after killing, and many prefer them high.

Of grouse, besides our home supply of red grouse
(Lagopus scoticus) from the Scotch moors, we import
immense numbers of ptarmigan or white grouse (Lagopus
vulgaris) from the north of Europe, and some ruffed
grouse (Bonasia umbellata) from the United States, but
not in great quantity. Of European grouse one ship
has brought over from Norway 24,000 ptarmigan, and
one poulterer in London will sometimes receive 15,000
of these birds.

The Scotch grouse are smaller than those from Sweden
and Norway. Their flesh, although of a grey colour, is
excellent, and has a flavour very agreeable and aromatic.

The gelinotte (Bonasa betulina) or grouse of Russia is
rather smaller than that obtained from Germany. The
flesh is of a whitish-rose colour; when cooked it is of a
darker colour but delicate flavour. It is esteemed for

158 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

its good culinary qualities, and its property of keeping .
good long. The flesh is delicious and of easy digestion,
and is good at all times.

The partridge (Perdrix cinerea) is common in Britain,
but is also widely distributed, and there are many other
species. The red-legged partridge (P. rubra), is delicate
but not equal to the English bird; we get it from the
eastern countries as from Russia and other parts of the
Continent. The Greek partridge (Caccabis saxatils,
Meyer) is another European species largely sought for
in the south.

Partridges and pheasants for the London market
chiefly come from Norfolk and Suffolk; ptarmigan from
the north of Scotland and Norway. About 150,000 to
200,000 partridges are sold in London annually.

The price of pheasants in England is very much
affected by the great demand there is for them in
France, where a great many are sold for their plumage,
while they make the bodies into pies. From the Aus-
trian forests about 70,000 pheasants and 700,000 par-
tridges are annually obtained.

In severe winters 9,000 or 10,000 of ptarmigans have
been received in a day from Norway. Holland contri-
butes the great stock of wild duck for London tables,
The duck decoys are objects of great care there. The.
largest supply of plovers and woodcocks is also from.
Holland.

The capercailzie (Tetrao urogallus, Linn.) may be called
the king of the grouse or Tetrao tribe. He often weighs
8 lbs. and 10 lbs. The hen bird is much smaller,
weighing only 4 or 5 lbs. This bird is delicious eating,
feeding as it does on the cranberry, whortleberry, and
bay leaf. Nor do the pine shoots or juniper give
an unpleasant flavour. The same may be said of the
black-game of Norway. Most epicures would, we should .
imagine, prefer the capercailzie, with its rare flavour, to
the turkey. The black-game weighs 7 lbs. and 8 lbs. a
brace. The capercailzie has been known to reach 14 lbs.
in weight, and to attain the length of 2 ft. 9 in., whilst

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 159

he is as plump as a partridge. The blackcock (Tetrao
tetriz) are brought over in large numbers from Russia,
Sweden and Norway.

In Sweden the following birds fit for food are the
objects of chase more or less productive :—Large and
small cock of the wood (Tetrao urogallus, and T. tetriz),
gelinotte(Bonasia betulina),grey partridge (Perdriz cinerea),
quail (Coturnix communis), plovers, as the guignard
(Charadrius morinellus), the ordinary woodcock (Scolopax
rusticola), snipes ( Gallinago major, G. media and G. gallinula,
Totanus ochropus, T. glariola, and T. glottis). These birds
are chased with pointer dogs. The curlew (Numenius
arquata), the whimbrel (NV. pheopus, Lin.), which is often
passed off to the unwary as a woodcock, and various
wild ducks. The flesh of the curlew and whimbrel are
alike excellent.

Hundreds of thousands of the large game birds are
consumed yearly in the country, and sent to the southern
provinces of Sweden and to England.

We get an abundance of prairie-hens and canvas-back
ducks from the United States. These are frozen by
machinery on the other side of the Atlantic, packed in
barrels, and brought over in capital condition. In New
York one man has been known to receive in a single
consignment 20 tons of prairie hens (Tetrao cupido, Cupi-
donia cupido) ; allowing two pounds as the weight of each
-bird (a very fair average), the enormous number of
20,000 pinnated grouse would remain, received by one
person in a single day.

Some of the large poultry dealers in the same city
will sell in six months 200,000 game-birds; others
150,000, and others again 400 dozen, and so on down-
wards through the scale until the final result of all these
amounts, if it could be accurately obtained, would make
one stand aghast at the incredible numbers which are
slaughtered every year.*

* wo of Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1864,”
p. 383.

160 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Ptarmigan, blackcock, and capercailzie are sent over
in the winter from the northern countries, frozen na-
turally, in cases containing from eighty to a hundred
each, shipped at Christiansund, landed at Hull, and
brought up to town by rail. Holland is good enough
to send us, sometimes forty or fifty baskets of two
hundred each in one steamer, of her delicious wild
ducks and those curious little birds the fighting snipes,
called ruffs and reeves (Machetes pugnax), which are
about the size of godwits, and the male of which has
most wonderful plumage, with a pretty crown of
grey feathers on his head, given to make him look
handsome and attractive at courting time. These birds
are good when fat. Though considerably larger than
the ruff, the godwits (Limosa cgocephala, Lin.) are
not in such high estimation as an article for the
table.

Even wild turkeys and other birds from the back-
woods of America are occasionally seen in the shops of
our London poulterers, transmitted in a frozen state by
the Atlantic steamers. St. Petersburg is supplied with
game in a like manner, from the distant wilds of Tartary
and Siberia.

But our most curious importation is the quail from
Egypt and Algeria, which feeds us to this day as it fed
the Israelites in the desert, and is brought over, alive, in
consignments of from thirty to fifty thousand. These.
birds are shipped at Alexandria and Algiers, and sent
on to Marseilles in charge of a native attendant to minis-
ter to their bodily wants. Thence they are “railed”
across France in cages holding 100 birds each, lodged
for the time at Smithfield, and then dispersed to all parts
of the kingdom. So carefully are they transported that
not more than seven per cent. of them perish by the
way. Of the quail there are several species spread over
Europe, Asia, and America, but that frequenting Europe,
and especially the coasts of the Mediterranean (Coturnix
communis, Bon.), is the best known.

They are easily taken in nets when they arrive in

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 161

August fatigued with their flight. The women in Greece
pluck them and gut them, cutting off their heads and
feet, flatten them between boards loaded with stones,
and afterwards pack them in jars with layers of salt.
They form an article of commerce, and are shipped in
small casks. They are eaten in winter roasted on spits,
or prepared in various other ways. In certain parts of
the Peloponessus the quail forms one of the riches of
the country.

The supply of live birds to our English markets is
derived from Egypt, Italy, and Algeria. In Egypt, at
the proper season, they are so plentiful that the people
cannot consume, in a fresh state, the number captured,
and therefore salt them down for future use or dry them
in the sun. At the time of their migration the islands
and shores of the Mediterranean absolutely swarm with
them. Such great quantities used to be captured in the
Isle of Capri, near Naples, as to afford the Bishop the
chief part of his revenue, and he was called, in conse-
quence, “the Bishop of Quail.” An almost incredible
number of quails is supplied to the great towns and
cities of the Continent. Those imported into Paris from
Italy alone are valued at about £50,000 annually.
Leadenhall Market is the great depdt for the English
supply, and as many as 200,000 are often brought there
in a month during the season. Temminck tells us that
hundreds of thousands arrive in Naples and Provence
and are so fatigued that for some days they suffer them-
selves to be taken by hand.

It is almost impossible to speak too highly of the quail
in a gastronomic point of view, though Yarrell considers
it “heating food.” The French proverb, “ hot as a quail,”
probably had its origin in the pugnacious temper of the
bird to which we have just alluded. Our opinion is,
that the flesh of the quail is anything but “hot,” and
stimulating. It may lack what is considered a “gamey ”
flavour, but it is as delicate and succulent.a morsel as
the most educated gourmet can desire. Wither, in his
Satires, says—

M

162 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

“He that feeds on no worse meat than quails,

And with choice dainty pleaseth appetite,

Will never have great lust to gnaw his nails,
Or in a coarse thin diet take delight.”

The most approved way of cooking a quail is to
envelop it in a very thin slice of bacon, tie it up in a
large vine leaf, and then roast it. A cold quail pie is
also a capital dish.

The Virginian quail (Ortyx Virginianus) is inferior to
the European or African. Numbers are imported from
America in barrels.

The pin-tailed sand-grouse, “el katte,” (Pterocles
alchata), of which enormous flights may be sometimes
seen in the Hast, is believed to be the veritable quail of
the Israelites. There is an Arabian quail, the bones and
tendons of which are said to be so small and tender, that
every part of the bird can be eaten.

Many of the towns of France have a reputation for
their game pies. Chartres, which is situated in the
centre of an abundant game district, is noted for these
pies, which are composed of partridges, quails, larks, and
hares, also for those made with plovers and dotterels.
The town of Pithiviers is well-known for its patés de
mauviettes ; these are in season from the time of fogs or
mist up to January. Rouen is renowned for its patés de
poulardes, boned and seasoned with ham. Amiens is
noted for its patés de canards, in originating which De-
gand, a man celebrated for his cooking, realised a for-
tune of a million of francs.

Montreuil on the sea has a high reputation for its
“ woodcock patés,” while Strasbourg is noted for its patés
de foies gras. Formerly there was a strong objection
among foreigners to eating these, from the cruel practice
resorted to by the Jews to enlarge the liver at the
expense of the other parts of the body. The geese were
placed alive in an oven, which was gradually heated
until the liver attained its greatest size. This has long
been abolished, and the birds are now only shut up, like
cloistered nuns, in small confined cells, which prevent

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 163

their moving. They are fed with nourishing paste, and
their drink is sulphurised water.

To Toulouse belongs the truffled patés de foies de canard,
built up in the form of huge towers, which fetch £50 to
£60, and are in demand for great occasions ; but those for
ordinary consumption are prepared in earthenware pots.
These patés are more unctuous than those of Strasbourg,
but they are improved by adding a glass of sherry.

Périgord makes patés of truffied partridges in terrines,
which, being well-seasoned, will keep for many months,
and they have acquired a universal reputation. Courtoy,
who gave his name to this delicacy, made a splendid
fortune out of it.

The Tragopans (Ceriornis satyra and C. temmincki) are
game birds of Asia, species of pheasants which are
sought for by sportsmen. They make a near approach
to the ordinary turkey and fowl.

Pigeons.—Of the domestic pigeons much need not be
said, except that they are largely bred for food purposes ;
but of some of the wild ones a brief mention may be
made.

The passenger pigeon of America (Columba [Ectopistes]
migratoria) is a very large and well-flavoured bird, which
migrates in certain seasons in dense flocks. Wilson and
Audubon describe having seen flocks which they com-
puted to number respectively from thousands of millions
up to upwards of a billion each. In one day seven tons
of these pigeons have been brought into the New York
Market by the Erie railroad. The Indians often watch
the roosting places of these birds and knocking them on
the head in the night, bring away thousands. They
preserve the oil ‘or fat for use instead of butter.

In their breeding places, herds of hogs are fed on the
young pigeons or “ squabs,” which are also melted down
by the settlers, as a substitute for butter or lard. The
felling of a single tree often produces two hundred squabs,
nearly as large as the old ones, and almost one mass of
fat. They are very tender and delicate, and much more -
esteemed as food than the adult bird. Pennant, in his

M 2

164 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Arctic Zoology, says, Sir William Johnstone told him,
that at one shot, he brought down with a blunderbuss
above a hundred and twenty pigeons. Wagon-loads of
them are poured into the towns, and sold as cheap as a
half-penny up to two-pence the dozen. The flesh, which
is dark, tastes like that of the common wild blue pigeon,
but is, if anything, better flavoured.

The wonga-wonga pigeon of Australia (Leucosarcia
picata, Lath.) is not only of considerable size, but a
first-rate bird for the table, possessing a whiteness and
delicacy of texture in its pectoral muscles, which are
unapproached by any other species of this widely spread
and useful family, the one at all approximating to it
being the Geophaps seripta.

The common bronze-winged pigeon of Australia
(Phaps chalcoptera, Lath.) is a plump heavy bird, weigh-
ing when in good condition fully a pound ; and is ¢on-
stantly eaten by every class of persons resident in
Australia. The New Zealand wood pigeon (Carpophago
Nove-Zealandie, Gm.,) becomes exceedingly fat in the
autumn. It is esteemed most by amateurs when feed-
ing on the masts of the Miro, which imparts a peculiar
flavour to the flesh. They are speared and snared in
great numbers by the Maoris, an expert hand some-
times taking as many as sixty in a single day. These
pigeons and the tui or parson birds, (Prosthemadera Nove
Zealandie, Gm.,) are potted for keeping by the Maoris,
after their own elaborate and peculiar fashion. The
birds, which are large, are denuded of their feathers and
thoroughly cleaned; they are then carefully baked, in
order to extract the oil, and closely packed in a species
of basket woven for the purpose, the fat being poured
over them. Secured in this manner from atmospheric
influences, they are said to keep for years, and form a
highly esteemed article of food amongst the Maoris.
The appearance of these closely-woven calabashes, each
containing upwards of 150 of these delicacies in the
poultry department, is fanciful in the extreme, and the
manner in which they are each mounted on what might

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 165

be termed a tripod, and fantastically decked out with a
variety of feathers, specially prepared for the purpose,
is highly suggestive of the complicated Indian preserves
of this nature.

The flesh of the passerine ground dove of America
(Chamepelia passerina, Linn.) is very delicate and much
sought after in the Antilles.

Wood pigeons are so numerous occasionally in parts
of Scotland that special funds are raised to promote
their destruction. They arrive in great flocks from
Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, and at least 17,000 are
annually killed, according to the returns of the United
East Lothian Agricultural Society. The fields of red
clover are occasionally blue with the number of these
pigeons feeding.

The flesh of the turtle dove (Columba turtur, Linn.) is
considered much superior to that of the wild pigeon.
Dampier, when he visited the Gallapagos Islands, in
1684, says “there are great plenty of turtle doves, so
tame that a man may kill five or six dozen in a fore-
noon with a stick. They are somewhat less than a
pigeon, but uncommonly fat.”

The flesh of the Penelope is white, delicate and
nutritious, and more tender and less dry than that of
the hocco, or crested curassow (Craz alector), called the
royal pheasant by the Mexicans, and for this reason
esteemed more choice. It is to be feared that all
kinds of these game birds will in time become very
scarce. The flesh of the American guans, especially
Penelope maraii, Gm., is excellent, and resembles that of
the pheasant ; it has been domesticated in France and
England. Penelope cristata, furnishes an excellent dish
for the table, and might advantageously be added to our
domestic stock of poultry, as its flesh is delicate.

Ostrich-meat.—Those who have tasted Ostrich-meat
state that it is both wholesome and palatable, although,
as might be expected in the case of wild birds, it may
be somewhat hard and tough. Where the birds have
been domesticated, however, and fed on lucerne, clover

166 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

and grain, the meat becomes juicy and tender. The
fact of its prohibition by the Jewish legislation
would indieate that ostrich-meat was employed as
food in former times. Firmus, one of the kings
of Egypt, it is said, used to dine off ostrich flesh; and
according to Lampridius, the Emperor Heliogabalus, on
the occasion of a great feast, caused the brains of six
hundred ostriches to be served up in one dish. Africanus
especially commends ostrich brains. It is related of Leo
Africanus that he partook of ostrich-meat in Numidia,
where it is said young ostriches were then fattened
expressly for the table. Strabo gives a curious account
of the Struthophages, a black tribe on the Upper Nile,
who hunted and lived upon ostriches, and clothed them-
selves with the skin of this bird.

A recent observer, Canon Tristram, has remarked that
the Arabs of the present day eat ostrich-meat, and that
he himself has tasted it and found it palatable enough.
Mr. John Parkes, of Wheatlands, in the Cape Colony
in 1875, killed a young bird that had broken its leg, and
had the meat converted into steaks and “biltong” or
dried meat. It was said to eat “like young beef, juicy
and tender, with just a suspicion of a sweetish flavour,
usually undiscoverable in the legitimate article.”

A kouskoussou surmounted by cutlets of fat taken
from the breast of the ostrich, is said to be a royal dish
of the desert; while the steam from the boiled fat
imparts an unctuous taste and gamey flavour to the
whole.

The best account, however, we have of the gastro-
nomic flavour of the ostrich is furnished in the details of
a dinner given at Marseilles in Nov., 1871, as recorded in
the “ Bulletin of the Society of Acclimatation of Paris”
(vol. ix., p. 154). A young ostrich, one of a brood of
eleven, which was being raised with care in the gardens
of the Society there, had the misfortune to break its leg.
Thereupon the President of the local Society, M. Ad.
Lucy, summoned a meeting of the council to decide upon
the food qualities ofthe young bird. Stripped of its

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 167

feathers and cleaned, it weighed 73 lbs, and the in-
terior parts 18 lbs. __

The first surprise in cutting up the bird was that in
place of what is known in the fowl as the most fleshy
parts, the breasts and the wings, there was nothing but
a bony skeleton with scarcely any flesh, more resem-
bling the ribs of a lean sheep. But in place of flesh
there were found two large masses of fat weighing not
less than 12 lbs. The thighs, however, presented an
enormous development, and could only be compared,
when separated from the articulated joint, to a fat leg of
Down mutton, the weight of each being not less than
12 lbs. The giblets, which could not be kept for the
feast, were made into soup, and the liver, weighing over
2 Ibs, cooked in a stewpan like that of a deer. The
appreciation of the giblets, the wing pinions, the neck,
etc, was general, and elicited the exclamation “It is
remarkably good,’ whilst the liver resembled that of
venison, of which it had the flavour and firmness,
without being hard.

For the grand dinner, to which the chief magistrate of
the town and other notabilities were invited, the menu
was as follows :—

1. Tendons, fagon filet de beeuf & la financiére.

2. Cuissot en daube.

3. Paté en timbale.

The following were the opinions pronounced on these :—

(L.) Financiére. Tf the meat had been well-kept, not
one of the guests who partook of the dish would have
doubted that it was beef served, the tenderness, suc-
culence and flavour of the meat were generally acknow-
ledged, and it was unanimously declared to be first rate.

(2.) La Daube. The vocabulary of praise for this dish
was prodigious. On every side resounded, “ perfect and
excellent, rich, exquisite.” The chief magistrate declared
it recalled the flavour without disadvantage of “lange de
boeuf & Vécarlate.”

(3.) Then followed the ¢imbale, which on being opened
met with equal favour. A paté of Chartres or of Pithi-

168 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

viers could not have met with more compliments, each
special dish having been successively put to the vote by
the chairman. While agreeing that all met with ap-
proval, the daube was considered the best, the tendons
4 la financiére second, and the timbale a good third.

It was thus proved that the young ostrich furnishes
excellent food for the table, and in view of the progress
making in domestication and artificial incubation at the
Cape Colony, Algeria, Australia, and elsewhere, there is
great probability of this bird appearing more frequently
as a dish on the tables in Europe.

The young of the Rhea are eaten in South America.

The flesh of the Ibis is savoury and good, its eggs are
nearly as large as those of the duck, and of a bright sky
blue colour. The glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus, Linn.)
is shot in Hungary and other parts in Europe.

The flesh of the flamingo (Phenicopterus antiquorum) is
pretty good meat, though rather fishy ; the young are
thought by some to be equal to partridge. This bird
was not only esteemed as a bonne-bouche of old, but as
most valuable after dinner; for when the gluttonous
sensualists had eaten too much, they introduced one of its
long scarlet feathers down their throats to disgorge their
dinner. The flesh is red and coarse, and even the fat
part partakes of the crimson hue.

According to Viellot, “the flesh of the Phenicopterus
is a dish more sought ‘after in Egypt than in Europe ;
however, Catesby compares it for its delicacy to the
partridge. Dampier says it has a fine flavour, though
lean and black. Dutertre finds it excellent, notwith-
standing its marshy taste; the tongue is the most
delicious part.”

Apicius has left receipts for dressing it with more than
the minute accuracy of a modern cooking book, and the
Phenicopterus ingens appears among the luxuries of the
table in Juvenal’s eleventh satire.

The brains and the tongue figure as one of the
favourite dishes of Heliogabalus, and the superior excel-
lence of the latter was dwelt upon by the same Apicius,

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 169

and noticed by Pliny. Neither has it escaped the pointed
pen of Martial. Dampier does not forget this delicious
tongue of the flamingo, observing that a dish of these
tongues is worthy of a place at a prince’s table.

The tongue is remarkable for its texture, magnitude,
and peculiar armature. The whole length of the tongue
is three inches ; its circumference two and a-half inches.
The substance is not muscular, but is chiefly composed
of an abundant yielding cellular substance, with fat
of an almost oily consistence.

In general, the flesh of the common heron (Ardea
cinerea) is good or bad according to the country where
they are bred, and the food on which they feed. It is
commonly said that the flesh of a young heron is food
for a king, but for what reason it is hard to say, for it
is usually fishy and of a disagreeable flavour. Leibaut
calls the heron a‘royal viand. It was formerly in con-
siderable estimation as an article of food, and is still
eaten in some countries.

Soyer, in his “ Panthropheon,” tells us, “Some modern
nations—the French among others—formerly ate the
heron, crane, crow, stork, swan, cormorant and bittern ;
the first three especially were highly esteemed, and Tail-
levant, cook of Charles VII., teaches us how to prepare
these meagre, tough birds. Belon (Hist. des Oiseaux)
says that in spite of its revolting taste when unaccus-
tomed to it, the bittern is, however, among the delicious
treats of the French. This writer also asserts that a
faleon or a vulture, either roasted or boiled, is excellent
eating, and that if one of these birds happened to kill
itself in flying after the game, the falconer instantly
cooked it.

Ducks and Geese—We come now to treat of some of the
most useful of the class of birds in a food point of view,
the ducks and the geese. The duck, being such a good
swimmer, was sacrificed by the ancients in compliment
to Neptune. Ducks were always served at the tables
of the rich Greeks, but the more wealthy Romans only
offered to their guests the breast and head, returning

170 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

the remainder to the kitchen. The goose had its praises
sung by Homer, and it was the favourite dish of the
Egyptian monarchs. A sentiment of gratitude endeared
them to the Romans, as by their noisy clamour they had
formerly saved the capitol, and they were reared both
in town and country to guard the house. At the
anniversary of the deliverance of the capitol from the
‘Gauls, the Roman people regaled themselves with boiled
dog. At this solemnity a goose, laid on a soft cushion,
was carried in triumph, followed by an unhappy dog
nailed to a cross, whose loud cries amused the populace ;
thus they commemorated the signal service rendered by
one animal, and the fatal negligence of the other. But
time effaces the impression of gratitude, and for a cen-
tury at least before the time of Pliny, the Romans had
learned to eat goose; and by a perfidious art they
fattened them delicately in darkness in preparation for
the spit. ‘The most luxurious eaters, however, valued
only the liver, and this they contrived to increase to
such a size that it often weighed over two pounds.
Pliny says that Apicius found means to increase the
livers to a size almost equalling in weight the whole
body of the bird.

The modern gastronome will see, therefore, that it is
to the Romans he owes these table luxuries of our day.
Thus Horace says—

“Pinguibus et picis pastum jecur anseris albi.”

Goose is eaten in England on Michaelmas Day,
because, says report, Queen Elizabeth was dining on
goose when the news was brought her of the defeat of
the Spanish Armada.

According to the latest statistics there are in France
8,600,500 ducks, worth, at 3 fr. each, 10,801,500 fr.
From these there are sold for food 1,720,100 ducks at
3 fr., equal to 2,160,300 fr. ; 2,360,000 drakes, castrated,
at 3 fr., equal to 1,080,000 fr. The 3,600,500 ducks will
produce 10,000,000 ducklings in the year, from which
2,000,000 will be.set aside for reproducing, and 2,000,000

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 171

more may be deducted as killed by disease and acci-
dents. There will remain therefore 6,000,000, which,
sold at 24 fr. each, produce a sum of 15,000,000 fr. If
we add for extra fine birds an added value of 500,000 fr.,
we have a total of 18,740,300 fr. The 2,520,400 ducks
will lay on an average 380 eggs each yearly, in all
75,612,000 eggs, which, sold at 6 centimes each, yield a
sum of 4,536,720 fr.; this, added to the poultry value,
gives a total of 23,277,020 fr., or nearly £1,000,000 for
ducks and their eggs.

The best ducks of France are raised in the neigh-
bourhood of Rouen. The ducklings of Rouen are sought
after for roasting, those of Amiens for their livers, which
serve to make excellent patés; those of Toulouse are
also in request for their fat livers which are of first-rate
quality ; there is an enormous trade carried on in them
either in patés or in terrines with truffles, and in cookery
they are employed under a thousand names as entrées or
hors d’ceuvre. When well hung, a Rouen duck is a
splendid table bird, but for maturity and delicacy in
early spring it must yield to its white rival—the Ayles-
bury. It is not an uncommon thing for a ton weight of
ducklings to be despatched from Aylesbury in a single
night. Now a ton of young ducks from six to eight.
weeks old will comprise perhaps 450 birds, worth in
the best part of the spring, 6s. to 10s. a couple.

Considerable supplies of ducks are brought from
‘Holland, and some turkeys as well; but the Norwich
dealers’ duck supplies are mostly gathered in the
county. Rouens and Aylesburies have not been much
used for crossing; and the supplies are generally of the
small mixed-brown-and-cinnamon sort, which has sub-
sisted since the flood. The cottagers do not force their
‘ducklings, but sell them to the dealers, one of whom
takes 30,000 a year, principally in the duck-and-green-
pea season. They come to him about 3 lb., in weight ;
and after a week in the lean and three in the fat yard.
they are turned out in prime condition, with fully 1 lb,
gain in flesh.

172 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

In Brittany they have a plan of salting well fatted
ducks after drawing them. When the flesh has been in
a tub of salt with bay leaves and saltpetre about a fort-
night, and bas acquired a fine red colour, the bird is cut
into four quarters, larded with cloves, and put into a
pot with some spice. Geese and ducks’ breasts are also
pickled for three weeks or a month, then rolled in wheat
or rye bran, strung together on long wooden skewers,
and suspended in a light smoke for a week. They are
then hung up in a draught for three days, after which
the coating of bran is brushed off and they are stored in
any suitable dry and airy place.

In Java and the principal Philippine islands, large
flocks of ducks are kept for their flesh and eggs; the
first being preserved by drying, and the last, when salted,
forming a principal part of the stock of animal food in
native sea voyages. Salted ducks form the basis of a
large commerce from Cochin China to the Chinese
Empire.

“In China ducks are usually cut open and made per-
fectly flat and then dried; and a man will hawk about
near a hundred such dried ducks hanging on a pole
across his shoulders. What particular delicacy there
can be in ducks’ bills I did not make trial of, but they
are common articles hanging suspended in the provision
shops. So also are dried rats, similarly split open and
hung up in front of the shops for sale, their rodent teeth
betraying them in their otherwise disguised condition.”—
Collingwood.

The tongues of ducks are among the dainties of
Chinese epicures. A writer in the Chinese Repository
says: “One article in the shop puzzled me much, and
by inquiry I found it to be nothing more nor less than
a string of dried tongues obtained from ducks. They
were stretched out to the utmost length, resembling
awls in shape, and hardened almost to the firmness of
iron.”

The great antiquity of the goose as an article of food,
may be determined by examining some of the Egyptian

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES, 173

monuments in the British Museum, or Rosellini’s mag-
nificent work on Egyptian antiquities, where we find
geese represented alive, plucked, and prepared for the
table.

Geese.— Mention has already been made of the fattening
of the geese and of their livers carried on in Alsace and
at Strasbourg. This fattening is also a speciality of
Languedoc and Toulouse.

Geese are sometimes preserved for keeping either by
smoking or boucanading, as they do hams; they are also
cooked and then preserved by covering them with fat.

From recent statistics there are in France 4,170,650
geese, worth 4 frs. each, equal to 16,682,600 frs. A
fifth of these are sold for food for a sum of 3,336,520 frs.,
as well as 834,131 ganders fattened and sold at 4 frs.,
equal to 3,336,524 frs. The 2,502,892 females will raise
37,535,895 goslings, from which 3,753,589 will be re-
served for breeding ; about 3,713,589 goslings will have
to be deducted for losses by death and accidents; there
will remain, therefore, 3,068,718 young geese, which,
sold at 23 frs., will produce 75,171,792 frs. If we add
for fine and choice birds an increased value of 500,000
frs., this brings up the total for geese to 82,344,836 frs.

The French goose has of late years become a formid-
able rival of his fellow-geese from the Emerald Isle.
Formerly there was a prejudice against French geese ;
the trade would not look at them, and the public would
not eat them. But gastronomical prejudices are short-
lived. Whether it be due to the soothing influence of
sage and onions, or to the quality of the noble bird itself,
it 1s certain that the French goose is now very popular
on this side of the Channel, for the poulterers say that
they sell large numbers of them at good prices. Indeed,
so successful is the French goose that great quantities
of his race are imported into England in an attenuated
condition during the summer, and are sent into the
country to be fattened for the London market at
Michaelmas,

A large trade is carried on in France at Berry, Tou-

174 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

louse, ete, in geese. Their livers in patés and in ter-
rines with trutfiles are consumed all over Europe. Geese
are dressed in many ways in different countries for
Michaelmas and Christmas; the fillets and pectoral
muscles salted and smoked serve instead of ham; the
thighs cooked and covered with the grease keep well.

There are consumed annually in Paris about 150 tons
of foie gras and truffled poultry, 30 tons of patés of
Amiens, Chartres, and Pithiviers, and 539 tons of other
patés. At Pau they boil down the geese for their fat
but do not eat them.

In preparing the enlarged goose livers, when the
birds are considered ripe they are killed, and the livers
are conveyed to the truffling house. The carcases,
shrivelled out of all knowledge, are sold for about 1s.
apiece to the peasants, who make soup of them. The
livers are first cleaned and then weighed, and they will
often scale two and a-half to three pounds each. The next
step is to take each liver and to lard it with truffles in the
proportion of half-a-pound of truffles to one pound of liver,
and then to convey it to an icehouse, where it remains
ona marble slab for a week, that the truffle perfume
may thoroughly permeate it. At the end of a week each
liver being removed is cut into the size required for the
pot which it is to fill, and introduced into that pot
between two thin layers of mincemeat made of the
finest veal and bacon fat, both trufiled with the liver
itself, and one inch depth of the whitish lard is then
spread over the whole that none of the savour may
escape in baking. The baking takes about five hours,
and the fire must never blaze too high or sink too low.
When the cooking is over, nothing remains but to pack
the dainty either in tin, earthenware, or wood, according
as it may be needed for home or foreign consumption,
and to ship it to the four points of the compass.

Enormous flocks of geese are bred in Lincolnshire,
containing from 2,000 to 10,000 birds each; but it is to
Norfolk and Suffolk that we look for goose-management
on the largest and most economical scale. The goose

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 175

-trade of the great Norfolk dealers resolves itself into
two branches—the green geese and the Michaelmas.
In March and April they begin to get in their gosling
supplies from farmers or cottagers near the commons, in
both these counties. Most of these goslings are about
five weeks old, and many of them in very poor plight ;
but six or seven weeks of feeding under stages, on
barley-meal, maize, wheat-tailings, and brewers’ grains
mixed, make them all ripe for the green-goose market.

The Michaelmas geese take their places under the
stages in August; and Norfolk and Suffolk are pretty
well scoured before the dealers fall back upon the Irish,
French, and Dutch supplies. The Dutch, which are
principally grey, come from Rotterdam; and one of the
largest Norwich dealers imports occasionally seventeen
tons’ weight of live birds in the year. They come over
by steamers and sailing vessels, packed in big flat
baskets, but not to any great extent after the Ist of
October. In the dealers’ hands they are fed on the
same principle as ducks—low fare to begin with, and
then on a gradually-ascending scale. The goose-pens
of Messrs. Boyce, of Stratford, are capable of holding
four thousand geese for fattening.

On the western moors of Cornwall everyone keeps
geese ; and they are bought up by jobbers in thousands,
for the stubbers. Summer Court, on September 25th, is
the “ goose fair” of the county. Farmers all over England
are supplied very largely both from Holland and Ireland.
Geese are extensively bred in Moravia; and the hilly
districts in Germany and Holland are peopled by numer-
ous goose-farmers, who get their living entirely by them.
The Hussenheim goose market is a very large one, and of
great antiquity; and, according to local tradition, the
town owes its name to the bird of its choice. The Dutch
hucksters buy goslings from the cotters—who, like the
burghers, are remarkable for turning the penny the right
way—at prices varying from ls. 6d. to 2s. They are
driven to Rotterdam, where they are packed up in crates,
which are capable of holding about fifty or sixty each.

176 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Their voyage to Hull by the steamers is charged at 18s.
per cwt., or about £5 for 300 or 400 birds; and they are
not fed until they are landed, and then with oats. From
Hull they are forwarded to central market-towns in
railway trucks, each of which is capable of holding 230
birds. A small percentage of the more weakly ones die
from being trampled on; and these casualties, with the
expense of transit and sale, bring up the price to about
3s. 9d., when they are pitched in the market during
August and September. The Irish collections are
managed on a similar principle. If the goslings are
purchased within reasonable distance of Dublin or
Dundalk, they are driven to those ports; and if not,
they are sent by rail. Liverpool, like Hull, is quite a
“board of supply” for English dealers during the
season.

There is a variety of goose called the snow goose
(Anser hyperboreus), which is very general in the northern
parts of America and in northern Europe, and is much
prized for the delicacy of its flesh Dr. Richardson says
it is much superior to the Canada goose (Bernicla Cana-
densis, Lin.) in juiciness and flavour.

In those countries where the latter abound they are
killed in vast numbers by the natives, who pluck and gut
them, and without any other preparation bury them in the
ground. The earth freezing above them, keeps them
perfectly sweet through the severe winter. ;

Dr. Richardson tells us that the arrival of the Canada
goose in the fur countries is anxiously looked for, and
hailed with great joy by the natives of the woody and
swampy districts, who depend principally upon it for
subsistence during the summer. It makes its appearance
in flocks of from twenty to thirty, which are rapidly
decoyed within gunshot, by the hunters, who set up stalls
and imitate its call.

Two, three, or more, are so frequently killed at one
shot that the price usually given for a goose is a single
charge of ammunition. A Canada goose which, when
fat, weighs nine pounds, is the daily ration of one of the

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 177

Hudson’s Bay Company’s servants during the season,
and is reckoned equivalent to two snow geese, or three
ducks, or eight pounds of buffalo meat, or two pounds
of pemmican, or a pint of maize, and four ounces of
suet.*

In favourable seasons there are as many as 6,000 or
7,000 killed and barrelled up for winter provision.

Among the animals forbidden to be eaten by the Jews
(Levit. xi.) were the cormorant, swan, pelican, stork,
heron, and lapwing; as well as the bat, lizard, snail, and
tortoise. Sir Robert Schomburgk assured me that
cormorants were very good eating after being skinned.

The swan was fattened for the table by the Romans,
who first deprived it of sight.

The cygnet used to be a dainty dish, though now held
in little esteem. They were fattened in London and
Norwich for the corporation banquets. In the Mayoralty
of Sir James Hawes (1575) we find in his tariff the
selling price of the cygnet in the metropolis at 6s, till
Allhallows Evetide, and 7s. from thence to Shrovetide.
The flesh of the old swans is hard and ill-tasted, but
among the items of consumption at the five days’ open
house feast given by the Serjeants at Law at Ely House,
in November, 1531, twenty-four dozen of swans are
enumerated.

There are a large number of swans on the Thames,
which belong to the Dyers’, Vintners’, and other Livery
Companies, These are all marked or nicked on each side
of the bill, and an annual excursion is made, called swan
upping, to nick or mark the young cygnets.

An island, called Kalguyef, in the Petchora River, north
coast of Russia, is much resorted to by the fishermen,
who wage an easy and inglorious warfare against the
wild geese, swans, eider and other ducks which flock
thither in vast numbers in spring time. The fattest and
heaviest birds are driven into nets spread out to catch
them, and they then fall easy victims. Ten men, in the

* Richardson’s ‘ Fauna Boreale Americana.”
N

178 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

course of a month, will thus bag about 8,500 good-sized
birds, some of which are generally retained for home
consumption, the rest being exported. The brent goose
(Anas bernicla, Bernicla leucopsis, Bechst.), a winter visi-
tant, is a good bird for the table, the flesh being excellent
and free from fishy flavour.

The grey duck of Australia (Anas superciliosa, Gmel.),
as an article of food, is in its prime during the autumn
and commencement of the winter; but the quality of.
the game differs according to the locality, those from
the lakes and rivers of the interior (Dr. Buller tells us)
having a richer flavour as a rule than birds living in the
vicinity of the seashore, where the feed is coarser.

Few birds are better flavoured than a fresh snipe
(Gallinago media), and they are most delicious eating.
“Snypes” were among the birds admitted to the Earl of
Northumberland’s table (“ Household,” 1512); they were
then charged 3d. the dozen.

The flesh of all the snipes is palatable and good,
including the Gallinago species, many of which come
from Ireland and Holland. Among these are the curlew
(Numenius arcuatus), common on our coasts, and nearly the
bulk of a chicken ; the jack snipe (Galhinago gallinula), also
called the judcock; the pool snipe (Zetanus stagnatilus) ;
the strand snipe (Zringa cinerea); the stint (Tringa
minutella), often sold for snipe when those birds are at a
high price; and the blue-footed swordbill or European
avocet (Recurvirostra avocetta, Lin.). The knot (Tringa
canutus) visits our shores in large numbers in autumn,
and the birds come to market mostly from Lincolnshire.
The flesh is considered inferior to others of the tribe.
The American snipe is Gallinago Wiilsonii, and there is a
red-breasted snipe (Macrorhamphus griseus).

The flesh of the Indian Jacana (Hydrophasianus
chirurgus) is said to be excellent.

_ The moor-hen (Gallinula chloropus, Lin.), if killed in the
autumn, is very goodeating. The flesh of the rail (Radlus
aquaticus is also palatable, that of the corn-crake or land
rail (Ortygometra crea, Orex pratensis, Bechs.) is very

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 179

delicate and good for the table. It bears the name of
“king of the quails” in many countries.

The black-tailed godwit (Limosa egocephala) is some-
times caught and fattened, with the reeves, for the table,
but though considerably larger it is not held in such high
estimation.

Another family of wading birds is the Plovers, whose
flesh is very good, and their brown speckled eggs are
regarded as a great delicacy. The golden plover
(Charadius pluvialis, Lin.) especially is an excellent bird
for the table.

In the United States the following are the edible birds
passing under the name of plover:—The black billed
(Squatarola helvetica); the golden (Charadius pluvialis,
var. Virginicus); the killdeer (Agealitis vociferus, Lin.) ;
Wilson’s (42. Wilsonius) ; the ring-neck (4. semipalmatus) ;
the piping (4. melodus); the ruddy (Calidris arenaria) ;
and the upland plover (Actiturus bartramius).

The bustards form a kind of link between the Gallinacze
and the Plovers. The great bustard (Otis tarda, Lin.) is
still plentiful in many parts of Europe. The large African
kori bustard (Eupodotis cristata, Scop.) often weighs from
30 lbs. to 35 lbs., and is excellent eating. The flesh of
the trumpeter of South America (Psophia crepitans, Lin.)
is eatable.

The common teal and the Garganey teal (Querquedula
crecea, and Querquedula circia, Lin.), are better than any
other of the wild duck family, and are good game birds,
but lean.

The flesh of the American species is excellent, viz., the
green-winged (Q. carolinensis), the blue-winged (Q. discors),
and the red-breasted (Q. cyanoptera).

‘The pin-tail (Dajfila acuta) is abundant and its flesh
better than that of the wild duck. Considerable num-
bers of these as well as of teal are imported from Holland.

The clucking hen (a species of Ardea), is considered in
Jamaica the best description of wildfowl. Some of the
coots are occasionally served up, but they taste a little
fishy. The flesh of the sand grouse (Pterocles arenarius)

d N 2

180 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

is good eating if kept long enough; at first it is rather
hard and tough, but that of the young birds is delicious,
and is much prized.

“The rotge is excellent eating, and is highly prized by
every taste. I have heard the eider duck and the long-
tailed duck and even the loon denounced by persons
whose tastes were really fastidious, but I never heard a
word against the little auk (Mergulus alice). Its flesh, and
that of sea-fowl generally in the Arctic regions, improves
very much by keeping for a few weeks after being shot;
indeed, it is not uncommon to use them after they have
been three months hanging to the booms around the
ship’s quarter.”—Sutherland’s Journal.

Captain Mark Law tells us that they feasted largely,
in the Arctic regions, on loons (as Brunnock’s guillemots
are invariably called). In one harbour called Nameless
Bay, a companion and himself, in less than two hours,
bagged 600, and had they required it many hundreds
more could have been obtained in the same space of
time. The crew revelled for some time on such delicacies
as “loon soup,” “
ingenious methods of cooking those birds.

The young of the albatross (Diomedia), when first taken
from the nest, are said to be delicious.

The flesh of the Lapland duck or crested grebe
(Podiceps eristatus) is stated to be tender. That of many
of these water-fowls is, however, greasy. The smoked
flesh of sea-birds with wild garlic, leeks and rice, forms
an article of food with the Japanese.

Many of the islands in Bass’s Straits are inhabited by
men who follow the precarious trade of sealers and mutton
bird procurers; this bird is a species of shearwater or
petrel (Puffinus sp.). The immense number of mutton
birds annually destroyed may be inferred from the fact
that two and a-half tons of feathers formed the export
of one season (each bird furnishing only the twentieth
part of a pound weight) or 112,000 birds. The birds
themselves are salted, dried and smoked for use in the
winter, like the dried fish of the poor on the coast of

stewed loon,” “curried loon,” and other,

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 181

‘Great Britain, and sold in Launceston and Hobarton for
threepence a-piece.

Three-fourths of the bird consist of pure white fat, and
one-fourth of red meat and tender bones. The flavour is
rather fishy, but if once used to it it is not bad at all,
only rather too fat. They eat best when salted and
smoked a little, then boiled a short time and afterwards
eaten cold. If properly salted they might form an
article of trade in that quarter, like herrings in Europe.
The fat when clean is quite white, and looks like goose
fat, but the taste is rather oily: however, it may be used
for a good many other purposes than for food; it burns
very well in small shallow tin lamps, which get warmed
by the light and melt the fat.

One species of petrel (Puffiinus brevicaudus) is very
abundant on the coasts of Australia and New Zealand.
At certain seasons the natives of New Zealand collect
large numbers of these birds and preserve them in cala-
bashes, potted in their own fat, either for future use or
gifts to neighbours.

The canvas-back duck (Fulkgala valisneria), which is
lean on its first arrival in the United States, becomes in
November about three pounds in weight, and in high .
order for the table; there are few birds which grace the
board better. Zostera marina and Ruppia maritima form
their food, as well as the fresh-water Valisneria, which
last is limited in distribution.

The Prince of Musignano is eloquent in praise of this
delicacy :—“ Carne della massima squisitezza, grandi-
mente ricercata dai gastranomi. Le migliore della.
Anitre-Forse il miglior uccello d’America.”

Everybody, says the Baltimore Sun, has heard of
Chesapeake canvas-backed ducks and diamond-backed
terrapins, and a great many people know something of
how they taste when served up for the table, but not
many are acquainted with the manner in which they are
handled by the dealers in these and other famed gastro-
nomic luxuries. There is an establishment in Baltimore
which has been fitted up especially for this trade, where

182 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

canvas-backs and all kinds of game are kept by the thou-
sands, in apartments in which the temperature remains
at 18° above zero,and where terrapins in multitudes live
and grow fat on nothing. There are five large closets on
the premises, built in the walls, similar to bank vaults,
and these, by a scientific process, are arranged to keep
their interiors at a very low temperature, by the use of
ice, but in a different manner from the freezing process
of a refrigerator. In one of these the canvas-backs and
other wild game are kept perfectly fresh; in another
there are all varieties of fish, including shad from Savan-
nah, white fish from the lakes, rock and perch from the
Chesapeake tributaries, and blue fish, haddock and codfish
from the North. In another closet the smaller and more
common fish are kept, and all of the closets are filled
with some of the special products dealt in. Shipments
of canvas-backs by the barrel are made to London, Liver-
pool, and Paris by the steamships from New York and
Baltimore. The birds are taken from the cold closets,
and, when on board the steamers, are put in ice and
reach their destinations in excellent condition.

There is an enormous slaughter of pelicans in Cochin
China for their feathers. As many as 2,000 are killed
nightly for several nights in their great haunts. Most of
the flesh of the birds is left to the crows, as there is no
appliance for preserving it; some is, however, dried, and
stated to be very good, and something like beef.

Cranes were by no means despised by people of taste
among the Romans. The flesh of the young crane (Grus
cinereus) is well flavoured and wholesome, for it does
not feed on fish, but grain and seeds. According to
Schweinfurth that of the West African crane (Balearica
pavonina, Lin.) is more palatable than that of the
goose.

Cranes, herons, bitterns and swans roasted, were served
at table some five hundred years ago, and at the feasts
in the time of Richard the Second.

The bittern (Botaurus stellaris) was formerly held in some
estimation as an article of food for the table; the flesh is

°

°

FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 183

said to resemble that of the leveret in colour and taste,
with some of the flavour of a wild fowl.

Young penguins are good eating, but the old ones are
dark and tough when cooked. A voyager says :—

“The flesh of the penguin is black, and has rather
a perfumed taste. We ate of them several times in
ragouts, which we found to be as good as those made of
hare.” *

The penguins form regular rookeries, or perhaps they
may be more correctly termed “ penguineries,” sometimes
situated even miles from the shore and far removed from
salt water. The breeding places are often of as great an
extent as 500 yards by 50, the eggs being placed so close
together that it is impossible to walk without treading
on them.

Young puffins (Fratercula arctica, Lin.), though exces-
sively rank from feeding on sprats and seaweed, are
pickled and preserved with spices, and by some people.
are much admired.

* “ Journal of a Voyage to the Falkland Islands.”

LOT ANIMAL FOUD KEKSUUKCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

CHAPTER VI.

Eaas oF Various Kinps As Foop.

Eggs of Domestic Poultry—Nuiritive Value and Chemistry of
Eggs—Average Weight of Eggs—Quantity and Values of our
Imports of Eggs—Range of Prices—Number Received from
France—Estimated by Weight on the Continent—Testing
Eggs—Egg Traffic of the United States and Canada—Prices—
Condensed Eggs—Various Modes of Preserving Eggs—Pickled
Eggs—Easter Eggs—Ostrich Eggs—Emeu Eggs—Plovers’ and
Lapwings’ Eges—Egegs of Sea Fowl—Gulls—Terns—Penguins
—Petrel—Albatross—Eggs of Reptiles—Turtles—Land Tor-
toises — Alligators — Lizards’ Eggs— Snakes’ Eggs—Insects’
Eggs—Fish Spawn—Cod Roe — Herrings’ Eggs — Sturgeon
Caviare—Modes of Preparing—Roe of Sandre, Bream, etc.—
Mullet—Fish-bread from Roes—Mode of Preparation—Eggs
of Crustacea—Lobster Spawn.

OmNIvorous man feeds indiscriminately on a great
variety of animal products; and among others, the
egos of Birds, reptiles, and fishes contribute somewhat
largely to his sustenance. Let us first take a glance at
those of Birds, which are the most important, and then
notice some others.

It is a curious study to pass in review the number,
size, form, weight and colour of eggs, according to the
different species of birds, and the inferences we may
draw in natural history from these oological characters
in classifying the birds. According to the number of
eggs they lay, birds may primarily be grouped into two
great classes. Those which are destined to furnish food
for man, as the Gallinaceous tribes, lay the greatest
number of eggs; and when we find that in domes-
tication the ostrich has laid as many as seventy-two to
eighty-four eggs, we have reason to think it may shortly
be ranked among regular domestic poultry.

The eggs of all domestic poultry are edible, but it is
only those of the hen in which there is any very extensive

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 185

commerce. The eggs of the goose, duck and turkey,
when not employed for setting, are usually locally con-
sumed. Turkeys’ eggs are very good in pastry, and when
mixed with hens’ eggs they improve omelets. There is
no egg of a bird which is not useful for food, or which
could not be eaten by an hungry man.

Eggs are an article of cheap and nutritious food
which we do not find on our tables in the quantity
economy demands. Persons probably do not fully com-
prehend how valuable eggs are as food; like milk, an
egg is a complete food in itself, containing everything
necessary for the development of a perfect animal, as is
manifest from the fact that a chick is formed from it.
It seems a mystery how muscles, bones, feathers, and
every thing that a chicken requires for its perfect
development are made from the yolk and white of an
egg; but such is the fact, and it shows how complete a
food an egg is. It is also easily digested, if not damaged
in cooking. A raw or soft boiled egg is always as easily
assimilated as is milk, and can be eaten with impunity
by children and invalids. The average egg weighing
a thousand grains is worth more as food than so
much beefsteak. Indeed, there is no more concentrated
and nourishing food than eggs. The albumen, oil, and
saline matter are, as in milk, in the right proportion for
sustaining animal life. Two or three boiled eggs, with
the addition of a slice or two of toast, will make a
breakfast sufficient for a man, and good enough for a
king.

The weight of an ordinary fowl’s egg is one and
a-half to two ounces, whilst that of the duck is two
to three ounces; of the sea-gull and turkey, three to
four ounces; and of the goose, four to six ounces.
One reason why the eggs of wild birds are so highly
esteemed is owing to the flavour acquired by the food
consumed. Another is that the proportion of yellow
in the eggs of wild birds is considerably larger than in
those of domesticated ones, and this adds to the ratio
of nutritive elements. The solid matter and the oil

186 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

in the duck’s egg exceed those in a hen’s egg by about
one-fourth. According to Dr. Edward Smith, in his
treatise on “Food,” an egg weighing an ounce and
three-quarters consists of 120 grains of carbon, and
eighteen and three-quarter grains of nitrogen, or 15:25
per cent. of carbon and two per cent. of nitrogen.
The value of one pound of eggs, as food for sustain-
ing the active forces of the body, is to the value
of one pound of lean beef as 1,584 to 900. As a flesh-
producer, one pound of eggs is about equal to one pound
of beef.

The consumption of poultry and eggs is so large in
this country as almost to exceed belief.

Besides our foreign supplies the home production is
considerable. The Midland Railway brings up 150 tons
of eggs, and the Great Eastern over 5,000 tons of
poultry and game, annually. But this is a mere flea-bite
in the course of the year. It is no uncommon thing in
the early spring months for the Aylesbury Railway to
carry two or three tons weight of ducklings and eggs in
one night to London, and nearly £20,000 per annum is
returned for ducks to the neighbourhood of Aylesbury
alone. Ireland produces nearly 500,000,000 eggs, and
the Continent supplies us with over 940,000,000; and
if to this is added the annual production of Great
Britain, the enormous consumption may be approxi-
mately estimated.

In 1850 we only imported 1054 millions of eggs from
abroad; in 1870 this had risen to 431 millions, in 1878
to 7842 millions, in 1883 to nearly 9403 millions, and
probably as many more eggs are consumed of home pro-
duction.

Value of the eggs imported into the United
Kingdom :—

1861... £550,557 1881... = £2,322,607
1871... 1,263,612 1883... 2,732,055

Eggs therefore form no unimportant item in the
Englishman’s bill of fare. On eggs and milk, indeed,

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 187

man may not only live, but prosper exceedingly. But
the price of a new-laid egg runs up to 2d. and 23d. in
the metropolis, and even then they are often difficult to
obtain. High as this price is, it is not however so dear
as the price of eggs in the city of Lima, where they fetch
a dollar a dozen, or 4d. a-piece.

The average wholesale price of eggs per great hundred
(120) in London was :—

s. d. s. d.
1861... ce 6D 1880 q. 2
1871... Perm (ame 1883 7 6

In 1873 and 1874 they were as high as 8s. 7d.

The already large and increasing consumption of eggs
in England and France shows a growing appreciation of
this form of food compared with any other.

Our consumption of foreign eggs is about thirty
per head annually.

As a proof of the vast consumption of eggs in this
country we may refer to the annual reports of our hos-
pitals. In one of these it is stated that 800 dozen are
required and made use of in the year, and taking into
consideration the allowance of four eggs a day to some
of the patients, the published statement does not cause
so great amazement as at first sight it creates. More-
over, it goes to prove how important a part is played by
our hens in keeping up or restoring strength in those
who are suffering through some of the many ills to
which flesh and bone is heir. Of course, such an item
as that mentioned is something more than an atom of
the annual expenditure; in fact, it is one of very serious
amount. Eggs during the winter months are so ex-
travagantly dear that people with large incomes have
almost done without them; but their regular use in
places devoted to the care and nurture of the sick
seems to signify that no suitable substitute has yet been
found.

Our receipts of eggs from France in the last five
years have been as follows :—

188 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Great Hundreds (of 120).

1878 ... 3,784,920 1881 ... 3,099,991
1879... = 3,441,131 1882 ... 2,812,110
1880... 38,151,158 1883... 3,080,349

The import of eggs has about doubled in the last ten
years and yet the price has risen. French eggs, which
in 1864 were 5s. 114d. the great hundred, were in 1883
6s. 03d. The total imports from the Continent were
in 1864, 335,298,240, valued at £835,028, and in 1883,
940,436,160, of the value of £2,732,055.

The duty on eggs, which had been 4d. and 8d. per cubic
foot measurement, according as they were of British or
foreign produce, was repealed in 1860, involving a then
loss to the Revenue of about £20,000 a year. The im-
ports at that time were only about 203 millions.

France produces about 10 milliards (each a thousand
million) of eggs annually; of this number about 400
millions are exported, chiefly to England. This com-
merce is very important for the northern departments.
Paris consumes annually 400 to 500 millions: the quan-
tity of eggs consumed in that city in 1883 was 40,000,000
dozen.

The French Customs estimates the shipments of eggs
by weight. The exports were :—

Kilos. Kilos.
1870 ... 24,969,000 1880 ... 21,414,000
1875 ... 34,417,000 1881 ... 21,414,000

1879... 22,887,000

After repeated trials it has been decided in Paris that
20 eggs count as a kilogramme or 23 lbs. In America
there has long been an agitation for selling eggs by
weight, and in Massachusetts a law has been passed to
that effect.

The exports of eggs from Italy were, in :—

1870. ee ace ve, wee 4,876,798 kilos,
1875 wuss tees we: 9,071,000
160° ee wis ae’ we 25,097,000

”

In France eggs are sorted and sized by passing them

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 189

through a ring. The average-sized ones must enter a
ring 4 centimetres in diameter, the small ones a ring
3 centimetres 8 millimetres in diameter. The legalised
charges in the public markets of Paris are; for mirage,
or examining the eggs, 6d. the 1,000; testing their size
by the ring, 14d. the 1,000.

In a dark cellar in Paris, under one of the markets
devoted to the sale of dairy produce, by the light of a
candle, the troublesome operation of examining eggs is
carried on, for not a single egg enters into consumption
in Paris without having been thus examined. It is to
be regretted that similar official scrutiny is not followed
in London.

It is said that oval eggs are better than round ones.
No less than 200 modes of cooking an egg have been
published.

The fowls which lay large eggs, averaging about seven
to a pound, are La Fléche, Houdans, Crévecceurs, and
Black Spanish. Those laying medium eggs, averaging
eight or nine to the pound, are Leghorns, Cochins,
Brahmas, Polands, Dorkings, Games, and Sultans. The
Hamburgs lay smaller eggs, eight or ten to the pound.

There are many debatable points yet to be settled
about eggs. Has the hen in her ovary more or less
than 600 eggs? Are there races of fowls which pro-
duce more eggs than others, and do hens lay in a
short space of time all the eggs they will produce in the

ear.

e The egg traftic of the United States is now exceedingly
large. The aggregate transactions in the city of New
York alone are said to amount to £1,600,000 in value.
In Cincinnati and other cities the sale is proportionally
great, and the total sales of eggs in the States have
been estimated to reach £12,000,000 in value annually.
Large as is, however, the indigenous production, the im-
ports of eggs reach 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 dozen a year,
chiefly from Canada.

The export of eggs from Canada doubles about every
four years. In 1882, 10,500,000 dozens, valued at

190 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

£330,000, were shipped, principally to the American '
Republic, and 370,134 dozen to Great Britain.

Over 20,000 car-loads of live and dressed poultry are
carried into New York city yearly, and 25,500,000
dozens of eggs go to the same market. According to
the best estimates, the United States produce nine
thousand million of eggs annually. This is a nice little
item for the consideration of those who call chicken
business—egg raising—a small thing. The American
farmer, however, has been shrewd enough to discover
that eggs pay better than birds, and he has turned
attention to their production and preparation in large
quantities for distant markets. The price paid by
collectors seems good. In Minnesota, on the spot
where fowls sold at 6s. 3d.a dozen, eggs made 5d. a
dozen; while at Lexington, with fowls at 73d. each,
eggs made as much as 1d. each, and never lower than
4d. a dozen.

They are packed in millboard partitions, an egg in
each square cell, thirty-six in each layer resting on card-
board sheets, one above the other, and the whole con-
tained in a handy sized packing-case. The counting is
thus made easy, and few eggs are broken. Another way
is to pack seventy dozen in a wooden barrel in oats.
These are treated as fresh meat, chilled and kept for
months in cooled chambers; collected at about 3d. a
dozen in the middle States, and thus preserved, they are
sold in New York at from 11d. to 1s. a dozen when eggs
are scarce; the oats making the cost price a gain to the
packer. They come over 1,500 miles, and one dealer
was known in 1878 to have cleared £3,000 by sales on
a rise of prices. The abolition of slavery has affected
the value of eggs, the free blacks keeping round their
little houses a good stock of hens, but even now prices
are sometimes remarkably high. In January, 1874,
egos sold at 20d. a dozen in New York, though before
the month was out they fell to 6d.

The egg trade of Chicago is assuming large propor-
tions. The average annual sales amount to 399,360

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 191

ceases, which at thirty dozen each, makes the total number
143,769,600.

The perishable nature of eggs has naturally detracted
from their value as a standard article of diet. The
peculiar excellence of eggs depends upon their freshness.
But lately the process of crystallising has been resorted
to, and by this process the natural egg is converted into
a vitreous substance of a delicate amber tint, in which
form it is reduced seven-eighths in bulk compared with
case eggs, and retains its properties for years unimpaired
in any climate. This is indeed an achievement of science
and mechanical ingenuity, and has a most important
bearing on the question of cheaper food, by preventing
waste, equalising prices throughout the year, and regu-
lating consumption. In this form eggs may be trans-
ported without injury, either to the equator or the poles,
and at any time can be restored to their original condi-
tion simply by adding the water which has been arti-
ficially taken away.

The chief American ege-desiccating companies are in
St. Louis and New York. No salts or other extraneous
matters are introduced in the process of crystallising,
the product being simply a consolidated mixture of the
yolk andalbumen. Condensed eggs to the value of £400
are annually imported into America.

Mode of Preserving Eggs.—Immense quantities of eggs
are preserved in the spring of the year by liming. Thus
treated they are good for every purpose except boiling.
A similar desiccating process is carried on in Germany.
Herr von Effner’s preserved eggs are put up much like
other preserved articles of diet, in securely closed tins, and
so protected from hygrometric variations in the atmo-
sphere. They are prepared in three forms, the first con-
taining the principles of the entire egg, while the others
include those of either the white or the yolk only. When
required for use it is only necessary to restore the water
that has been eliminated, by moistening the flour till it
has acquired the consistence of an ordinary egg as
beaten up ready for the frying-pan in the preparation

e

192 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

of omelettes. The dried yolk forms an agreeable adjunct
to soups, or may be mixed with powdered biscuit, in
which form it is particularly recommended by the in-
ventor as a material out of which a palatable, whole-
some, invigorating, and highly-nutritious cake can be
quickly made for travellers or soldiers on the march.

In the counties of Hants and Dorset, pickled eggs con-
stitute a very prominent feature in the farmhouse and
store-rooms, insomuch that they would be considered
by the industrious housewife but indifferently furnished
without them. The mode in which the good dames
pickle them is simply thus:—At the season of the year
when their stock of eggs is plentiful, they cause some
four or six dozen to be boiled in a capacious saucepan
until they become quite hard. They then, after remov-
ing the shells, lay them carefully in large mouthed jars,
and pour over them scalding vinegar well seasoned with
whole-pepper, allspice, some pieces of ginger, and a few
cloves of garlic. When cold they are bunged down close,
and in a month are fit for use. Where eggs are plenti-
ful, the above pickle is by no means expensive, and, as
an acetose accompaniment to cold meat it cannot be out-
rivalled for piquancy.

At the London Dairy Show in 1884 there were up-
wards of thirty entries of eggs preserved in different
ways, and there was a great variety of methods adopted.
Quite a number were simply packed in common salt,
and these were all sufficiently preserved for cooking
purposes, and better than very many shop eggs, though
the appearance was scarcely so good, for the salt had
absorbed a rather large portion of the water of the albu-
men or white, consequently, there was a considerable
air cavity at the larger end, the presence of which was
evident by the sound produced when the eggs were
shaken. The taste and smell were unobjectionable; but
it is probable.that these eggs would not sell well. The
third-prize eggs, exhibited by Mr. C. W. Pearce, of
Buckingham, packed by this method, and Dr. Benson’s
second-prize lot were first rubbed in butter and then

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 1938

packed in salt, but this made no difference to the preser-
vation of the eggs, except that the white was more
watery than when only salt wasused. The other second
prize was given to Mr. Perey Marigold of Edgbaston.
These eggs were “preserved with beef and mutton drip-
ping, melted together, a little painted over each egg, and
then wiped with a cloth.” They were quite fit for
kitchen purposes, and equal to shop eggs, but, from the
fact of the pores having been closed, there had been no
evaporation, and, as in the case of the butter and salt
system, the white was watery. The three lots of eggs
preserved in liquids were good in quality, showing that
this is a safe system, but those preserved in melted wax
or paraffine were unfit for use.

The result of this experiment is that as yet no system
has been adopted which will preserve the eggs equal to
new laid. Most of the eggs were quite fit for cooking,
and there are several systems equally good in this re-
spect, but no one was fit for the table.

In China eggs are preserved after the following
fashion :—They are covered with a paste of quicklime,
sea salt and oak ashes, and thus packed away for three
months in boxes, separated from each other by rice
husks. As a matter of taste they are not nice, the
white being coagulated, and the yolks having turned
green, while the smell is anything but pleasant.

Easter Eggs-—-In many countries there is a large
consumption at Easter of hard boiled eggs, dyed red, or
ornamented with designs caused by wax tracings.

The Easter eggs, otherwise called “Paques eggs,”
whose life is so faithfully preserved by the French
confectioner, are the commonest form of present in
almost every country of the world. They are traced in
Egypt, Persia, and Mesopotamia, in Greece and in Ger-
many, and are extensively used to this day in Russia as
a formal addition to the customary greeting and kiss of
peace, “Christos vos Christe.” In nearly every case
they are ordinary eggs dyed red, and occasionally tinged.
yellow, as in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, with the

0)

194 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

furze-blossom or “whin bloom.” They are variously
decorated and inscribed by the simple process of mark-
ing them when hot with the end of a tallow candle,
and then steeping them with cochineal or some other
attractive dye. When elaborately designed or engraved,
the “ Pace eggs” in old English times were preserved in
a deep long-stemmed ale glass, and kept in the family
corner cupboard as love relics or toys for the children.
At any rate, the religious significance of the Easter
.egg in its connection with the deliverance from the
Deluge, the departure from Egypt, the Passover, and
the Resurrection, was soon lost sight of in Old Eng-
land, for the boys used them as they do cob-nuts in
Wiltshire “to try the conqueror,” the winning egg by
reason of hardness of shell over many smashed com-
panions being considered by the boys of the village a
famous tough customer, and accordingly a valued prize.

The custom of giving Easter eggs to one’s relations
and friends is a very old one in France, and there is no
fear of the usage dying out. But it has risen into an
expensive matter, for the imitation eggs are now of the
costliest kind, and made to contain all sorts of fancy
presents.

‘In 1533, an Archbishop of Paris, authorised by a bull
from Pope Julius III, being disposed to permit the use
of eggs during Lent, the Parliament took offence and
prevented the execution of the episcopal mandate. It
‘is this severe abstinence from eggs during Lent which
gave rise to the custom of having a great number of
them blessed on Easter Eve to be distributed among
friends on Easter Sunday, whence comes the expression
“to give Easter eggs.” Pyramids of them were carried
into the king’s cabinet after high mass. They were
gilded, or admirably painted, and the prince made
presents of them to his courtiers.

The origin of these Easter eggs is said to have sprung
from the fact that during several centuries no permis-
sion could be obtained from the clergy to eat eggs during
Holy Week. The rigid observance of that season pro-

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 195

duced the custom of preserving cooked those articles
which could be neither eaten or sold. They were not
coloured before the reign of Louis XIV. The first person
who sold them red was a man named Soliréne, established
at “the descent from the Pont-Neuf, near the Samari-
.taine.” That innovation had a great success, and St.
Simon informs us in his “ Mémoires,” that the custom
was on Easter Eve to raise in the cabinet of the Grand
Monarque, pyramids of coloured eggs, which his Majesty
afterwards presented to his courtiers. Since that period
the community has undergone so many improvements
that it is no longer eggs, properly so called, but boxes
with unexpected contents, jewel cases, sometimes costing
as high as two or three thousand francs, which are pre-
sented.

Macfarlane, in his “Southern Italy,” mentions an
amusing mistake of a hurried tourist, who, happening
to be a day or two at Naples during Easter week, made
a brief remark in his note-book that, contrary to the
general habit of their species, all the Neapolitan hens
laid red eggs!

Ostrich Eggs—Passing from the ordinary domestic
poultry, let us now glance at the huge eggs of the ostrich,
which may ere long be more generally utilised for food.

As many as sixty eggs are sometimes found in and
around an ostrich nest; but a smaller number is more
common. Each female lays from twelve to sixteen,
some say twenty-five to thirty eggs, in August and
September. But it often happens that several couples
unite to hatch together.

The eggs of each pair are disposed in a heap, always
surmounted by a conspicuous one which was the first
laid, and serves a special purpose. When the “delim,”
or male bird, perceives that the moment of hatching has
arrived, he breaks the egg which he deems most matured,
and at the same time he bores with great care a small
hole in the surmounting egg. This serves as the first
food for the nestlings, and for this purpose, though open,
it continues long without spoiling, which is the more

02

196 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

necessary, as the delim does not break all the eggs on
the same day, but only three or four, and so on, as.
he hears the young’ ones stirring within. This egg is.
always liquid, but whether by a provision of nature
in its original composition, or through the instinct.
of the parent birds in avoiding to keep it covered like
the rest, is not ascertained. The young ones having
received this their first nourishment, are immediately
dried in the sun, and begin to run about; in a few
days they will follow the parent birds to the pastures,.
always returning to shelter under their wings in the
nest.

An ostrich egg is considered as equal in its contents.
to twenty-four egos of the domestic hen. These eggs.
form a considerable item in the bushman’s cuisine, and
they are esteemed by the hunter, but in domestication
they are too valuable for rearing in incubators to be
handed over to the cook.

The eggs of domesticated ostriches are too costly at pre-
sent to be given up for the table; their importance, how-.
ever, can be estimated when we consider that the female
occasionally lays 82 eggs (each equal to 32 fowls’ eggs),
that is above 2,624 of the latter, in the season. L
ostrich egg roasted in the embers with truffles has been.
served up to august personages as a choice dainty, and
in an industrial point of view the albumen they contain
is considerable.

Emeu Eggs.—The eggs of the Australian emeu (Dromeus
Nove Hollandie) are nearly as large as those of the ostrich,
but of a dark green colour. These birds, at one time
abundant in Australia, are now becoming extinct, for
natives and Europeans are fast thinning them out, the
former eating the eggs and hunting down the birds for
food, but they do not allow boys or women to partake
of the flesh, it being reserved for warriors or counsellors.
The eggs, although somewhat strong in flavour, are fre-
quently eaten by settlers in the bush with great gusto.
The flesh of the emeu is excellent, resembling good beef,
and is dressed ina similar manner. The rump part is

t
EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 197

considered to be as delicate as fowl, the legs coarser in
‘flavour, being more like beef, but still tender.

In the Pampas of South America, from 40 to 50 and
even 70 eggs have been found in one nest of the Rhea
Americana, the eggs lying on one another, tier upon tier.
Perhaps twenty eggs will lie at the bottom of the nest,
the others at the top of these. When fresh, the eggs are
of a yellow colour, with clear white spots like wet lime
attached to the surface. When stale the egg becomes
white, and loses the spot-like appearance. These eggs
form a staple commodity of food during the months of
September, October and November.

Plovers’ Eggs.—A popular periodical quaintly asks :—
“Where do all the plovers’ eggs come from? They are
seen at all sorts of meals—dinners, wedding breakfasts,
show luncheons, pic-nics, evening-party refreshment
tables, ball-suppers. Jn all sorts of forms, too, do they
appear ; nestling in moss, held in bondage caressingly by
succulent jelly, pearly and cool, the golden yolk just sug-
gested through the semi-transparent white. Prodigiously
good they are, in whatever shape presented, but pro-
digiously mysterious also, in their faculty of turning up in
enormous quantities for the London season, and then dis-
appearing with equally strange and inexplicable despatch.
Very rarely does one encounter these plovers’ eggs except
during the London season ; and as to the plovers them-
selves, now and then, in crossing a breezy upland, the
pedestrian’s attention is caught by their shrill, plaintive
ery, and their rapid flight round and round his head,.as
they seek to draw him away from the nest which lies
close by; but it is only now and then that the plovers
are thus met with, and even where they are thickest,
their numbers do not account for those innumerable
dishes full of their eggs.”

What are usually sold as plovers’ eggs are those of the
common lapwing (Vanellus cristatus, Meyer). The. search
for plovers’ eggs is a science as well as a passion in Hol-
land. Even from the flight of the bird some Dutch
farmers deduce whether the plover has eggs, and where-

198 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

abouts they are deposited. In Paraguay the eggs of the
Tero-tero, or “pluvier armé,” are good eating, but the:
flesh of the bird is said to be tough.

According to Father Huc, the Chinese make a great.
use of pheasants’ eggs as a cosmetic to give their hair
lustre and brilliancy.

Eggs of Sea Fowl.—The eggs of wild birds are not.
very generally eaten in this country, but in many
localities those of sea-fow] are largely consumed, and a.
considerable trade is carried on in gulls’ eggs. Those of
the common foolish guillemot (Uria troile) seem to be
accounted delicacies, notwithstanding their fishy diet.
They are thick in the shell, which has a dull appearance.
The bird only lays one egg, of a pale green, blotched
and stained with black and dark brown. It may be
incidentally remarked here that birds which build open
nests uniformly have coloured eggs, and those which
possess concealed or covered nests have white eggs.

Without going into the discussion of naturalists, who
see in the different colours of eggs a certain relation to-
circumstances favourable to concealment, it may be ob-
served that the blotched ege laid by the Hydrochehidon.
fuliginosa, usually known as the egg-bird, is found
among sticks and dried leaves of the suriana, whilst the
white eggs of the boobies and petrels are deposited in
hollows of the coral rocks, amid sand and chalky dung.
There is one curious coincidence between the eggs of
the noddy tern (Anous stodidus, Linn.) and the peculiari-
ties of the nest, that must not, however, be unremarked.
The elaborate pile of sticks, slightly hollowed, in which
they deposit their eggs, is always embellished with
-broken sea shells, speckled and spotted like the eggs.
Audubon records the same occurrence in the nests of the-

‘noddy terns he inspected in the Florida Keys. The
obvious suggestion for this curious prevalence of in-
stinct is deceptiveness, arising from similarity bétween-
the egg shell and the sea shell.

For many kinds of cooking the eggs of wild birds.
are less valuable, though in the preparation of some:

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 199

sauces, where only the yellow portion of the egg is
used, and when high colour and high flavour are both
esteemed, two wild birds’ eggs are considered equal to
three domestic ones. The flavour of an egg is determined
by the food of the bird, all or most of it residing in the
yellow portion.

The number of eggs of the gulls—herring gull (Larus
argentatus, L. marinus, L. canus, &e.—sent to shore from
the Fern Islands, off the Northumberland coast, for
culinary purposes, is said to be prodigious. —

From the cliffs of Bampton and Flamborough, men
descend by ropes to obtain the eggs of the guillemots
(Uria trotle and U. grylle) and the razor-bill (Alea
torda) or common auk. A good take will be 200 or 300
eggs at a time. They commence about the 14th of
May, and go on for about nine days, and at the end
of another nine days there will be a second run of
successful collecting. These find a ready sale at Brid-
lington and. other places in the neighbourhood. In-
numerable quantities of the eggs of the gannet are
obtained annually on the Island of St. Kilda. Incredible
numbers of the eggs of the common auk are also
collected on the coasts of Labrador and elsewhere.

So highly are the eggs of the sooty tern (Sterna
JSuliginosa, Gmel.) esteemed, that collecting them is quite
a considerable trade. The eggs of the arctic tern (S.
arctica, Tem.) and of the black tern or wideawake
(Hydrochelidon nigra, Tem.) are excellent eating.

A great resort for the plunder of sea-fowls’ eggs are
the Pedro Keys, in the neighbourhood of Jamaica,
which are annually visited by boats from Port Royal.
The constant inhabitants of these rocks are several
species of booby (Sua fiber), gannets, terns and petrels.
The migratory visitors are ducks, herons, plovers, snipes,
sandpipers, curlews, and ibises. The months of March,
April, and May, are those of the egg harvest. The
Keys are open to all adventurers, but the egg gather-
ing is regulated by a custom which recognises the
first arrival as the admiral commanding for the season,

200 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

whose laws are to be obeyed; the second vessel is styled
the commodore.

The peasants of Norway collect the eggs of the sea-
birds, which are found in great numbers on all the
coasts of their country. The eggs of the thick-billed or
Brunnoch’s guillemot are much sought after at the
Farralones Islands, near San Francisco Bay.

At the island of Ichaboe, on the West Coast of Africa,
large quantities of eggs are obtained. In the months
of October and November the island is literally covered
with jackass-penguins (Hudyptes demersa) and gannets
(Sula bassana), which come here for the purpose of lay-
ing and incubation. The penguins lay three or four
eggs, but the gannet seldom more than two.

At Cape Town some 30,000 eggs of the penguin are
frequently received in a day from Jutten and Dassen
Islands.

The island of Tristan d’Acunha is another great
resort for sea-birds, numbers of penguins’ eggs are
obtained there at two great rookeries or nesting-places.
The men who go to gather the eggs wear a large
shirt tied round their waist, so as to form a great
loose bag in front, and they pop the eggs in as fast as
they can pick them up. They will gather from 200
to 300 in this way, no little load to carry, as they
vary in size from a large hen’s egg to that of a goose.

Funk Island has been visited from time immemorial
by all the poor people of the northern part of New-
foundland, for the procuring of eggs and birds which
frequent the island in immense numbers, upon which
they subsist for several months of the year, having
no other animal food to use; they salt down the birds
in barrels for preservation. The fishermen of all other
parts of the colony, on their voyage to Labrador in
the spring, regularly resort to Funk Island to procure
the eggs of the sea-fowl, which there accumulate in vast
quantities in the course of two or three days, and having
supplied themselves with barrels full, they proceed on
their voyage, and when arrived at their destination

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 201

bury them in their salt bulk for use during the summer.
Large quantities are also taken by the people of Con-
ception Bay, Trinity Bay, Bonavista Bay, and of St.
John’s, where they find a ready market, and at the
right season, when flesh meats are scarce and dear, they
are quite a luxury for the poor.

In the high northern latitudes sea-fowls’ eggs are a
valuable article of food. In Greenland about 200,000
eggs of aquatic birds are consumed yearly. The eggs
of the gannet or Solan goose are obtained for sale at
great risk from the rocks, crags, and overhanging preci-
pices.

Collecting the eggs of sea-birds forms a branch of con-
siderable industry in many countries. The poor inhabi-
tants of the Faroe Isles feed on the eggs of almost all the
waterfowl which frequent their shores. The governors
of. the Isle of Texel have the exclusive right to all the
eggs taken there, and they pay a considerable sum to
secure this monopoly. It is asserted that 300 or 400
eggs of the silver gull (Larus argentatus) alone are
gathered every day. After St. John’s Day no more eggs
may be taken, the birds being allowed to hatch in peace
any they may lay after that period. Naumann says
that 50,000 eggs of the large gulls are collected annually
in the little island of Sylt, and quite as many of smaller
species and of sea-swallows. Among the larger eggs
there are at least 10,000 of the silver gull.

Three men are engaged in collecting these eggs from
eight in the morning till late at night. They receive in
payment the eggs of all the smaller kinds of birds.

In the islands of Bass’ Straits a large harvest of eggs
of the dusky petrel (Puffinus brevicaudis, Brandt) is ob-
tained. The bird is called locally the “mutton bird.”
In shape and colour the eggs resemble those of the duck,
but are larger in size, although the bird is smaller. The
average weight of the egg is about three and a-half
ounces, and the flavour, like that of most sea-birds, is
strong. Early in December men, women, and children
are engaged in the plunder, and one person will obtain

202 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

five hundred eggs in a day. Not less than a thousand
dozen of these eggs are conveyed to the port of Laun-
ceston by boats in the season, and about as many more
find their way to the capital, Hobart Town, by vessels
calling at the islands, while large numbers are consumed
on the spot, so that from two to three thousand dozen
must be obtained annually. A few years ago nineteen
hundred dozen were sent direct to Melbourne, but the
shipment there has not been renewed.

The aborigines of Australia collect the eggs of wild
fowl, and it is no uncommon sight to see a bark canoe so
full of eggs that there is only just room for one person
to stand in it. The eggs of the ibis or bran are those
which are procured in the greatest number in New South
Wales. . They are of a white colour, rather sharp at one
end and about the size of a turkey’s egg. The albumen
is, however, quite different from that of any other egg,
being, even when boiled, pellucid, gelatinous, and fat in
appearance, and very small in quantity in comparison
with the yolk. It is not particularly palatable, and is
only used as a makeshift when neither hen nor duck eggs
can be procured.

The eges of the albatross (Diomedia fuliginosa), which .
average about a pound in weight, are much esteemed by
the sealers.

A large lake called the Hoister Meer, between Utrecht.
and Amsterdam, is much frequented by birds, and the
nests of the cormorants and spoonbills are robbed of the
eggs systematically twice a week during the months of
May and June.

The natives of Celebes come for fifty miles round to a
large bay to obtain the eggs of the Malee birds (Megapode),
which are esteemed a great delicacy, and when fresh are
indeed delicious. They are richer than hens’ eggs, and
of.a fine flavour; each one completely fills an ordinary
teacup, and forms, with bread or rice, a very good.
meal.

Eggs of Reptiles.—The eggs of most of the species of
tortoises are excellent eating, being both nutritious and.

4

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 203

agreeable to the taste; but the albuminous portion, or
white as it is commonly termed, does not acquire firmness
by boiling.

The number of eggs which the female of the green
turtle deposits every spring in the sand, is from 200 to
300, but scarcely does a thirtieth of that number of
young turtles (supposing every egg to be hatched) reach
the sea, or live for a week after gaining it. Turtles’ eggs
are held in great esteem wherever they are found, as
well by Europeans as others; they have a very soft shell,
and are about the size of a pigeon’s egg. The mother
turtles lay thrice a year, at intervals of two or three
weeks, depositing in one night as many as a hundred at.
a time. An experienced eye and hand are required to
detect the eggs, as they are always ingeniously covered
up with sand; but when they are properly sought for
very few escape.

Among the Florida Keys and in other places with the
necessary sandy beaches and grassy foreshores, which the
turtle selects for depositing her eggs, the fishermen are
so expert that they can not only discern the track of a
turtle from the sea to the higher sands where the nest is
usually found—if the term “nest” be allowable—but
they can tell whether or not eggs have been deposited ;
for sometimes the burdened animal is disturbed before
she can deposit her eggs, in which event she turns,
forming a semi-circle round the place of intended deposit.
which she is abandoning, and seeks the sea to look out
for some more eligible spot. And so keen are the eyes
of the fishermen, that they can always tell by this indica-
tion, which they technically express by the phrase that.
the turtle has made “a half moon,’ that no eggs have
been there deposited. In such case they never search for
eggs on the spot, for they know it would be fruitless.
When, however, there are indications seen of a genuine
deposit, the ramrod of a musket, or some other sharp
pointed instrument, is thrust into the sand, drawn out, and
the point examined, when they can decide by well-known
appearances whethor there are eggs in that place. A

204 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS, ‘

good “find” sometimes means the discovery of several
hundreds of eggs in the same spot.

When this is satisfactorily ascertained, the man who
makes the discovery waits till all the eggs are de-
posited and.the turtle is about to cover them up, when
he approaches, and turns the animal over—a feat that
requires both dexterity and strength to perform, with
a sharp look-out for the eyes, which are otherwise
liable to be blinded by the sand which the turtle will
scratch up.

It may not be out of place to say here, that though of
the marine turtles the flesh of the green variety is the
only kind suitable for food, yet the eggs of all are edible.
At Key West, however, and perhaps in other parts of
Florida, the loggerhead is eaten; but we do not consider
it as legitimate human food.

Unlike his green congener, the loggerhead is not a
purely grazing animal; in the Gulf of Florida, he feeds
on that singular mollusc the nautilus—the “ Portuguese
man of war” of seamen—which abounds in those waters.

‘The Orinoco and Amazon Indians obtain from these
eggs a kind of clear, sweet oil, which they use instead of
butter. In the month of February, when the high waters
of the rivers have receded, millions of turtles come on
shore to deposit their eggs. The certainty and abund-
ance of the harvest is such that it is estimated by the
acre. The yearly gathering about the mouth of the
river alone is nearly five thousand jars of oil, and it
takes five thousand eggs to make a jar. A native of
Brazil will consume as many as twenty or thirty turtles’
eggs at a meal, and a European will eat a dozen at a
breakfast. They make an excellent omelet. The
Indians frequently eat them raw, mixed with their
cassava flour.

There is some fear of the turtle supply falling off in
numbers, owing to the reckless way in which the eggs
are destroyed. These leather-cased eggs are deposited,
like those of the crocodile and other reptiles, in the warm
sand or mud, and left there to hatch out, incubation

ECGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 205

lasting three weeks or a month. Owing to the large
destruction which takes place, and the fact that the
turtles are more easily captured at breeding time than
at any other period, it is proposed in Barbados to estab-
lish a “close time” for turtles, and to foster the industry
which is thus threatened with extinction. Jamaica and
other colonies will do well to take the hint and preserve
a valuable industry which, if properly developed, would
form a source of great and increasing wealth.

The only condition in which the egg of the turtle is
fit to be eaten is, when taken from the slain animal
before the formation of the glaze and the surrounding
parchment-like skin, which answers the purpose of a
shell. In this condition, the young egg consists entirely
of yolk, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, in all stages
of development, from the merest embryo upwards, may
be found in the same individual. These imperfectly
formed eggs are very often preserved by drying, and are
considered a great luxury. In parts of India turtles’
eggs are salted, by which means they keep fresh for
three to: five years. The process is very simple, and
only requires a little knack in knowing when the egg is
sufficiently salted. The shell, instead of being hard, is
soft, and consequently when put together with others
appears crumpled in all shapes. The process of salting
is this; the fresh egg is well shaken, and thus the yolk
is broken or addled, and the contents, z.c., the white and
the yolk, blend together. It is then rolled by the hand
on a board with salt till the whole shell shows a marked
difference in appearance. This is allowed to cool, and
is packed in fine salt. Eggs thus prepared are found to
be plump, and on opening them of a pale yellow; from
the fact of the contents all being shaken and mixed,
they become of this uniform light colour, and not part
yellow and part white, as eggs ordinarily are. A fowl’s
egg is equal to so many ounces of meat; but the turtle’s
egg is far more nutritious, and there are more of them.

In the Eastern Archipelago and about the Straits
Settlements the eggs of the “pinnio,” or sea-turtle, and

206 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

of the “toontoong,” or river-turtle (which last. are of an
oval shape) are eagerly searched for and sold at the rate
of half-a-dollar the hundred. The eggs of the river-
turtle are less oily than the round eggs of the sea-turtle.
A single turtle will sometimes lay 250 to 300 eggs two
or three times during the year. A considerable com-
merce is carried on in turtles’ eggs at the mouth of the
Amazon. The eggs are laid at different times according
to the locality ; in May and June at the Tortugas; that
of June, according to Audubon, is the most considerable ;
from September to January on the coast of Isini, in
Africa, according to Dampier. At the Tortugas. certain
parts of the sand are generally known to contain the eggs
laid by hundreds of turtles.

The eggs of the greaved tortoise of South America
(Podocnemis eapansa) are large, spherical and white, and
form an important part of the diet of the Indians. They
dry these eggs by placing them on boards in the smoke
of a fire.

The eggs of the river tortoises of Africa are as large’
as those of the pigeon. They have an excellent taste ;
the white, which never becomes hard by the heat of the
fire, preserves the transparency of a bluish jelly. The
close tortoise (Testudo clausa) is much sought for in North
America on account of its eggs, which, like those of the
African variety, are reckoned a delicacy.

The eggs of the long necked tortoise of Australia (Chelo-
dina longicollis), which are deposited in the beginning of
January, amount to about fifteen or twenty, perhaps even
more, and are consumed in quantities by the natives.

The eggs of the terrestrial tortoises are generally
spherical and covered with a calcareous shell of consider-
able firmness. Some species, however, deposit elongated
eggs, and others eggs longer at one end than the other,
resembling those of a bird.

The eggs of the box tortoises or terrapins (Cistudo
Carolina) are accounted excellent, and are much sought
after.

Alligators’ Eggs.—The female alligator lays about 120

.

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 207

to 160 eggs, as large as those of the turkey, and these are
much eaten by the natives. Mr. Joseph, in his “ History
of Trinidad,” states that he had eaten the eggs of the
caiman (without knowing what eggs they were) and
found them very good. My relative, Mr. R. B. Walker,
tells me he has often eaten them in Western Africa. The
shell of the egg is rough, and filled with a thick albumen
without trace of yellow.

In Senegambia the natives are fond of these eggs, but
they are said to have a disagreeable flavour, especially
the yolk or yellow part. According to Crawfurd they
are eaten in Siam.

Lizards’ Eggs—The eggs of the large tree lizard,
known as the Iguana (which looks like an alligator in
miniature), are deserving the notice of gourmands. One
of these lizards will sometimes contain as many as four
score egos, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, but with
soft shell, which, when boiled, are like marrow. It
would be a refreshing sight to see some aldermanic
dignitary who has gone the round of all the dishes
which native and foreign skill have been able to pro-
duce, partaking for the first time of a dish of lizards’
eggs garnished with anchovies.

Brown, in his work on Guiana, says :—“One of these
reptiles captured at its burrow, when killed and cut
for cooking, was found to contain ten eggs of an ellip-
toid form, shell-less, and midway in size between a
pigeon and a hen’s egg. These are good eating when
boiled for about five minutes and then allowed to get
quite cold. They then require some manipulation. A
hole is made in one end of the skin, and the albuminous
part, which never coagulates, is squeezed out; then the
skin is stripped off, and the semi-hardened yelk, of the
consistency of butter, is eaten with salt.”

The eggs of a large lizard (Varanus bivittatus), those
of fish and of ‘turtle, are eaten by the Malays and
Chinese. The large eggs of the boa constrictor are
regarded as a rare dainty by the Africans from the
Congo. One of these snakes killed on an estate in

208 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

British Guiana, in 1884, had 50 eggs, which were eaten
by the negroes. :

The eggs of the common teguexin (Teius teguexin, Lin.),
and other large species of lizards, are eaten in South
America.

Insect Eggs—The eggs of some insects are also
eaten. The larve and nymphe of ants are not only
good food for poultry, but they are considered a
choice relish by many people spread on bread and
butter, and are excellent curried. They are eaten
in Siam, forming, with edible birds’ nests, an esteemed
article of food, but being costly they are only obtain-
able by the rich. Ants’ brood are subject to an im-
port duty in some of the northern countries of Europe,
especially in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. In those
countries they are steeped in boiling water, and a kind
of vinegar or formic acid is obtained.

Among the other objects of insect products useful
to man are the eggs obtained in Mexico from three
species of hemipterous insects belonging to the group
of aquatic beetles. These eggs are made into a sort of
bread or cake called “ Hautle,” consumed by the people,
and it forms an article of commerce in the markets.
In the fresh waters of the lagoons, bundles of reeds or
rushes are laid, on which the insects (Corixa femorata
and. C. mercenaria, Geoffroy, and Notonecla Americana) de-
posit their eggs. The bundles of rushes are then with-
drawn, dried, and beaten over cloths, to detach the
myriads of egos. These are cleansed and sifted, and put
into sacks and sold like flour, to form cakes, which are
excellent eating, but have a fishy and slightly acid
flavour. The custom seems to have been long prac-
tised, for it is mentioned so far back as 1625 by a mis-
sionary, Thomas Gage, who, travelling in Mexico, states
that these cakes were being sold in the markets.

Brantz Mayer, in his “ Mexico as it Was, and as it Is,”
published in New York, in 1844, speaks of having
noticed on the Lake of Tescuco, men occupied in collect-
ing the eggs of flies on plants and sheets. “These

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 209

eggs, called axayatl, are a substance favourably known
to the Indians long before the Conquest, and which
‘cooked in cakes were not different from fish spawn,
having the same appearance and flavour. After the
frogs of France and the birds’ nests of China, I fancy
they would be considered delicacies, and I found they
were not disdained on the fashionable tables of the
capital.”

The eggs of another species, Corixa esculenta, having
the appearance of manna, are also eaten in Egypt.

In Mexico the dried insects themselves are sold in the
streets and markets as food for birds, the dealers crying
“ Moschitos,” “Moschitos,” just as in Europe they ery
“ Food for your singing birds.”

“A large fly deposits its eggs in the frothy edge of
the surface of Mono Lake, in California, each of which
when hatched becomes a larva of considerable size, and
is called ‘Ke-chah-re’ by the natives. These larvee
when dried and pulverised are mixed with meal made of
acorns, to be sun-dried or baked as bread, or mixed with
water and boiled with hot stones for soup. The colour
of the powdered larve being similar to that of coarsely
ground black pepper, gives a forbidding appearance to
the compound.” *

Fish Spawn.—By those who have not looked into the
subject, it would scarcely be conceived how extensive is
the commerce, and how varied the uses of fish spawn.
Even the variety in shape and extent of production of
fish ova is a curious matter of investigation. The eggs
of various fishes differ remarkably in external appear-
ance. Some would scarcely be believed to be eggs at
all; take for instance the skate’s egg. It looks like a
flattened leather bag or purse, with four horns or
handles at the corners. The yolk is the size of a walnut,
larger or smaller according to the species. The yolk
of the ege of the dogfish (Galeus acanthias), which is
about the size of a pigeon’s egg, is used in parts of

* Report of Commissioner of Agriculture for 1870. Washington.
P

210 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Sweden as a substitute for other eggs in their domestic
economy.

This subject of the eggs of fish is one that is as yet
but imperfectly understood, although the late Mr. Frank
Buckland, by his investigations, has thrown much. light
upon many disputed points, and accumulated a good
deal of valuable information in his “Report on the Sea
Fisheries of England and Wales,” 1879, p. 240.

Cod-roe is sent off in tins to Australia and India in a
salted state. It is sold in London in a dried form, smoked
and thus darkly coloured. It is a delicious dish when
partly salted, parboiled, and then fried. Mr. Frank Buck-
land states that in 1868 he examined a cod-roe weighing
no less than 73 lbs.; they often weigh five pounds. By
, careful examination he found the average was 140 eggs
to the grain. This gives 67,200 eggs to the ounce, so
that in the whole mass of this one cod-roe, allowing
three-quarters of a pound for skin, membrane, &Mc., there
was no less than 7,526,400 eggs.

Herrings’ eggs in North America are used for human
food. In the spring of the year myriads of herrings,
closely allied to our own species, arrive in shore to spawn.
The Indian men, women and children scoop up the spawn
in large quantities, and use it as food. Herrings’ eggs
are about the size of, and look very much like sago.
Each egg has, like that of the-salmon, its own oil vesicle.
The roe of the ling is said to be better eating than that
of the cod. The eggs of a species of herring (Alausa
macrurus) are eaten by the Chinese.

The largest use of fish spawn is for bait on the French
coasts in the sardine and arsichovy fisheries, and pre-
served for food in the form of caviare and dried roes,
&c. The export of cod-roe for fish bait from Norway.
averages 40,000 barrels annually.

Oviparous animals, it is well known, are the most
prolific, and of these fish excel all others. A small cod-
fish will produce two millions of eggs, and it is said that
a single pair of herrings, if allowed to reproduce undis-
turbed, and multiply for twenty years, would not only

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 211

supply. the whole world with abundance of food, but
would become inconveniently numerous. The average
number of ova in a salmon is stated at twelve thousand ;
if it were possible that all those eggs produced fish
and they arrived at maturity, there would be twelve
thousand salmon, or six thousand pairs, whose pro-
duce, at the same rate, would be seventy-two millions.
Were it not that vast numbers of the eggs are de-
stroyed, fish would so multiply as to fill the waters com-
pletely.

There are many anomalies connected with the growth
of fish which naturalists have apparently never been
.able to resolve. We. know of the great waste of fish
life which must take place in the sea, of the number-
less eggs that are never impregnated by the milt, and of
‘the countless millions which are devoured by enemies;
we know also that out of a million of young codfish only
a small percentage will ever reach the market or become
of any commercial value; but what we should like to
know is, how it comes that a fish counting its spawn by
the million is scarcer than fishes which yield their eggs
-only in thousands? A codfish of fair dimensions sheds
upwards of three millions and a half of eggs, a flounder
also gives its eggs by. the million. A small one of this
species, which was weighed and the ova counted, actually
spawned 1,351,400 eggs. The fish next in order as to
quantity of spawn is the mackarel, which yields about
500,000 ova. The yield of a herring is 37,000 eggs.
Now, the herring excels most of the fish we have
named in plentifulness, and we have never yet seen
an explanation of the cause. Can any naturalist tell
us for certain that these large fishes deposit their spawn
annually ? We have some doubts of the fact ourselves,
and for the very obvious reason that the herring, with
its 37,000 eggs, is our most plentiful fish, whilst the cod,
with its 4,000,000 or more of ova, is annually becoming
less plentiful. .

Sturgeon Caviare—In Russia, when the eggs of the
-sturgeon have been taken from the fish, they are carried

P2

212 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

in packets to the corner of the fishing stage set apart:
for the preparation of caviare, of which there are four
kinds made :—

1. The grained spawn or eggs entire.

2. The hare or pressed.

3. The salted.

4. The blind eggs.

The choicest caviare is made with the eggs of the
beluga (Acipenser huso), which are large and handsome.
Those of the common sturgeon (A. Guldenstadtii) the
sevruga (A. stellatus), and the bastard sturgeon, mixed,
furnish a less esteemed kind; while the eggs of the
sterlet (4. ruthenus), which are extremely small, do not
enter into commerce, but are used locally by the fisher-
men and workpeople.

In preparing caviare, the roe of the several kinds of
sturgeon is spread out on a net with narrow meshes
forming a sieve, and stretched over a wooden frame,
then the grains are passed through the meshes by slightly
pressing the whole mass till nothing remains on the
sieve but the cellular tissue, the fat, and the muscle.
The grains, which are black or brown, fall through the
sieve into a wooden receptacle placed underneath. For
manufacturing grained caviare the roe is sprinkled with
very clean and fine salt, and the whole mass is stirred
with a wooden fork having eight or ten prongs. The
less the fresh caviare is salted the more it is esteemed.
The roe mixed with the salt presents at first a doughy
appearance when it is stirred ; but when every grain has
been impregnated with salt, the whole mass swells, and
in stirring it a slight noise is perceptible like that of
stirring small grains of sand. This noise is the sign that
the caviare is ready.

In manufacturing pressed caviare the brine is made
stronger, and when the eggs are well impregnated with
salt, the grains are put into a sack made of the bark of
the linden tree, which is placed under a press, in order
to get all the brine out of the caviare, and to transform
it into a solid mass. In thus pressing the caviare, a.

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 213

large number of the grains are crushed, and a portion of
their contents flows out with the brine. After having
taken the pressed caviare from the sacks, it is packed
in casks containing 30 pouds (1,080 pounds), the in-
sides of which are covered with napkin linen; this
being the reason why the caviare is also called “ napkin
caviare.” The finest quality of pressed caviare, that
which has been less pressed and salted, is placed in
straight linen bags of a cylindrical shape, and is then
called cast caviare. Caviare is also shipped in tin boxes
hermetically closed and soldered.

The exports of caviare from Russia in 1879 amounted
to 201,746 pouds of 36 Ibs. each.

Mullet Caviare.—The fishermen in the Gulf of Foz, the
salt lakes of Caronti, Berre, and other bays and creeks of
the Mediterranean, prepare a species of caviare with the
roes of the mullet and other species of fish, which is called
boutarge, or botargo. It is sold at from six to fifteen
francs the kilogramme (2s. 6d. to 6s. 6d. the pound),
according to the quantity obtained during the season.

It is thus prepared :—The fish is opened when the
ovaries have reached maturity, and the roes are removed
entire and cleaned. They are then placed between
planks loaded with heavy weights, and the week follow-
ing the roes are washed with brine and replaced under
the press. Itis then sold without any other preparation.
This caviare is well known in Sicily, Greece, Syria and
Turkey, and is much esteemed on all the coasts of the
Mediterranean. At the tables of the rich it is served
as a hors-d’ceuvre ; cut in small slices, steeped in olive
oil, and before eating sprinkled with lemon juice.

The roe of the grey mullet is in great request all over
the Mediterranean ; 70,000 pairs per annum are col-
lected at Tunis, and sent across to Italy, where they
fetch 10d. to 1s. 8d. per pair. Under the general name
of “botargo” the roe of the mullet and the spawn of the
tunny fish are prepared on the coast of the Mediterra-
nean and sold in Italy, Egypt, Turkey, and Barbary.
‘The best is said to be made at Tunis, but it is also:

214 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

prepared at Cagliari. The mullet which is caught is the
Mugil cephalus, Lin., and the eggs are salted, bruised,. ,
and made into a cake, which is sometimes smoked and

dried in the sun. In Honduras and parts of the West.

Indies, the roe of the callipeva (Mugil liza) is dried, and

considered a delicacy.

The late Sir John Richardson tells us that very good
bread can be made from the roe of the pollach (Gadus
-pollachius), and that when well bruised and mixed with
a little flour, the roe of the methy (Lota maculosa) can
be baked into very good biscuits, which are used in
the fur countries as bread. The Chinook Indians collect
the spawn of the herring, which they squeeze into balls.
and dry.

The roe of the sandre (Leucioperca sandra) is prepared.
in Russia for exporting to Greece and Turkey. This is
done principally in the Sea of Azov, and especially by
the Cossacks of Kouban, who make annually from
15,000 to 20,000 pouds (of 36 lbs. each), by leaving the
spawn in the ovaries, which hardens, and is then packed
in casks with layers of salt.

Of late years the Greek islanders have commenced to
prepare the roes largely for shipment, as they obtain them
from the fishermen for nothing. They use those of the
lestiche or bream (Abramis brama), of the sandre, and of
the vobla (Leuciscus rutilus). The little bags containing
the roe are thrown together promiscuously, and each
layer is covered with a certain quantity of salt. The
whole is then pressed between boards weighed down by
heavy stones as already described. This caviare remains
thus for a month, after which the Greeks put it into
casks, and ship it chiefly to Turkey and the mainland.
Caviare which has been thus prepared, is cut into slices
shaped like discs, and is much sought after in those.
countries bordering on the Mediterranean.

Formerly a kind of caviare was prepared for the
Armenian and Turkish markets, by adding spices, cinna-
mon, cardamoms, nutmegs and cloves to the pressed kind,
and drying it in the sun after salting, as is still done.

EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 215

with the roes of the mullet, held in high estimation by
the Greeks. The salted and dried roe, of enormous size,
of the Trubu, a species of shad, which frequents the
great rivers of Siak, in Sumatra, constitutes a consider-
able article of commerce in the western parts of the
Malayan Archipelago,

The roe of the okorune (Perca fluviatilis), and of the
Yerschi (Acerina vulgaris), is dried in ovens specially con-
structed for this purpose in Russia, and is used as a
seasoning during Lent. The eggs of fish are sought for
in the rivers of India and made into cakes. The eggs of
the kari (Labeo calbasu) and kalmuri (Diseognathus larnta)
are highly prized.

There is also a destruction by mankind of the ova, or
spawn, of the crustacea—lobsters, crabs and shrimps—
which are carried under the tail. The lobster produces
15,000 to 20,000 eggs, the crayfish upwards of 100,000.
The lobster is never so good as when in the condition of
a “berried hen.” Berried hens occur most frequently in
April, May, and June. They begin to lose their berries
about July. Almost the only use to which the berries
are put is cooking. They are employed in many pre-
parations by the West-end chefs, especially for the
colouring and enriching sauces. The chefs are also fond
of the coral out of the body of the lobster. As much
as six ounces of berries can be taken off in May from
a lobster weighing three to three pounds and a-half.
There are about 6,720 eggs in an ounce of lobster
spawn,

The eggs from female crabs are also used for colouring
various sauces, they are mashed up with the sauce, a
little anchovy added, and then it is called “lobster sauce.”

The eggs of the king crab (Limulus moluccanus) are
collected on the north coast of Java, and much esteemed
by the natives. This crustacean is in some localities so
plentiful as to be used for manuring land.

216 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

CHAPTER VII.
REPTILES, SNAKES, AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS Foon,

Turtles and Tortoises—Land, Marsh, River and Sea Tortoises—
Flesh Largely Eaten in Various Countries— Terrapins of
America Great Food Delicacies— Turtle Soup and Dried
Turtle Flesh — Sources of Supply of Turtle— Recipes for
Cooking Turtle— Flesh of Loggerhead Turtle not Good —
Crocodiles and Alligators Eaten—Lizards Haten—Monitors—
Iguanas—Snakes Eaten in Many Countries—Snake Wine—
Amphibians—Frogs Eaten in Europe, America, and Asia—
Modes of Catching Them—Recipes for Cooking Them—Sala-
mander and Aloxotl Eaten.

Reprites.—Of these we find that many are eaten with
eagerness all over the world, and neither want of beauty
nor abundance of venom protect them against omnivorous
man. In vain they assume all manner of ugly shapes;
in vain they move, creeping and hopping and sliding,
although they suggest to us by form and motion all that
is false and unfair, hideous and horrid ; even God’s curse
of the serpent does not shield it; and from the humble
frog of the pond to the colossal crocodile of Egypt, they
are all but so much food for their master.

Taking the first order, Tortoises or Turtles, we find the
flesh of many kinds is tender and palatable, and the eggs
of most are much esteemed as food. Of the eggs we
have spoken in the last chapter. Professor Dumeril has
classed. the tortoises, according to their habits, into four
families :-—

_ 1. Chersites, or land tortoises.
2. Elodites, or Paludines—marsh tortoises.
3. Potamites, or Fluwiales—river tortoises.
4. Thalassites, or sea tortoises.
Speaking generally, it may be stated that the flesh of

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 217

all tortoises is edible, for there are people who eat dif-
ferent kinds in various countries, but as the flesh of some
is better flavoured than others, those are necessarily
most sought after.

1. The Land Tortoises (Testudo).—In Sicily and Italy
land tortoises (7. Gireca) are sold in the markets princi-
pally for making soup, in which mode of cooking it is
more esteemed than prepared in any other way. The
flesh of the gopher, or Florida terrapin (T. polyphemus,
Holbrook, 7. Carolina, Lecomte), is said to be excellent,
and it is therefore sought after for the table. Certain
species of tortoises (Peltoastes, Chersina, and Homophus)
are eaten in the Cape Colony.

Darwin gives a good account of the great elephantine
tortoise, which he terms 7. indicus.

The flesh of this animal is largely employed, both fresh
and salted, and a beautifully clear oil is prepared from
the fat. When a tortoise is caught the man makes a
slit in the skin near its tail, so as to see inside the body
whether the fat under the dorsal plate is thick. If it is
not, the animal is liberated, and is said to recover soon
from this strange operation.

While staying in the upper district of St. James’s
Island, where a party of Spaniards were employed in
catching tortoises, Mr. Darwin and his companions lived
entirely on the meat of these animals. “The breast-
plate roasted with the flesh attached,” he says, “is very
good, and the young tortoises make excellent soup, but
otherwise the meat, to my taste, is very indifferent.”
Some of the largest of the land tortoises of the Gallapagos
group weigh 300 or 400 pounds, but their common size
is between 50 and 100 pounds. Capt. B. Hall, “ Extracts
of a Journal in Chili and Peru,” gives a better opinion
of the meat :—‘“ Their flesh without exception is of as
sweet and pleasant a flavour as any that I evereat. It was
common to take out of one of them 10 or 12 pounds of
fat, when they were opened, besides what was necessdry
to cook them with. This was as yellow as our best
butter, and of a sweeter flavour than hog’s lard.”

218 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Porter, in his “Journal of a Cruise made to the Pacific
Ocean in 1813,” stated that some of the great land tor-
toises captured by him weighed from 300 to 400 pounds,
and that on one island they were five feet and a half
long, four feet and a half wide, and three feet thick in
the body. He expatiates on the luscious and delicate
food that the long-necked and small-headed and other
kinds produce. They have been so hunted that at the
present time it is most probable that the gigantic tortoises
are very rare where they were formerly so abundant.

The land tortoise, or terrapin, which is brought from
Aldabra, is a favourite article of food with the inhabi-
tants of Mahe, Seychelles, but it has become scarce.
Green turtle are, however, common there from November
to April.

The turtle is unlawful food among the Mahomedans,
but particular classes of Bengalis eat certain Emydes or
terrapins, more especially the Zetraodon Lessoni, of Du-
meril and Bibron, which is kept for sale in shallow tanks,
many hundreds of them sometimes together. The eggs
also of the different water tortoises are brought to the
bazaar. In Greece the flesh of the tortoises is abhorred
by the people as being that of an impure animal.

A large black terrestrial tortoise with red spots, which
attains the weight of twenty pounds, is eaten in Brazil. In
Japan some tortoises are met with in the markets; that
principally eaten is a species of Trionyx, one of the mud
or soft-shelled tortoises. The flesh of all are very nice.
A Southern Indian kind (Cryptopus granosus, Bibr.)
living in fresh water, is rather common on the coast of
Coromandel. It forms an article of diet.

The flesh of the European box tortoise (C. Europea),
though not very delicate, is nevertheless eaten on the
Continent. Itis said, however, to be greatly improved
by feeding the animals for some time on grain, bran, and
other vegetable aliment.

2. Of the marsh tortoises we have no details to furnish.

3. The river tortoises of Africa, Asia, and America are
highly esteemed by man as food.

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 219

Le Vaillant (“Travels in Africa,” vol. i, p. 116) thus
speaks of the tortoises there:—“ Next morning, the
weather being cool and cloudy, we marched six hours in
order to reach the borders of a very large pond, abound-
ing with small tortoises, of which we caught about
twenty ; we broiled them all in the same manner on the
coals and found them excellent. They were from seven
to eight inches in length and about four in breadth.
The shell on the back was of a whitish-grey colour,
inclining a little to yellow; when alive they had a disagree-
able smell, but by roasting this was entirely destroyed.”

M. da Silva Coutinho, a member of the Brazilian Com-
mission at the Paris Exhibition in 1867, in an article on
the tortoises of the Amazon,* states that “The flesh of
the Podocnemis expansa, of the family of Emydes, is the
most savoury of all. It is with this the best dishes are
prepared, and it will of itself constitute the base of a
repast the most delicate. According to the part of the
body employed, and the manner of preparing the flesh,
the flavour will vary and resemble either veal, fowl, or
pork. The natives feed continually on it. When I made
a voyage of exploration in the region of Para I lived on
the flesh of this tortoise for more than two months with-
out being surfeited. Its flesh is of such easy and healthy
digestion that it replaces fowl for the sick, as is practised
in the military hospital of Manaus.” This species is the
most abundant of all the turtles of the Amazon region.
Its flesh is good for food, and its eggs are converted into
an oil, which is generally used for burning, but when fresh
it has little flavour, and might be utilised in preserving
food, as it already is in the local preparation known as
Mexira. A turtle of three feet, which costs in the Amazon.
region about 5s., will support a family of six persons for
three days. The fat can also be employed, being more
palatable and healthy than lard. An ordinary animal
will furnish five pounds of fat, and as this is worth ls. a

* * Bulletin of the Society of Acclimatation, Paris,” vol. xv.»
p. 147.

220 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

pound, it represents the whole price of the animal; the
Hesh being obtained for nothing.

The salt water terrapin of North America (Olemmys
terrapin, Schoepf) is in great request, its flesh being
highly esteemed as a delicacy for the table, especially at
the close of the summer, when the animals have retired
to their winter dormitory. They are then fat, and con-
sidered as a delicacy.

The painted terrapin (Clemmys picta) and the red-bellied
terrapin (Clemmys Muhlenburgii, Schweigg, Pseudemys
yugosa, Shaw) are now less common in Central New
Jersey, being sought after by restaurant keepers, who
palm them off on their customers as the diamond-back
terrapin (Malacoclemmys palustris, Gmelin), but no cooking,
however skilful, can deceive those who are accustomed
to the genuine article. The latter is met with on the
American coasts, from New York to Texas, the red-bellied
from New Jersey to Virginia. The Southern terrapin is
Pseudemys mobihensis, Hollbrook ; the Florida river terra-
pin (P. concinna).

The American box tortoise (Cistudo Carolina) has a
wide distribution. Its flesh is said to be excellent.

The terrapins inhabit North America, from Hudson’s
Bay to the Floridas. There are so many species that it is
difficult to enumerate those which are eaten. They are
found at the mouths of rivers and in salt marshes in
North America, and their flesh is considered a very
delicious article of food. To show the importance of the
tortoise trade in the United States, I may quote the
following account of a Baltimore establishment from an
American paper :—

“The most novel feature in the house is the terrapin
department. This room is kept warm and the terra-
pins luxuriate in air-tight chests, each from five to ten
bushels capacity. These are packed full of terrapins,
which number many hundreds in the aggregate. The
most of them are the Chesapeake diamond-back variety,
and all are at least seven inches across the under shell,
that being the measurement the terrapin must reach

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 221

before, in the opinion of “the epicure, it is fit for the
table.

“There are also kept in some of the chests hundreds
of sliders or red fender terrapins, a fresh-water variety,
chiefly from the James river. The habits of the terrapin
have been made a study by the dealer. He keeps them
in air tight chests without food, and says they not only
exist deprived of air, but grow fat; and if kept in the
chests for six months, will each weigh four to six
ounces more than when put in. If the terrapins are
allowed to have liberty or free air, even in the most
limited space, they become very poor, as they seem to
draw sustenance from themselves, but do not take food.
All the terrapins in the chests are in the enjoyment of
vigorous existence, as proved by their movements when
the lids are raised.

“‘ The terrapins are principally sold to hotelkeepers to
be served up at extra junketings, and they bring from
twenty-five to thirty-six dollars a dozen during the
season. In the terrapin season one house in Baltimore
will sell a thousand dozens.”

It is in Lent that terrapin commands its highest
prices. A dozen terrapins consist of twelve diamond-
backs, no one of which must be less than a “count ter-
rapin,” that is, should measure seven inches in length on’
the under shell. The largest known do not exceed ten
inches in length and eight pounds in weight, and such
prizes are extremely rare; usually they weigh about
34 Ibs. each. The seven-inch terrapin averages four
pounds in weight. “Sliders,” the common river turtles
of almost all the rivers of the South, grow to a much
larger size. They bring from 6 dols. to 9 dols. a dozen.

The two or three men who control the trade in Balti-
more say that they sell almost exclusively for private
tables. Terrapin are caught all the way from Savannah
and Charleston to the Patapsco and Gunpowder rivers, |
but the genuine diamond-back belongs almost exclu-
sively to the upper Chesapeake and its tributaries. The
majority of the sliders come to Baltimore from the James

222 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

river and streams adjoining. An active terrapin catcher
sometimes makes fifty dols. a week, but the find varies,
and often runs down as low as five dols. The reptile is
discovered by probing the mud in the shallows with a
stick. He is dormant and easily captured.

The females are more highly prized and are known as
“cow” terrapin. They are generally fatter and contain
about thirty eggs, some of which a visitor has a right to
expect to garnish the dish at 1 dol. 25c.a plate. Many
restaurateurs, reckless of their fair fame, have resort to
the eggs of the pigeon made into a paste and rolled
into a substitute for the genuine article. Thirty years ago
the largest dealer in Baltimore found it difficult to dis-
pose of the terrapin he received at six dols. a dozen. The
negroes who bring them to market say that they are
growing scarcer yearly, and nothing but the high price
stimulates them to keep up the supply by a more ex-
tended and persistent search.

The painted turtle (Chrysemys picta, Henma and Gray)
may be found in many of the American ponds, lakes,
creeks and rivers, from New Brunswick to Georgia.
Though not considered eatable, it is nevertheless sold
along with several other tortoises, and figures as a
“ diamond-back ” in the famous terrapin supper. Indeed
in some seasons there are more wood turtles (Chelopus
énsculptus, Le Conte) and red-bellied terrapins sold in
the Philadelphia markets than edible salt water terra-
pins or diamond-backs. In examining a netful of terra-
pins at a game store a short time ago, all of them were
of the rugosa species. Many of them were dead, and
two were so “very dead” that their eyes had dried up
and sunk deeply into their sockets. And yet the wily
caterer will buy them and stew them with wine and
spices, and the epicure will smack his lips over this
reptilian carrion, and exclaim, “ How delicious !”

Emys tecta, Gray, abounds in the Hooghly, and is sold
for food. The flesh of an Emys is eaten in China, and is
considered medicinally pectoral and emollient. The shell
cut up in small pieces is given in decoction. The cara-

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 223

pace is, however, carefully examined to observe if there
are nine divisions or markings at the sides, for if so,
its value is great. It is boiled in vinegar and water
to form a jelly, much prescribed in rheumatism, debility,
and other disorders. The flesh of the hairy tortoise is
considered excellent in many maladies.

The long-headed Chinese tortoise (Platysternon mega-
cephalum) is sometimes sold in Canton.

The flesh of the matamata terrapin (Chelys matamata,
Brug.) is highly esteemed, and in Cayenne and Guiana,
incessant warfare has been maintained against it, so
that it has become scarce.

The flesh of the tailed tortoise of North America
(Chelydra serpentina, Schweig.), and of the alligator snap-
per (Macrochelys laxiutina, Schw.), is considered un-
palatable, and has a musky odour. That of the fringed
snouted tortoise (Chelys fimbriata), is, however, excellent
eating.

To the family of Testudo belongs the jaboty (Testudo
carbonaria, Spix.), an exclusively terrestrial species, the
flesh of which is much esteemed as delicate food,
rivalling in flavour that of the Podocnemis expansa.
The flesh fried is considered one of the best meats met
with.

The greaved tortoises (Podocnemis eapansa) are ex-
tremely numerous in the northern rivers of South
America. Bates, when travelling on the Amazon, had to
live for a considerable part of the year on this tortoise.
It was the only animal food, except fish, which was to
be had; and although all the arts of the native cuisine
were employed, he got thoroughly tired of it, so that
opinions differ regarding this food.

The flesh of many of the mud or soft tortoises
(Trionycides) is very nice. Trionyx sinensis is eaten in
China. ,

4. Sea Tortoises—We come now to the marine turtles,
and of these, in commencing his notice of them, M. Lace-
pede well remarks :—“ This is one of the best presents
which Nature has given to the inhabitants of equatorial

2924 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

countries, one of the most useful products which it has’
deposited on the confines of land and water.” Of these
we may notice the green turtle, the loggerhead or hawk-
bill turtle (Chelone imbricata, Schweig), furnishing the
tortoiseshell of commerce ; and the luth or leathery turtle
(Sphargis coriacea, Rondelet).

The flesh of some species of marine tortoises, but par-
ticularly of the green turtle (Chelonia Mydas, and C.
virgata, Schw.), is in the greatest request as a luxury for
the table, at least in England, and the animal itself is an
object of commerce. The arrival of a cargo of “lively
turtles” is by no means a thing of trifling importance.
Of late years the flesh is imported dried, which has
placed it within the reach of general consumers. The
flesh is also salted in some quarters. All the turtles
afford a considerable quantity of oil, which is employed
for various purposes. In some of the West Indian
islands, it supplies, when fresh, the place of butter or
salad oil for culinary purposes, and it is also used for
burning in lamps.

Turtle would seem to have been first introduced in
England as an article of food about the eighteenth cen-
tury, for a record in the “ Gentleman’s Magazine,” under
date August 31, 1753, shows that it was then a rarity ;
and they did not know how to dress it. It states :—“ A
turtle, brought by Admiral Anson, weighing 350 pounds,
was ate at the ‘King’s Arms, Pall Mall; the mouth
of an oven was taken down to admit the part to be
baked.”

Steam communication has greatly increased the im-
ports of this reptile. About 15,000 are now introduced
into our ports, and from thence to our kitchens, every
year. They are usually brought in casks open at the
top, the sea water being replenished.. They weigh from
i ewt. to 3 cwt. Not that all these shielded animals so
arriving can be called “lively turtle,” for the voyage
has very often a damaging effect upon them, and they
have to be brought into flesh before they can be used’
for the table.

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 225 |

Dr. Browne, in his “History of Jamaica,” speaking of
the turtle, says, “it is delicate, tender food while young,
but as it grows old it becomes more tough and gristly,
and is not so agreeable to the stomach in those warm
countries; the juices, however, are generally reckoned
great restoratives, and often observed to heal and smooth
the skin in scorbutic and leprous habits; nay, it is said
to cure even the most obstinate venereal taints.”

In Portugal, syphilitic patients are often sent to the

Cape Verde Isles to be cured by feeding on turtle flesh.
_ The flesh of the green turtle is eaten in the West
India Islands generally, in all the maritime cities of the
United States, Brazil and Peru, in England, in Africa,
the Cape Verde Islands, and among the natives who
inhabit the Western Coasts of Africa, Guinea, and Congo,
the islands of Mauritius and Réunion in the Indian
Ocean, at the English Presidencies of India, Java, and in
Australia. There is not a four-footed animal, a voyager
tells us, the flesh of which the Japanese esteem like that
of the kecame or turtle.

The flesh of the turtle is thus, we find, a universal
food, if we except some of the States of Europe, which
do not seem to appreciate it as a delicacy. I may add
that this has been so in all ages. Diodorus of Sicily,
Pliny, and Strabo speak of it. The former named
“Chelonophages” certain people inhabiting islands at
the entry of the Red Sea, whose principal occupation.
was catching turtle.

There are in the turtle two pieces of flesh very white,
compared to knuckles of veal. It may be larded and
made into fricandeaux and patés, equal to those of Rouen
or Pontoise. Every part of the flesh isedible. The bones
being easily saturated with the gravy, are left in the
ragouts which are made, and the fat, which is very fluid,
serves instead of butter or lard. The two most choice
preparations of the turtle in the West Indies are the soup
and the boucan or plastron. The soup made there is
flavoured with sherry, and seasoned with strong spices,
capsicums, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. It is considered

Q

226 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

to be excellent when, after having eaten, one is obliged
to rest with the mouth wide open, and cool the fevered
palate with Madeira or port. So that, to appreciate this
fiery soup, the taste has to be acquired.

The plastron of boucaneered turtle is made by mincing
the flesh fine, and cooking it in its own shell. Here is
a receipt given for preparing and cooking it:—“The
plastron or buckler is the shell of the belly, on which is
lJeft three or four inches of flesh, with all the fat, this
being green, and of a very delicate flavour. The plastron
is placed in the oven. It is seasoned with lemon juice,
capsicum or cayenne, salt, pepper, cloves and eggs beaten
up. The oven must not be too hot, as the flesh of the
turtle being tender, it should be cooked slowly. While
it is baking the flesh should be pierced from time to
time with a wooden skewer, so that the gravy may
penetrate all parts. Itissent up to table in the shell, and
the meat carved out fromit. I have never eaten anything
more appetising or better flavoured.” This is not the
receipt of a royal chef de cuisine, or of an ordinary cook,
but of Father Labat, a Dominican monk, and we know
that in all that relates to the table, and especially the
food of fast days, monks are good authorities. The old
buccaneers from whom this dish was named, having no
ovens, cooked their turtle in a trench covered with
lighted charcoal, and this mode of cooking was said to
be preferable. -But in whatever manner dressed, all agree
that the flesh of the turtle is an excellent and palatable
food.

Griffith, in his “Animal Kingdom,” says: “It would
be quite superfluous to dilate on the enthusiastic venera-
tion in which turtle soup is held by our wealthy and
discerning citizens.”

Dried turtle and the dried flesh for soup is now prepared
‘in America and the West Indies. A manufactory at Key
West, Florida, puts up in airtight cans for exportation
200,000 pounds yearly, and employs ten vessels and sixty
men in collecting the turtle. It is sent to England and
Cuba chiefly. At Jamaica some factories are also doing a

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 227

good business ina preparation worthy of the gastronomic
patronage of an aldermanic banquet, so rich is it in green
fat and calipee, calipash, and those delicate gelatinous
morsels appertaining to the fins, A steady supply of
live turtle is obtained monthly through the West India
and Pacific steamers from Colon, besides those brought
from the Caymanas. 10,805 pounds of prepared turtle,
valued at £660, was shipped from Jamaica in 1880.

Although all the varieties of the edible turtle are
palatable, yet they are distinguished by the localities
from whence they are obtained, and some are preferred
to others. Those of the Bay of Honduras are most.
esteemed in England, Of the Cape Verde Islands, those
of St. Vincent are considered the best. Dampier tells
us that they are not so large as those of the American
islands. The flesh is white, and intermixed with the
green fat, which is firm and of good flavour.

Jamaica is the principal mart in the West Indies to
which the turtle are brought from the coasts of the Gulf
of Mexico, from Trinidad to Vera Cruz, principally from
Honduras and the Tortugas. From Jamaica they are
sent to England and the United States.

The island of Ascension ships about 3,000 turtle
yearly, some weighing from 400 to 800 lbs,

Lemaire states that, at Cape Blanc, the turtles are -of
such a size that some with the bones removed yielded
a barrel of flesh without the head, throat, tail, fins,
tripe, and eggs, and would furnish a good meal to
thirty men. (Firmin, “ Voyage in Equinoctial Holland,”
p. 80.) But it is not these large turtles that are most
esteemed ; those of 10 lbs. or 25 lbs. weight are the best
flavoured.

At Martinique the flesh of the turtle is cooked in
various ways, and with different sauces. It is made into
soup, roasted on a spit, stewed, fricasseed, in patés, ete.
It may be said of the turtle as of the pig, that every
part of it is good, from the head to the foot.

Here is a receipt, according to M. Chevet, senior, for
making turtle soup in the French style, given in the

Q2

228 ‘ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

6th vol., p. 424, of the “ Bulletin de la Société d’Acclima--
tation,” Paris.

“Soak in lukewarm water the fins and the plastron of»
the turtle to remove the shelly parts, then cut these in
pieces and add the intestines and other flesh. Place in
an earthen marmite about two lbs. of the turtle flesh with
a litre and a-half of water. Cook it as for a pot-au-feu,
skimming it with care. Add salt, ordinary vegetables, as.
carrots, leeks; let it boil on a moderate fire two hours
and a-half. Add a little sherry or Madeira, and cayenne
pepper, a little flour, tapioca, sago, or other fecula to:
thicken. An excellent bouillon is thus obtained, very
refreshing, nutritive, gelatinous, and which leaves the
mouth fresh.

“In place of water, bouillon may be added, and
quenelles made of the lower flesh of the animal and the
eggs when there are any. The eggs should be well
washed, and cooked separately, so as not to discolour the
soup. This soup we are told forms the principal dish of
the dinner.”

In whatever fashion cooked, the flesh of the turtle is
very agreeable to the palate. And according to all
voyagers it is so easily digestible that any quantity may
be eaten without inconvenience. Dr. Rufz, in an interest-
ing descriptive article from which we quote, states that
during a practice of twenty years in Martinique, where
it is largely consumed, he never heard of any accident
arising from it. It is there in demand by all classes of
the population, and within the reach of all; at Lent
especially it is an invaluable food resource. It is sold
in the public markets like beef and mutton, at about 1s.
per pound. The flesh is much firmer than that of most
tishes, and more nourishing. It approaches veal, of
which one preparation, “téte de veau en tortue,” gives
the best idea of real turtle to those who have never
tasted it.

In a compilation of Voyages and Travels, published
in London in 1745, we find the following panegyric on
turtle :—* The flesh is white, larded with a green fat,

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD, 229

‘firm and well tasted, having this advantage over the fat
of all other animals, that it is not cloying or disagreeable,
but may beeaten alone. The delicacy of the flesh makes
it not fit for salting ; but when fresh it is highly nourish-
ing, and of so easy a digestion, that, eat ever so much,
it never incommodes you, being alike agreeable, dress it
which way you will. The best piece is the belly, taking
also the shell that covers it with the thickness of two
fingers of the meat it contains. This they put in the
oven whole, seasoning with lime-juice, salt, pimento, and
‘common pepper mixed with cloves, and baked with a
slow fire; it makes an excellent dish.”

In Honduras and Jamaica the flesh of the turtle is cut
off in strips and dried in the sun; that from the back
being the calipash, and that from the belly the calipee,
of a somewhat lighter colour. Its appearance and con-
sistency thus dried is like that of thin cakes of glue, and
it requires three or four days soaking in water before it
can be made into soup, the processes of drying and soak-
‘ing taking from it nothing of its real nutriment or
flavour.

It is not the largest turtle which are the best for eat-
ing. Those of 10 to 25 lbs. are the most esteemed. “In
this respect,” says Audubon, at the Tortugas, “I could
have had one weighing 700 lbs. for very little more than
another weighing but 50 lbs. To every person of taste,
there is not a meal to be compared to that of a turtle of
10 lbs. well dressed.” It is said the flesh of the females
is preferable to that of the males, but they are generally
lean after depositing their eggs.

The flesh of the turtle is more or less green in dif-
ferent localities, and at various stages. Professor Dume-
ril distinguishes four varieties of the green or edible
turtle, according to certain colorations of the shell; but
these distinctions are not regarded by those who collect
and eat them.

The English markets are principally supplied with
turtles from the West Indies; about 200 are sent annu-
.ally from Honduras; but the high price of the article

230 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

would seem to indicate either that the natural supplies:
are not equal to the demand, or that the methods adopted
for catching and sending over the produce, are not of
the most economical kind. The turtles from which:
the highly-prized soup is made are sent over to this.
country in three different ways: either alive, or sun--
dried, or preserved in tins like the Australian tinned
meats. In all three branches the industry is capable of
great extension, not only in the West Indies, but in Fiji,
North Australia, and probably in other of our tropical
or sub-tropical colonies. The market price of sun-dried
Jamaica turtle is about 8s. per lb., while a tin of pre--
served fat costs 4s. or 5s., and a small tin of soup ready
for consumption as much as half a guinea. These prices:
must be very remunerative to either the producer or the
middleman. Considering the little difficulty there is in:
catching these reptiles, which have only to be turned on.
their backs as they come to the surface or reach the.
shore, and considering the numbers in which they exist
on the submarine plateaux off the shores of the numerous-
islands and continents within the tropics, the supply of
turtles ought to be both regular and abundant; while as
they may be kept alive for a long time with nothing to-
eat and without requiring any great attention, no branch
of the fishing industry could well be more profitable.
Turtles are getting scarce in the Indian seas. They:
should be protected more than they are. Colonel Dove-
ton, in his “ History of the Burmese War,” states when
scurvy broke out among the troops, a ship was sent ex-
pressly to Diamond Island, at the mouth of the Bassan.
River, Pegu, for a cargo of live turtle :—“ The flesh was
served out to the troops by the commissariat by the-
pound, as beef or pork. We usually dressed it like a.
beef-steak, which it much resembled, both in taste and
appearance. What fell to my share was wanting neither
in eggs nor green fat, though I suspect these dainty
adjuncts were not duly appreciated by many of us, in
the absence of those condiments so requisite for serving:
up the dish in the true aldermanic style.” Ten years.

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD, 231

ago boats’ loads of turtle eggs were taken to Moulmein ;
now a man thinks himself lucky to get a few small
basketfuls, The turtle eggeries are sold by auction in
the same manner as fisheries.

Thalassochelys corticata is sold as coarse food in the
‘markets of Southern Italy.

The long necked tortoise (Chelodina longicollis) is found
in considerable numbers in the Murray River, and its
tributaries, Australia. It affords food to the natives,
especially during the summer, when the lagoons are dry,
as it can then be procured in large numbers without
difficulty.

The Zestudo lutaria is found about the Ganges. They
are 18 inches in diameter, and weigh from thirty to forty
pounds when full grown. They are only eaten by the
lower orders, being a dirty, omnivorous sort of animal.

The flesh of the Tyrse, or soft-shelled tortoise of the
Nile, is considered good food. That of the loggerhead,
or hawk’s-bill turtle (Caretta imbricata), is tasteless, and
considered unhealthy. The eggs are used for food, and
the oil obtained from the flesh is used in the preparation
of leather, etc.

Dr. Browne (“ History of Jamaica”) states he tasted
the flesh of the loggerhead turtle, which agreed pretty
well with his stomach; it was fat and rich, but of a
strong rank fishy taste.

The flesh of Sphargis luth is said to be excellent.

We know not why the flesh of the vegetable-feeding
tortoises should not be adopted, as well as that of the
green turtle, among the various articles which are in
request for the table. There is much in habit and asso-
ciation of ideas; and though persons who would not
refuse turtle might turn from tortoise with disgust, they,
may rest assured that, in Sicily and Italy, these land
tortoises are sold in the markets principally for being
made into soup, which is more esteemed than the flesh
prepared in any other way.

Having dealt somewhat in detail with the Tortoises,
we come now to treat of some other reptiles, Alligators,

232 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Snakes, and Amphibians, whose flesh furnishes food to
different people.

Crocodiles are highly valued in their native countries
on account of their flesh and excellent eggs. Herodotus
speaks with favour of the huge giants of Elephantine
on the Upper Nile, where they are still caught with an°
angle and universally eaten, in spite of their strong
musky odour. Even the alligator of the Southern States
of America is by no means despised, and finds ready
acceptance as food with the negroes and some white
people.

Dr. Holbrook states that he found the flesh of the alli-
gator tolerable eating, although Catesby considered its
peculiar taste and odour disagreeable.

In Guiana the negroes do not disdain to eat the
flesh of the caiman, or alligator, which is white but
hard, and of a musky flavour. The alligator forms the
chief food of the Indians of Brazil. The flesh is said to
be like veal, and good eating.

In Siam the crocodile attains a length of 25 feet, with
a voracity proportioned to its size. Its flesh is sold for
food in the markets and bazaars. Pallegoix (“Siam,”
vol. i, p. 174) says :—‘ Un jour je vis plus de cinquante
crocodiles, petits et grands, attachés aux colonnes de
leurs maisons. Ils vendent la chair comme on vendrait
de la chair de pore, mais & bien meilleur marché.”

The flesh of the Nile crocodile (Crocodilus niloticus)
is eaten by the negroes.

In Dongola the crocodile (C. vulgaris) is caught for
the sake of its flesh, which is regarded as a delicacy.
The flesh and fat are eaten by the Berberines, who con-
sider these excellent, but both have a strong smell of
musk. Dr. Madden tells us that in Egypt he tasted a
piece of young crocodile broiled. The flavour a good
deal resembled that of a lobster, and, though somewhat
tough, it might certainly be considered very excellent
food.

Crocodiles are very abundant in many parts of Africa.
They are found in nearly all the rivers east of the Um-

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 233

zimvoobo in South Africa, and swarm especially in the
waters running into Lake N’gami. The flesh has the
appearance of veal and forms a royal repast for the
natives.

A correspondent of the Globe, in December, 1881,
writes of crocodile steaks :—* Some years ago, I, in com-
pany with others, was sent 400 miles up the Zambesi
and Shire Rivers, in Central Africa. We were short of
food ; for a drought prevailed, and the domestic animals
of the country had been eaten up. One of our party
killed and landed a crocodile, and left it for the benefit
of the starving natives. But I was caterer for our little
community, and, unknown to my friends, cut from the
tail of this creature two fine steaks. At dinner they
were served up nicely broiled, and they looked nice.
‘Hullo! what have you got there?’ said one. ‘ Eat,
and be thankful, and ask no questions,’ said I, handing
him a portion. I served out to others also, and then
helped myself, and it seemed to me something like tough
pork that had been fattened on fish. ‘It is not so bad’
was the general testimony. ‘But what is it?’ one and
all demanded. ‘Crocodile, said J. The effect of pre-
judice upon the palate and the appetite was instantly
manifested. One left the table, looking pale; another,
the doctor, remembered that it was a reptile, and laid
down his knife and fork; another thrust his plate from
him in disgust; and, with the exception of myself, no
one did justice to the provision. Well, it was tough,
greasy, and fishy. Very hungry, one might eat it and
be glad. Otherwise, I think very few would care for it.
We did not try it again.”

The flesh of the alligator was a favourite dish among
the Port Essington settlers, and the seamen employed
in the surveys of the northern coasts and rivers of
Australia. It is, however, believed to have a strong
liking for human flesh when that delicacy can safely
be obtained.

Mr. Henry Koster, author of “Travels in Brazil,”
writes :—“I have been much blamed by my friends for

234 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

not having eaten of the flesh of the alligator, and in-
deed I felt a little ashamed of my squeamishness when
I was shown by the same friend a passage in a French
writer, whose name I forget, in which he speaks favour-
ably of this flesh, However, if the advocate for ex-
perimental eating had seen an alligator cut into slices,
he would, I think, have turned from the sight as quickly
as I did.”

Waterton, speaking of his negro Quashi, says, “ He
had a brave stomach for heterogeneous food; it could
digest and relish too, cayman, monkies, hawks and
grubs. He made three or four meals off a cayman,
while it was not absolutely putrid, and salted the rest.”
A cayman boiled was found sweet and tender, and
Waterton remarks, he does not see why it should not be
as good as frog or veal.

The Rev. Mr. Haensel, in his ‘Letters on the Nicobar
Islands,” tells us that “Part of the flesh of the crocodile
or cayman is good and wholesome when well cooked.
It tastes somewhat like pork, for which I took it, and
ate it with much relish when I first came to Nancan-
weny, till on inquiry, finding it to be the flesh of a
beast so disgusting and horrible in its appearance and
habits, I felt a loathing, which I could never overcome;
but it is eaten by both natives and Europeans.”

The aboriginal natives of Trinidad considered a boiled
slice of alligator as a dainty morsel, and Mr. Joseph, the
historian, records having tasted it, and found it very
palatable.

The Indians relish the white and savoury flesh of the
yecaré, as it is called in South America, the spectacled
cayman (Alligator sclerops) although it is dry and coarse.
The flesh and fat are occasionally eaten by natives in
Africa and other parts.

Alligators are killed in large numbers in the South
American lakes and parts of the River Amazon for
their fat. Mr. Wallace, in describing an alligator hunt
on the lakes of Mesiana, an island lying off the mouth
of the Amazon, states that about eighty were killed in

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 235

two days. They are cut open, and the fat, which ac-
cumulates in considerable quantities about the intestines,
is removed, and made up into packets in the skins of
the smaller ones, taken off for the purpose. The fat is
boiled down into oil and burned in lamps. It has rather
a disagreeable smell, but not worse than train oil.

These various products render this animal much more
valuable than it was supposed to be in the days of
Romeo, when starved apothecaries, to show that learning
and not beef was their aliment, hung up in their
“meagre repertories ” alligators stuffed.

Leaving the Reptiles we come now to Lizards and
Snakes, which one would suppose to be the least accept-
able of flesh food.

Lacerta.—Lizards are eaten by the natives of New
Zealand, and the great Cyclodus (C. gigas, Bodd.) is
prized by the Australian natives as a choice article of
food. Lizards are dried and sent in packages to be
used by the Chinese physicians in their practice.

The larger kind of lizards seem to have disappeared
from parts of New Zealand. They appear tv have been
eaten in former times by the Maories. The Rev. J. W.
Stack, in a paper in the “Transactions of the New Zea-
land Institute,” records the following anecdote.

“ Hakopa, a well-known Kaiapoi chief, who was taken
prisoner by Te Rauparata, and spared on account of his
great valour, while in captivity at Otaki, was invited
one day by his masters to share the afternoon meal.
When seated by the basket containing the food, his
master asked him whether he would have some fish.
‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘but where did you obtain it?’ ‘Ask
no questions,’ was the answer, ‘taste and see how you
like it.’ He did taste it, and found it very good. When
the meal was over his master told him he had eaten the
flesh of a lizard.”

He often joined afterwards in lizard hunts, when as.
many as forty were sometimes caught and eaten.

Kelaart says that the natives of Ceylon are partial to
the flesh of the common Indian water lizard (Monitor

‘286 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

[ Varanus] dracaena) and he once ate some excellent soup
made from a guana, which tasted like hare. At Trin-
comalee they used to be hunted down by dogs, and sold
in the market. Another monitor is also eaten in the
East, Hydrosaurus salwator. The lowest castes of Hindoos
capture these lizards by digging them out of their bur-
rows on the banks of rivers for the sake of their flesh,
which is greatly relished by these people. Some indivi-
duals attain to nearly seven feet in length.*

The meat of the Amblyrhyncus subcristatus, Mr. Darwin
tells us, when cooked is white, and by those whose
‘stomachs rise above all prejudices it is relished as very
good food. Humboldt has remarked that in inter-
tropical South America all lizards which inhabit dry
regions are estimated delicacies for the table. The eggs
of these animals, which are numerous, large and oval,
are esteemed by the inhabitants of the Gallapagos islands
as food.

Many of the lizard race, as the Iguana delicatissima
have long held and still maintain a high rank as articles’
of luxury for the table; and the flesh and eggs of the
common Teguixin, a large species, of Brazil and other
parts of South America, are eaten.

The Salempenta (Teiws Teguexin, Linn.) of South
America, is a large species of lizard. Like the iguana, it
affords very delicious food, which is thought to resemble
the flesh of a very young chicken. New comers are at
first averse to eating a lizard of any description, but they
very soon find out their mistake, and would even prefer
an iguana or salampenta cutlet to a chicken.t

The ugly looking large tree lizard called the Iguana,
which is like an alligator in miniature, is certainly not
very attractive in appearance, and yet by most persons
in tropical countries its flesh is highly esteemed, being
reckoned as delicate as chicken, and but little inferior to
turtle in flavour. The eggs, which are somewhat smaller

* Cassell’s “ Natural History.”
+ Waterton’s “ Wanderings in South America.”

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 237

than those of the domestic pigeon, are pronounced by
Sir Robert Schomburgk and others to be delicious.
These are deserving the attention of gourmands. One
of these lizards will sometimes contain as many as four
score eggs, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, but with
soft shells, which when. boiled are like marrow. It.
would be a refreshing sight to see some civic dignitary
who has gone the round of all the dishes which native:
and foreign skill have been able to produce, partaking:
for the first time of a dish of lizard’s eggs garnished
with anchovies.

The incessant destruction of the iguanas, for the sake-
of their flesh, has rendered them very scarce, if not alto-.
gether extinct in localities where they were once abun-
dant. They were formerly so common on the Bahamas.
Islands, that Catesby tells us they furnished a great part.
of the subsistence of the inhabitants. They used to put
them into the holds of the sloops and carry them alive
for sale to Carolina, or salt and barrel them up for the
use of their families at home. Browne, in his “ Natural
History of Jamaica,” says, “The flesh of this creature
is liked by many people, and frequently served up in
fricassees, at their tables, in which state it is often pre-
ferred to the best fowls.”

Iguanas are eaten in Brazil and Trinidad ; indeed, we
find these reptiles are eagerly hunted for food by the
natives alike of Africa, Australia, America, and Asia.

Iguanas are very large and plentiful in the Bahamas.
group; they are hunted with a small kind of hound,
and if taken alive, the mouth is sewed up with twine
and they keep alive a month or six weeks without food.
Nassau the capital is chiefly supplied with the iguana
from the Berry Islands. This reptile is reported to be
particularly plentiful in the Island of St. Vincent, and
one was measured nearly ten feet from nose tip to tail
end, the body being nearly as thick as that of a man.
They do not usually, however, attain such dimensions.
This lizard subsists on vegetables, earth-worms, and
insects.

238 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

In Costa Rica the large iguanas attain the size of
small crocodiles, and form a game which the people of
the country highly prize. Although often roasted, a
frequent native mode is to boil them, taking out the
leaves of fat, which are melted and clarified, and put
into a calabash or dish, into which they drop the flesh
of the iguana as they eat it. The iguana and white-
throated monitor (Monitor albogularis, Daud.) are some-
times employed as food at the Cape Colony, but their
flesh, though white, is there thought to be dry and
insipid.

The large saurian, Cyclure pectine (confounded with the
iguana), is often eaten in warm countries. The flesh is,
white, tender, and very savoury; the tail and the lum-
bar regions have a fine flavour like eel, which Mr. Alfred
Duges, of Mexico, says he has also tasted in the rattle-
snake (Crotalus rhombiferus) and the Pityophis of Deppe,
ophidians which attain a sufficient size to be served with
white sauce like a fowl.

It was long before the Spaniards could conquer their
repugnance to the iguana, the favourite delicacy of the
Indians, but which the former had regarded with disgust,
as a species of serpent. They found it, however, to be
highly palatable and delicate, and from that time forward,
the iguana was held in repute among Spanish epicures.
The story is thus related by Peter Martyn :—*“ These
serpentes are lyke unto crocodiles, saving in bygness;
they call them guanas. Unto that day none of owre
men durste adventure to taste them, by reason of theyre
horrible deformitie and lothsomnes. Yet the Adlantado
being entysed by the pleasantnes of the king’s sister
Anacaona, determined to taste the serpentes. But when
he felte the flesh thereof to be so delycate to his tongue,
set to amayne without al feare. The which theyre com-
panions perceiving, were not behynde hym in greedy-
nesse ; insomuche that they had now none other talke
than of the sweetnesse of these serpentes, which they
affirm to be of more pleasant taste than eyther our
phesantes or partriches.”

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 239

Ophidians.—We now come to snakes and serpents, which
‘ one would suppose to be even more repulsive and ob-
jectionable as food than alligators and lizards, but tastes
differ, and we are told of an innkeeper in some tropical
country who used to inquire of his guests which they
would have served, land eels or water eels. Snakes are
frequently, however,-eaten by civilised and savage man,
but not always from choice. Seeing the loss of human
life occasioned by snakes, any means of destroying them
is useful. Official accounts state that 19,519 persons
were killed by snakes in India in 1882, and 3,000 by wild
animals; 212,776 snakes were killed in 1880, and 59,488
in 1882.

Mr. Frank Buckland tells us that he once ate a piece of
a boa-constrictor ; it tasted, he says, like veal, the flesh
being exceedingly white and firm. A narrative in the
“Penny Magazine” describes a supper off fried rattle-
snake, which was served up under the name of “ Musical
Jack.” The flesh of serpents was held in high repute
by the ancients medicinally, and when properly prepared.
seems to have been a very agreeable article of food,
corresponding with the turtle soup of the present day.
Vipers are much used on the Continent, whether for
food or for medicine, I cannot tell. The Italians,
however, regale themselves with a jelly made of stewed
vipers.

There is a large edible snake spoken of as found in
Kiang-se, China, which being dried and smoked is pared
off in thin slices, like smoked beef, and is found a con-
venient condiment by travellers. Several kinds of snake
wines are sold in the apothecaries’ shops, and used in
palsy. The snake thus employed appears to be peculiar
to the mountains of Kiang-se. To assure purchasers that
the article is genuine, a strip of the skin of the animal is
fastened to the top of the containing vessel. This wine
is in high esteem as an anthelmintic, and is an antidote
to malaria. Wulu,on the Yang-tse, produces a snake
wine which is in high repute. An adder wine is also
used in paralysis and insanity.

240 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Sea snakes (Hydrophide) are eaten by the inhabitants
of some of the countries on whose shores they are found.

The Indians of Western Nevada eat snakes of different.
kinds. The reptile is, while yet alive, impaled length-
wise on a stick, and held writhing over the fire until.
broiled.*

Browne in his “History of Jamaica” tells us (p. 461)
that “many of the negroes eat the yellow snakes, and
look upon them as a rich and delicious food; but they
generally preserve the fat, which is considered as @
good resolutive, and highly recommended for such
purposes.”

In an account of Jamaica, published in 1683, it is
related that “the snakes were eaten by the Indians as
recularly as the guanas by the Spaniards. The latter
is but small, and of the shape of an alligator; the
flesh is sweet and tender.” Many lizards are sought.
for on trees, and in their holes in the sand by the
borders of moors.

McFarlane in his “Southern Italy” says :—* Although
no Roman or Neapolitan peasant will eat of a tame
goose, I have seen great black snakes fried and eaten
both in Calabria and Sicily to this day. Celsus recom-
mends vipers as wholesome and luscious ; in China they
are salted and pickled. The lizards of the American
Continent are a most delicate dish, and not long since
the leguana of the Antilles was brought in large num-
bers to South Carolina. At home they are raised and
fattened upon chicory and rice. Snakes also find a.
ready market in Eastern countries. The giant snake of
Java, well nigh ten feet long and of the thickness of a.
man’s arm, infests the pepper plantations, and its venom
is fatal; still it is caught and eaten with relish. The
huge boa-constrictor is said to furnish an exceedingly
fat meat, and the negroes of its native country prefer it.
to the daintiest food of the white man. The anaconda.
of Brazil supplies the table of the poor, though the

%* §. Powers, in “Smithsonian Report for 1876,” p. 453.

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD, 241

Portuguese only use the rich fat it contains. The
natives of South America eat almost all snakes, and
the far West has taught many a fastidious palate from
over the sea to relish, with the Red Indian, the fatal
rattlesnake.”

Kaempfer tell us that snakes are eaten in Japan, and
Anderson states that the Battus of Sumali, in Africa, eat
snakes and alligators.

The flesh and skin of several serpents is employed in
China as medicine, care being taken to cut off the head
and tail, where it is supposed their poison accumulates.

A kind of adder, 8 or 10 feet long, is eaten by the
people, although it is believed to be rather poisonous.

A species of serpent from one to three feet long is
caught, and after being gutted and washed is shaped into
a circle with bamboo pins and dried on a slow fire. It
is made into medicine.

The San Francisco Bulletin remarks :—“ The ingredients
of a witch’s cauldron, as described by the poet, could not
have been more repulsively disgusting than are the
articles and compounds shipped to the Chinese physi-
cians of this city from their native country and used as
medicines here. There seems to be just at the present
time an extra demand for a venomous serpent closely
resembling the rattlesnake, of which hundreds are
received constantly. A Custom House official brought
a specimen of these cheerful looking creatures to this
office yesterday —a coiled snake of about four feet long,
fanged, and with hideous head scales like a crest. How
these animals are taken by patients of Chinese doctors
is not known. One would be a fair dose if disguised in
a coating of sugar. They are to be taken in sections
three times a day, as they are desiccated, or they may be
boiled down or pulverised, and taken in powders or
rolled into pills.”

Among the Amphibians we have Frogs, the Salamander,
and Axolotl utilised. Frogs are eaten in many countries,
not only in France and the United States, but also in
South America, China, and the Indian Archipelago. The

R

242 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

species most esteemed is the green frog (Rana esculenta),
but others are eaten, as R. Catesbiana and R. clamitans.
Frogs are considered an excellent food dish by some in
Brazil. The American green frog (Rana halecina), is
eaten in Guatemala. The Indians catch them to eat,
spearing the larger ones, and netting the larve. Tn
Surinam and other parts of South America the flesh of
Rana paradoxa iseaten. In the Antilles bull frogs (Rana
pipiens) are reared in a state of domestication for the table,
and the hind legs are said to afford excellent eating.

The matlametlo of the Africans (Tomoptera adspersa)
is edible, and according to Dr. Livingstone, is said to
resemble chicken in flavour.

It is usual to associate frog-eating with Frenchmen,
as the people of that nation were, without doubt, the
first to make use of them as a table dish, and to intro-
duce them to the epicures of other countries, who were
not long in acquiring an appetite for these dainties, and
soon grew as fond of them as their neighbour. It is
more than three hundred years since they were first
placed among the dishes at the nobles’ feasts, and the
favour which they found has been continually increasing
until now, when they are used as food in nearly all
the countries of Europe and America.

The frog, as an article of food, has not, however, been
introduced in the London Market. We have not yet
thought of this way of manifesting the friendly feelings
and intimate union existing between England and France.
We have adopted many French tastes and customs, but
the frog must hop about a little longer before it can
mount on the table of the average Englishman. He has,
however, his eye upon us, and we shall have to eat him
yet. He has tempted successfully our cousin ; how can
we hope to resist much longer ?

The New York Times intorms us that froge are now
inscribed daily on the bills of fare of the most prominent
restaurants of that city, and are becoming a favourite
dish among the epicures and gourmands whose purses
correspond to their tastes. What can be more emphatic

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 243

than this? Not only do the Americans eat the frog, but
they pay a high price for the privilege. These are our
cousins who are thus distinguishing themselves by their
adventurous spirit. They were allied to France in the
time of Lafayette—before we were—and they are the
first to eat the frog.

The physicians of Europe early made use of the
‘nutritious properties of the flesh of the frog in their
practice, prescribing it generally in the shape of broth
for various affections of the chest, and particularly con-
sumption. This practice is still in vogue throughout the
sparsely-settled districts of North America, and in the
Western States it is a common occurrence for those who
are affected with diseases of the chest to live on a frog
diet. Frogs cooked in oil and salt were considered by
the ancients an excellent antidote to the poison of ser-
pents, and when boiled in vinegar were used as a remedy
for the toothache.

Of the dozen or more varieties common to the United
States and Europe, only a few are considered edible
and used as food by man. The celebrated edible,
or green frog of Europe, which naturalists call Rana
esculenta, is the greatest favourite and the most sought
after in the European countries. In the United States
the species called bull-frogs or shad-frogs, are about
the only kinds that are used for culinary purposes.
The European edible frog is of a bright green colour
above, with round circumscribed black spots, a light
coloured line along the back, and of a yellowish colour
underneath. The American bull-frog is familiar to almost
every one who has been in the tropics, and somewhat
resembles the common European frog.

As a general rule, only the hindquarters of the frog
are eaten, but in Germany every part, with the exception
of the intestines and skin, is made use of asfood. Many
persons will not eat frogs, believing that they are un-
clean, yet they have no hesitation in partaking of crabs
or lobsters that feed upon the refuse animal matter which
they find in the water. The flesh of the frog is very white

R 2

244 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

and tender, nutritious and delicately flavoured, and when
nicely cooked is one of the most dainty dishes that the
gustatory sense of an epicure could desire, surpassing in
flavour any of fish, flesh, or fowl. They are cooked
in various ways, in all of which their extreme delicacy is
apparent. They can be made into a broth, fried, stewed,
or fricasseed, as the eater may desire; but most people
who eat them prefer to have them fried. The manner in
which they are fried at the prominent American restau-
rants is very simple. The legs, after being well skinned,
are parboiled for about five minutes in slightly salted
water ; they are then plunged into cold water for a few
minutes, and are taken out to drain, after which they
are placed in a hot pan and fried in the usual way. The
broth can be made in the same way as chicken or beef
broth.

The marshes between Detroit and Lake St. Clair in
North America are the resort of millions of frogs ; and it
is asserted that more frogs are sold in Detroit than in
any other city of its size. During the frog season heavy
shipments are made to New York, Boston, and other
Eastern cities. The Free Press, which pronounces the
commercial frog as suspicious as a wolf, as wild as a deer,
and as shrewd as a fox, describes the work of frog
hunting as follows :—

“ Most of the frogs are caught for this market by men.
One or two boys have some fame as successful frog
catchers, but it has been demonstrated that the average
boy lacks the necessary qualifications to make the busi-
ness of any profit to him. We know of one old fisher-
man and hunter who has followed the frog catching
business for the last twelve years, and he has sometimes
made it pay as high as 15 doHars per week. While there
is only one way of killing a goose there are several ways
of killing a frog. Frog hunting would be a great finan-
cial success if the jumpers would take a seat on a log
and permit aman to walk up and crack ’em over the
head with a club, but the frog is utterly opposed to any
such proceeding. His eagle eye detects the enemy afar

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 245

off, and the approach must be cautious. The outfit con-
sists of a frog spear, a hook and line, a fish pole with a
pointed iron in the end, and sometimes a small shot gun
is taken along. First discover your frog. He may be
sitting on a log ten feet from shore. He feels quite safe
at that distance and will probably wait for developments.
The hook and line can be used here. The line is stout
and the hook big enough to hold a twenty pound bass.
The idea is to fish for the frog without bait. A careful
hand will manceuvre the line until the hook is under the
frog’s throat, and then a sudden jerk takes him off his
meditative roost and gives him into the power of his
enemy. The spear, which is provided with a long handle,
can sometimes be used, though a frog will dodge a sudden
thrust as quick as a pickerel. If the shot gun is used it
is with a light charge of powder and very fine shot, and
the head is the point aimed at. Some of the froggers
work the banks and are provided with boats, but success
depends a good deal on circumstances. A good hunter
has been known to bag 200 frogs per day, but three or
four dozen legs are called a fair day’s catch. A frog will
probably live ten or fifteen years if steering clear of acci-
dents. They are not worth catching until they are two
years old, and are not “prime” until they reach the age
of five. A frog sees his palmy days from five to ten.
Before reaching five he is giddy and thoughtless. After
that he settles down to a life of ease and contentment,
and the days come and go and leave him no sorrow.
Frogs have been caught in the St. Clair marshes weigh-
ing as high as seven pounds and having legs almost like
drumsticks. One was caught at the head of Belle Isle
two years ago which kicked the beam at nine, and one
weighing only half a pound less was on exhibition at the
Central Market last spring.”

In America the season for frogs extends from March
until November. They are in the best condition for table
use in the fall, just before going into winter quarters,
although more are eaten in the spring and early part of
the summer, because they can be caught much easier at

246 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

this season of the year. They are taken sometimes by
beating them with long poles as they sit on the banks of
the streams and ponds. The extreme voracity of the
frog is easily taken advantage of, as it will leap after and
seize almost anything that floats on the waters near the
banks, having the appearance of life, and in motion. A
hook and line, baited with an insect, or covered with a
piece of red flannel, serves as a good tempter to the frog,
who will generally seize it without hesitation or diffi-
culty. After being caught, they are preserved in large
frog ponds, or froggeries, as they are called, until they
are required for the market. There are a number of
these froggeries on Long Island, in Westchester county,
and in New Jersey, from whence the city markets are sup-
plied. The proprietors of these froggeries send the frogs
to market at regular intervals, and they are kept alive
until the customers purchase them. The principal places
where they are sold in quantities in New York city are
Fulton, Catherine, and Washington markets, where they
can be obtained from a number of dealers. The prices
range from 50 cents to 2 dollars per dozen, according to
the size, appearance, and quality; but when they reach
the restaurants their value becomes much greater, de-
pending upon the purses and appetites of the customers.
Several of the hotels and large restaurants are supplied
directly from the froggeries, and do not purchase from
the market dealers, but the majority obtain them from
the marketmen as their demands require them.

A correspondent in a Troy newspaper states that he
watched two men catching frogs in a swamp. “They
would strike them with clubs where they could reach
them, but most of them they caught with a wire snare.
They had a large basketful, more than a hundred pounds
in weight. One of them said he made a good deal of
money catching frogs for the New York market, having
in one month last season caught 1,600 lbs. of dressed
frogs, for which he got 30 cents a pound, making 480 .
dollars for his month’s work. Part of the time he had
two boys to help him. One week, near Hudson, he

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 247

caught upwards of 500 lbs., and sold them for 160 dollars,
or at an average of 22 cents a pound. These stories
seemed to me incredible, and yet he assured me it
was truth. He can clear 28 cents a pound, he says,
easily. He seemed to be an honest man, and from
the ease with which they caught the frogs, I was led
to believe that he had not stretched the truth much, if
at all.”

The question whether any four-legged creature can
properly be described as a fish may not at first sight
seem very debateable, and yet it has occupied for some
time past the serious attention of certain transatlantic
authorities. The discussion arose out of a rather curious
trade which has been going on for years between Canada
and the cities of the Republic. Our American cousins
have, as it seems, quite got over those prejudices which
in this benighted island still militate against the admis-
sion of frogs to the cuisine, and they are now so fond of
the delicacy which was once considered the distinctive
food of Frenchmen, that the produce of their own ponds
and ditches does not suffice for the demands of the
market. Accordingly, the Canadians, whose waters seem
to be specially prolific in these creatures, have been driving
a large and flourishing trade with the towns across the
border, and especially with New York, in supplying
them with the edible parts of the frog, which until lately
were transported free of Customs duty under the designa-
tion of “ Canadian fish.” Some official busybody at last
found fault with this easy-going definition, and claimed
duty on the imports; and the Treasury on appeal decided
that frogs are not Canadian fish within the meaning
of the Washington Treaty, and therefore are not free of
Customs duty. The Canadians were, however, not dis-
couraged, and possibly may have thought that as the
mummy of a Pharaoh travelled under the name of salt
fish in Egypt, so a dead frog might fairly be allowed to
travel in America as fresh fish. As “fresh fish destined
for immediate consumption” they accordingly essayed
to pass their valuable commodities, but without success,

248 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

as the Secretary of the Treasury at Washington has
again rejected their claim. Still the exporters are not
convinced, and are now hoping to get. their goods ad-
mitted as “fish to be used for bait,’ which is also
exempt by virtue of the treaty. So obstinate a con-
viction that the creature which “would a wooing go”
belongs to the tribe sometimes described as “ finny,”
seems to show that the distinction between beasts,
reptiles, and fishes is not quite so clear as naturalists
ought by this time to have made it.*

From a recent article in the St. James’s Gazette we
quote the following remarks:—“ De la Reyniére, in his
Annual for 1806, said frogs were only good in spring ;
and the late Mr. Dallas, in his ‘Book of the Table,’
copied this statement in 1877. It may have been true
that, as Lenten fare, they were formerly only seen on
Parisian tables during those forty days; but they are
decidedly at their best later on, and are essentially a
light summer dish. Indeed, the French gourmet we
have already quoted goes on to point out how in
Auvergne, one Simon of Riom had amassed a couple of
hundred thousand francs by serving them in fricassee all
the year round, at the price of three a penny. It is
absolutely impossible, says this enthusiastic gourmand,
to bring on an indigestion of frogs, no matter what
quantity you eat; and this fact is thought. to have
turned much to Simon’s advantage. He had such an
enormous custom that he could not afford to trust to
markets; and so he filled his cellars with tanks, his
tanks with water, and the water with the ‘ pretty little
things;’ and there fed and fattened them, and fricasseed
and sold them, until he distanced all competition. And
although he went by the nickname of ‘Old Simon the
Frog, and although, too, his surname—as we believe on
the word of Hebrew scholars—means snub-nosed, neither
he nor any of his customers had cause to turn up their
noses at frogs, as too many do even at the present day.

* The Globe.

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 249

In his time people who drew the line at frogs put oysters
and snails too at the far side of it; ‘so voluntarily de-
priving themselves of three great pleasures,’ says De la
Reyniére. But the brave have shown the way to oysters,
and snails and frogs are now eaten in all parts of France
where vines flourish or have flourished, and reeds grow
in ponds.

“There are many ways of cooking a frog, or rather the
only joints of him that are eaten—namely, his hind-legs,
to which a portion of the back is left attached, chiefly to
hold those limbs together. Old Simon’s way is as good
as any. The edible portions should first be thrown into
plenty of fresh cold water to blanch; next, they should
be drained and dried; then put to soak awhile in white
of eggs well beaten up; now powder them over with
flour; and finally fry them in plenty of fine olive-oil
until they are crisp as ‘the whitebait of the Minister,
that treasure of the sea, and the bones are changed into
something so rich and strange that they melt in the
mouth. Add a lemon, red pepper, brown bread and
butter, to complete ‘the loaves and fishes’ illusion, and
say if a ‘ fricassée de grenouilles’ be not much easier to
eat than to pronounce, and a species of ‘small deer’ by
no means to be abandoned to Poor Tom. You can devil
them like the ‘bait, too, if you like; and they make a
tip-top curry. Or they fry well in batter ; or you stew
them in butter and white wine, with parsley and enough
garlic to swear by chopped up fine. But, no matter how
they be cooked, they are very pretty eating, and make a
delicious entrée—tenderer than the youngest chicken, and
still with a flavour and a velvety texture all their own.
There is a painful French proverb—‘il n’y a pas de
grenouille qui ne trouve son crapaud’—and it has a
dreadful double-edged explanation. It means that there
is no girl so—well, so unbeautiful that she cannot find
an uglier husband. We put something like it long ago
in a much prettier way when, in ‘ Froggy would a woo-
ing go, we sang, ‘A lily-white duck came and gobbled
him up. But, ugly or not, froggy ‘eats’ well; as we

250 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

shall all probably acknowledge some day when we have
sufficiently overcome our insular prejudice about him.”

At Paris there is a regular market held once a week
in the Rue Geoffroy St. Hilaire for the sale of this
Batrachian. The vendors bring their merchandise in
large casks pierced with holes, in which the frogs are
packed in hundreds in wet moss. They are sold, if of
good size, at 75 to 85 francs the hundred, a good
price for this wretched animal. Many are bought by
gardeners, as they are great destroyers of insects.

In France efforts are being made to prevent cruelty in
supplying this table delicacy. The Société Protectrice
des Animaux has issued a strong protest against the
present mode of providing frogs for the dinner table in
France. It appears that the poor creatures when caught,
have the upper part of their legs, or edible portion of
their bodies, ruthlessly cut off with a pair of shears.
The frogs in their mutilated state being useless, they are
thrown aside. Numbers of them are stated to have been
found eight or ten daysiafter their mutilation crawling
about on their forelegs in a pitiable condition. The
Society, therefore, recommends that some plan of killing
them in the first place should be adopted.

Many of the frogs brought to the markets in Paris are
caught in the stagnant waters round Montmorenci, in the
Bois de Vincennes, Bois de Boulogne, ete. The people
employed in this traffic separate the hind quarters and
legs of the frogs from the body, denude them of their
skin, arrange them on skewers, as larks are done in this
country, and then bring them in that state to market.
In seeking for frogs, these dealers often meet with toads,
which they do not reject, but prepare them in the same
way as they would frogs; and, as it is impossible to de-
termine whether the hind quarters of these creatures,
after the skin is stripped off, belong to frogs or toads, it
continually happens that great. numbers of the supposed
frogs sold in Paris for food are actually toads.

“The exportation of frogs from Belgium to France,”
says the Echo du Luaembourg, “has developed consider-

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 251

ably of late. A man named B., of Vance, has forwarded
200,000 in the last three weeks; on Thursday he sent
off 30,000. They are chiefly sent to Rheims, Nancy, and
Paris. A thousand frogs fetch 13 francs (10s. 6d.), and
weigh 50 kilogrammes(1cwt.). They enter France duty
free. At Rheims 25 pairs of frogs’ legs can be bought
for 60 centimes (6d.). .The thighs, as everyone knows,
(des. succulents rétis) are served with white sauce and in
a fricassee. They are thus a dish by no means to be
despised.” But the rest of the body, and the skin—the
sticky, slimy skin—what is done with that? Why
they make—turtle soup of it! Yes, that savoury mock
turtle over which gourmands lick their lips, has for
its chief foundation the amphibians which haunt the
marshes and the fields of Luxembourg. The autumn
and the spring are the best time of year for frogs. In
Vienna, where the consumption of frogs is considerable,
they are preserved alive and fattened in froggeries
(grenouilhéres) constructed for the express purpose.

Wallace, in his “ Travels on the Amazon,” states that
“his Indians went several times early in the morning
to the gapo to catch frogs, which they obtained in great
numbers, stringing them on a sipo, and boiling them
entire, entrails and all, and devoured them with much
gusto. The frogs are mottled of various colours, have
dilated toes, and are called jui.”

The large frog, or crapaud, of Dominica (Cystignathus
ocelatus), is a part of the dietary of the people of all
classes in that colony. According to Dr. Imray it is
very wholesome and much relished. It is much esteemed
as an article of food, the flesh when fricasseed ‘being
preferred to chicken, and made into soup, it is recom-
mended for the sick, especially in consumptive cases.
Its extensive destruction by the mischievous opossum
has been a great evil to the country, but its extermina-
tion would be a serious loss. Happily, however, it ap-
pears to be gaining ground of late, though it can never
abound as formerly, while the “ Manicou,” or opossum,
which feeds upon it, exists in the woods.

252 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Frogs are considered an excellent food dish by some
in Brazil. .

In America, the flesh of the huge bull-frog (Rana
pipiens, Harl.; RB. mugiens, Catesby) is said to be tender,
white, and affords excellent eating. Some bull-frogs
weigh as much as half a pound, but the hind legs are
the only parts used as food.

The natives of parts of Australia when pinched for
food, capture large numbers of the common golden tree
frog (Hyla aurea) by the light of a torch at night. Other
tribes in Western Australia eat a species that burrows
in the sand, the aboriginal name of which is Guya
a Goya. It is in season in the months of April and

ay.

There is also a frog called Tolun-jar, eaten about King
George’s Sound, and another called Tuck, from the noise
ae Thus the taste for this food extends to the

ast.

Mr. R. Fortune, in describing a Chinese market, ob-
serves :—“ Frogs seemed much in demand. They are
brought to market in tubs and baskets, and the vendor
employs himself in skinning them as he sits making
sales. He is extremely expert at this part of his busi-
ness. He takes up the frog in his left hand, and with a
knife, which he holds in his right, chops off the fore part
of itshead. The skin is then drawn back over the body
and down to the feet, which are chopped off and thrown
away. The poor frog, still alive, but headless, skinless,
and footless, is then thrown into another tub, and the
operation is repeated on the rest in the same way.
Every now and then the artist lays down his knife, and
takes up his scales to weigh these animals for his cus-
tomers, and make his sales. Everything in this civilised
country, whether it be gold or silver, geese or frogs, is
sold by weight.’ Rana tigrina is the frog eaten in
China.

Many kinds of toads are believed by the Chinese
to have medicinal properties. Dr. Soubeiran, in his
“Materia Medica of the Chinese,” states that several

REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 253

species of frogs are used by them. They prepare soups
with them, and a gelatine considered excellent for con-
valescents. A brown frog with black spots on the head
is especially esteemed for making broths and soups.

The eating of frogs seems to be indulged in in the
Philippines, for a traveller tells us that—

“ After the rains there may generally he procured, by
those who like them, frogs, which are taken from the
ditch round the walls in great numbers, and are then
fat and in good condition for eating, making a very
favourite curry with some of the Europeans, their flesh
being very tender.” (McMicking’s “ Manila.”)

Frogs are occasionally eaten also in Japan. .

The spotted salamander (Salamandra maculosa, Laur.)
is in high repute in China as an aphrodisiac, and is also
prescribed against epilepsy. The old Mexicans loved
the speckled salamander, and ate it with capsicum or
Spanish pepper ; the Spaniards learned the odd fashion,
and as late as the sixteenth century this ugly creature
was brought to their markets and roasted for the table.
The axolotl (Siredon Mexicanus, Shaw) is commonly sold
in the markets of Mexico, and dressed in the manner of
stewed eels, it is esteemed a great delicacy.

254 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

CHAPTER VIII.

Foop Propucts oF THE SE4A—SomE FisH
DELICACIES.

The Harvest of the Sea—Nutritive Value of Fish—The Office of
the Food Taster—A Chinese Fish Dinner—An American
Fish Dinner—Supply of Fish to London—Imports of Fish in
the United Kingdom—Supply of Birmingham, Dublin, etc.
—Imports of European States—Supply to New York—Com-
mercial Classification — The Cod Family — Statistics of the
Fisheries — Norwegian Fisheries — Capelin — Fish Flour and
Bread, Extracts, and Other Preparations — Fish Sauces —
Flat Fish—Soles, Turbot, Plaice, etc.—Herrings—Extent of
the Fisheries—Pilchards—Whitebait—Fish Supply of Paris
—Statistics of the French Fisheries—Sardines—Anchovies—
Skates — Mackerel — Mullet —Tunny—Conger Eels — Fresh
Water Eels—Large Consumption in Italy.

THERE is a great difference in the production of animal
food on land and in the sea. Poultry, game, and live
stock derive their food from the produce of the earth;
but the produce of the sea fisheries, whether fish, crus-
tacea, or shell fish, can be obtained in illimitable quan-
tities by the sole resources of the sea, and at little or no
expense to man. In respect of fish, no natural causes
prevent their co-existence, in the greatest abundance,
with man in the highest state of civilisation and refine-
ment, in the midst of the greatest agricultural and
manufacturing opulence.

The fishery has over agriculture one great advantage
—nature alone is charged with sowing the field which
the fisherman reaps. The products of the sea, like those
of the land, enter largely into the food resources of man.
The fisheries supply our markets for daily consumption,
and also furnish to commerce articles for export. The
fisheries have their regional coasts, which are regularly

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 255

fished, and their great seas which are explored, and have
the distinction applied according to the field worked, the
different means employed, and the capital required. It is
the coast or the sea fisheries, as we speak of small or large
farms, when treating of the soil. In the one case, it is
the nature of the banks or depths and the instincts of
the fish which have to be studied ; in the other, the com-
position of the earth and the requirements of plants.

This is found to be true at the present time in a
better appreciation of the grand industry of the waters,
as shown by the coining and adoption of two new words
now applied to the fisheries, aguwicudture and pisciculture.
Hence the fishery is the agriculture of the sea; and
science has now consecrated the use of this definition,
which is not new, but which had for a long time wanted
application.

Every sea and every marine shore has its special in-
habitants, and the main point is, to ascertain how far
these may be made to subserve the wants of man.

The number of savoury species of fish is so great, that
there are few persons so fastidious as not to be satisfied
with some one or more kinds of fish.

Man treats with carelessness and neglect a food supply
sufficient for the sustenance of millions—perhaps
hundreds of millions—of human lives. Enormous
quantities of food-fishes are given the go-by altogether.
Numberless species, which are both palatable and
nutritious, are left untouched.

That the sea and the lakes and the rivers already teem
with fish suitable for human food, and that vast districts
of the earth’s surface which are covered with water are
capable of being made fo produce food equal in nutri-
ment and money value to the product of the same num-
ber of acres of land, scarcely admits of a doubt Nearly
all the species of fish are edible, and those only are
refused which are absolutely poisonous, or the flesh of
which has a disagreeable flavour.

The value of fish as an article of food is very generally
under-estimated. In many parts of the world, and

256 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

especially along the northern shores of Europe, Asia, and
America, where vegetation is of the scantiest description,
fish forms the chief, if not the only, food of the in-
habitants.

Some pertinent remarks on fish supply were lately
made in the Lancet :—

“Whatever may be the nutritious value of fish as food
—and we believe that to be very great—it must be
evident that a full and cheap supply of fish would react
so as to produce a lowering of the price of butcher's
meat. The ‘purveyors, as they like to be called, are
encouraged, and, in truth, enabled, to keep up the price
of flesh because there is nothing to compete with it as a
staple of the common food of the people. A revival of
the old and healthy habit of living largely on fish would
place the meat supply on an entirely new footing. This
is manifest on the face of the facts; but what may not
be equally apparent, though it is scarcely less noteworthy,
is the consideration that nervous diseases and weak-
nesses increase in a country as the population comes to
live on the flesh of warm-blooded animals. This is a
point to which attention has not been adequately
directed. ‘Meat’—using that term in its popular sense
—is highly stimulating, and supplies proportionally
more exciting than actually nourishing pabulum to the
nervous system. The meat-eater lives at high pressure,
and is, or ought to be, a peculiarly active organism, like
a predatory animal, always on the alert, walking rapidly,
and consuming large quantities of oxygen, which are
imperatively necessary for the safe disposal of his dis-
assimilated material. In practice we find that the meat-
eater does not live up to the level of his food, and as a
consequence he cannot, or does not, take in enough
oxygen to satisfy the exigencies of his mode of life.
Thereupon follow many, if not most, of the ills to which
highly civilised and luxurious meat-eating classes are
liable. This is a physiological view of the food question,
and it has bearings on the question of fish supply which
ought not to be neglected.”

FOOD PRODUCTS OF. THE SEA—FISHES, 257

The prejudices of some people in regard to food are
curious. The celebrated Erasmus, though a native of
Rotterdam, had such an aversion to fish, that the smell
of it threw him into a fever. Ambrose Paré had a
patient who could never see an eel without fainting ;
and another who would fall into convulsions at the sight
of a carp. What would have been the effect of an
electric eel on these gentlemen? Joseph Scaliger and
others could never drink milk. Gardan was disgusted
at the sight of eggs.

Professor Atwater, of the Agricultural College of the
State of Connecticut, gives us: the following as the
relative nutritive value of fresh and prepared fish and
shell fish :—

Fisu (FRES1). Per Cent. of Nutritive
Edible Solids. Value.
Halibut... aie ive — 21°45 879
Flounder ae ae oe 5:97 82°4
Coda... ne ae ace TEAG — eesiees 68-2
Haddock as ne oot 888 lo... 749
Eels... ee es ase 22°50 weesee 95°6
Mackerel poe ue aR 1548 a... 90°9
Salmon ... are we aed oe! er 107°9
Salmon trout ... en ats 1438 a... 95:7
Brook trout... ise oe W777 aaa 84:2
White fish ite ae oe 13:69) waxes 1045
Smelt ... _ “ ane L251 asesse 73'8
Herring... ng oe ee LESS czesve 100°4
Turbot ... oe aan ics W6l oa... 84:4
PREPARED FISH AND INVERTEBRATES.
Boned cod wna av a 30°91 wa 1069
Salted cod aii aise se 20°45 seca 102°5
Smoked halibut siete oe 31°63 102°2
Smoked herring Sea Sees 2866 163-2
Canned salmon ahs ate 2995 esac 1072
Salt mackerel ... ne ss B09T —sswseie 1111
Lobsters — Ses eo E98 weensina 50:3
Scallops... sii wie awa WAT a. 68:8
Oysters ... ee oa at SO eacaids 21°8

It must be noted in this table that the percentage is
given of edible solids, zc., the actual amount of nutritive
s

258 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

materials in the samples analysed, as well as the nutri-
tive value. The nutritive value in all these cases is
therefore only that of the fish after bones and non-edible
parts have been removed. The fact makes all the dif-
ference in the world in a consideration of the nutritive
value of fish proportionately with that of other foods.
White fish, as an instance, is returned in the table a
nutritious value of 104°5, but this is only a value based
upon 13:69 of the whole fish. And herring, which is
returned as being a somewhat higher nutritive value
than medium beef, is seen, if allowance be made for the
consideration we have named, to be little more than one-
tenth as nourishing. Some other facts are noticeable in
this table. The small nutritive value of lobsters,
scallops, and oysters is remarkable. Oysters are com-
monly enough spoken of as being notably strengthening,
and having other special virtues. Yet here we find that
the nutritive value of this food is in point of fact less
than that of the same weight of milk.

The occupation of the food-taster is not yet extinct,
but it is now chiefly restricted to securing the safety of
monarchs of savage tribes.

The late Captain Pilkington, R.E., when at Lagos, on
the Western coast of Africa, some years ago, and visiting
its King, had practical demonstration of the custom much
to his disgust. '

Rising to take leave of the sable monarch, he asked
permission to bring fowls for an evening meal, upon which
the king promised to send him his supper. In due time
appeared a jet black man, carrying something on his
head, which he solemnly placed upon the table. It
proved to be the promised supper, in a tray covered with
a white cloth, which had obviously been just unfolded.
This fair promise of cleanliness prepared the captain’s
mind for a well served supper, which after his long
journey in the canoe, was no ungrateful anticipation.

“When uncovered by the bearer, a delicious looking
fish presented itself to view, which I eagerly surveyed
from side to side; but had scarcely expressed my entire

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 259

willingness to accept it, ere the cook resumed possession
of thé dish, stooped his head, and put out his huge
tongue, with the too evident intention of licking it from
head to tail. I interposed, of course, in great alarm,
and, seizing the dish with one hand, and his woolly head
-with the other, I struggled hard to prevent the execu-
tion of his foul design, which he, on the other hand,
seemed equally resolved to accomplish.

“The interpreter, who: had followed him, interposed
at length, saying,-imploringly, which heightened not a
little the comedy of the whole scene—

“Pray, Massa, let he lick the fish !’

“Oh no!’ I exclaimed, ‘I really will not.’

“<«Tf you do not, Massa, he no leave de fish !’

“Why so?’ said I, in undisguised astonishment.

“Cause, Massa, if you go dead, King will kill he, sup-
pose he no lick um, Massa.’

“«Oh,’ replied I, ‘I am not at all afraid ;.I know it is
not poisoned.’

“*No, no, Massa; cook won’t trust a dat, for you can
get sick in the night, may be you catch one cold, and you
die. Den King ask me, if cook lick de fish. Suppose I
say, No, King ; den King cut the cook’s head off’

“Seeing therefore, no alternative, I let go my hold,
consoling myself with the reflection that the other side
of the fish would be, at all events, free from this un-
gainly process; but Sir Cook had no sooner carefully
finished that side of the fish than he immediately pro-
ceeded to operate upon the other. In great dismay, I
turned from this exhibition, the strangers took their
leave, and when the gate had closed upon them, I pro-
ceeded, with the help of James, to strip the skin from
the devoted fish, and after making the best meal I was
able, retired to my basket bed.”

This same operation is performed upon every article
of food prepared for the King. The whole suspicious
process is the result of that tyranny which authorises
the odious traffic in slaves ; and the monarch who thus,
instead of being the protector of his subjects, betrays

82

260 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

them to the agony of expatriation and a servitude more:
terrible than death, finds the system in some degree
recoil upon himself, becoming the slave of his own fears,
and thus living in perpetual dread of poison or assas-
sination. :

Here is a way of cooking a fish to make it taste excel-.
lent, at least when you are camping out far-a-field, in
some distant quarter :—

“Take some nice clean clay and work it up a litile,.
then, without either scaling or dressing, plaster your fish
all over with the clay, about an inch thick, and put him
right into the hot ashes. When ’tis done the clay and
scales will all peel off, and you'll have a dish that would.
bring to life any starved man, if he hadn’t been dead
more thana week. That’s the ordinary way; but if
~you want an extra touch, cut a hole in him, and stick
in a piece of salt pork, or bear’s fat if come-at-able, and
a few beech nuts or the meat of walnuts, or butter nuts,
and you'd think you were eating a water angel.” *

The fish culturists, when in session at the Centennial
Exposition, in 1876, treated themselves, during their stay
in Philadelphia, to a fish dinner, which was certainly ex-
traordinary and unique in its way. The bill of fare em-
braced fifty-eight different kinds of fish, and in its en-
tirety is much too long for publication here. Some of the
delicacies, however, were remarkable. Under the head
of hors @euvres froids (the menu, by the way, was organised.
with the utmost elaboration) were Norwegian pollack
fish, Portuguese conger eel, and Spanish conger eel, with
tomatoes, Turkish botargo or mullet roe, Japanese shaki
or dried salmon, cray-fish from the Cape of Good Hope,
French tunny fish, Chinese white and black shark fins,
Alaska oulachans, Portuguese sword-fish and squid,
Russian caviare, Chinese dried fish-maws, and, most.
astonishing of all, “desiccated octopus eggs.” Noted
scientists were honoured. by having their names applied
to the various sauces. Thus there was filet of English soles

* Mayo’s Kaloolah.

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES, 261

4 la Buckland, sheepsheads with Agassiz sauce, aspic of
eels d da Huxley, and bisque of lobster, Seth Green style.
It was a memorable feast, and taxed the culinary skill of
‘the cooks at the Centennial to the utmost. One par-
ticular dish seems to have puzzled even the most in-
genious chefs, and that was kanten (Japanese seaweed)
-@ la Sekizawa Akekio. Theaid of the Japanese cook in
the employ of the Japanese Commission was at last in-
voked, and he proved equal to its toothsome prepara-
tion.

The bill of fare of a regular Mandarin supper given
‘by Sir Charles Macdonnell at Hong Kong in 1867 to the
Duc de Penthievre, the Comte de Beauvois, and some
other French gentlemen, contained the following items:
fish roe in sweet caramel sauce; shark’s fins in gelatinous
sauce; cakes of coagulated blood ; hashed dog with lotus
sauce; bird’s-nest soup; whale’s nerves with sweet
‘sauce; sturgeon’s gills in compote; croquettes of fish
and rat; shark’s fat soup; stewed sea snails with tad-
poles; and a sweet course composed of fish fins, fruit,
ham, almonds and essences.

Mr. J. Bertram published some ten years ago a work,
under the title of “The Harvest of the Sea” (London:
Murray); but it was more descriptive and theoretical
than practical, or useful as to details concerning the
general supply of fish, and was restricted to the British
food fishes. Mr. Buckland’s reports on the sea fisheries
of England and Wales were much more full and
important, and from these I have been able to quote
largely.

The fresh fish supply of London, in 1880, was thus
officially returned :—

Brought in by rail... ate ies ass 87,884 tons.
» | at the wharves avs aes 5,487 ,,
i by water ae iss tai 37,258,
130,629 ,,

‘The following table gives the sources whence drawn,

262 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

by rail or water, with a comparison of the quantity
received in 1875 :—

RETURN OF THE QUANTITY OF FiIsH DELIVERED AT BILLINGS--
GATE Market, oR 1TS IMMEDIATE VICINITY, IN 1875 AND 1880.

DELIVERED BY RAILWay.

1875. 1880.
Tons. Tons.
Great Western... igs we 93039 xecas . 6,724
Great Northern... _ w. 24,501 ...... 26,543
Great Eastern... eae ws ZOQTT wexese 30,381
South Western... wte 3506. ...c82 2,297 -
London, Chatham, and Dover ... 2,984 ...... 2,530
London and North Western... BATT we. 8,089
London and South Western... 1,663 ....... 1,623
London, BHEnONe & South Coast 1,094 ...... 605
Midland deste 1,076 ...... 9,092
71,367 ..... . 87,884
LANDED AT WHARVES.
General Steam Navigation Com.
pany (estimated) a serene : 2,580
Nicholson’s.. QI sscassa, 872
Bae Steam Navigation Com-
tsa iat dee | AGDOAS) sotaces 2,001
Millwall Dock ... eee oe OT axeeve 34
1,473... 5,487
Water-carriage Fish landed at the
Market ... a4 aioe, PAZ 109? cosrces 37,258
‘Torats.
Delivered by Railway... see TEBGT canexe 87,884
Landed at Wharves se 1473 oe 5,487
Water-carriage Fish landed at the
Market ... 22,109 ...... 37,258
94,949 ...... 130,629,

A reference to the monthly returns of the Fishmongers”
Company shows that the anyon of fish into London
have been as follows :-— -

Tons.
1882 (4 months to cas ies one eats 52,543,
1883 ave ac is ai «- 125,428

eee ome ae NE 20

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 263

The average imports seem to be about 11,000 tons per
month. The quantity of spoiled fish seized is propor-
tionately very small, only about 10,000 to 12,000 ewt.,
and the same of shell fish per month, except perhaps in
the exceptionally hot months of summer, when it may
reach a somewhat higher figure.

The total imports of fish into the United Kingdom
were in :—

Cwts. Value.
1861... wae eas B37,517 ——sesinns £376,561
1871... aia age 605,330... 711,295
1881 ... aes ane 1,530,219 = -wcwexs 2,332,605
1883... aw sc 1 "295, TDd — weaiet 2,311,966
1884 (Cured) .. ses "814, 648 a... 1, 493, 485

In 1883 we imported 427,826 cwt. of fresh fish not of
British take, valued at £522,445, and of cured or salted
fish 868,125 cwt., of the value of £1,773,027.

The supply of fresh fish to the London market does
not keep pace with the increase of population and wealth,
and may be said to be less by about 20,000 tons than what
it was ten years ago. It appears to be now about 130,000
tons in quantity; and as the largest portion of what is
caught on our coasts comes to London, the consumption
of fish is not as great as it might be if the fisheries were
better carried on, and the prices reduced by retailers,
instead of maintained, by frequently destroying whole-
some fish, rather than selling it below a certain price.

According to Mr. W. Smith Scott, fish-salesman of
Birmingham, about 100,000 tons of fish per annum
reaches that town for the use of its population and that
of the surrounding districts, which have a population
numbering about two millions. Deducting one-third for
weight of packages and waste, this leaves a little over
60,000 tons as food, or about twenty ounces per head of
the population: The heaviest weight is herrings and
mackerel and salmon from Ireland and Norway, the
Scotch salmon going principally to London and Man-
chester.

The sale of fish in Dublin, in 1878, was stated as
follows :—

264 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Value.
Salmon, 2,880 cwts. wae sia sis .. £16,128
Herrings, 19,920 mease ... aoe este sis 19,920

Mackerel, 4,900 packages oe ae Sis 4,900
Haddock and cod, 3,000 packages re wes 6,000

Eels, 1,000 packages... ec ait ai 1,500
Prime trawl fish, 2,304 hampers se ses 6,912
Offal, 8,856 hampers ate aay ants ses 8,856
Lobsters, crabs, shrimps, cockles, &c. ... see 1,500

£65,716

What is termed “ offal fish” by the dealers, are had-
docks, sprats, herrings, mackerel, skate, and perhaps
cod.

There is nearly double the quantity of fish brought
into Liverpool that used to be. The demand has in-
creased, and the supply has kept up with the demand.
Soles are nearly twice as dear as they were formerly.

In 1880 we imported of fresh fish (not of British
taking) 550,737 ewt., valued at £438,789, and of cured
or salted fish from abroad 792,697 cwt., valued at
£1,227,921. The fresh fish was mostly consumed in the
kingdom. The exports consisted of 6,333 cwt. of salmon,
41,259 cwt. of cod, 1,072,397 barrels of herrings, and
11,770 head of pilchards—the latter to Italy.

The value of the herrings exported in 1883 was
£1,643,622, and of the other fish sent away £466,334.
We import about 130,000 cwt. of fish from France, of
the value of £400,000.

Owing to religious observances, fish is more in request
in Catholic countries than in England.

150,000 ewt. of fish were consumed in Berlin in 1873.

According to the latest statistics the following were
some of the imports of fish into different countries in 1880.
Germany 737,137 tons of herrings, Spain 44,203,000
kilos. of codfish, Italy 43,204,000 kilos. of fish of all kinds,
Russia 350,000 to 400,000 barrels of salted herrings
yearly. Sweden imports 775,000 to 1,000,000 cubic feet
of herrings annually ; a curious trade measure.

The undeveloped fishing resources of North America

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES, 265
are very great. Many of the fishes and invertebrates
which in Europe are highly valued by the poorer classes,
are never used there; only about 150 of the 1,500 species
of the fishes known to inhabit the waters of the United
States are ordinarily found in the markets.

The following statement compiled by Mr. G. M..
Lamphear was read at a recent meeting of the American
Fish Culturists’ Association. It shows the amount of
the various kinds of fish, tortoises, crustacea, etc., received
in the wholesale markets of New York for ten months,
from March 1, 1880, to Jan. 1, 1881 :—

Pounds. Pounds.
Flounders ... 1,186,469 | Pickerel and pike... 516,317
Halibut --. 2,211,742 | Yellow pike... . 151,001
Cod ... ie «.. 5,269,607 | Sisco... aes .. 435,988
Pollack 611,295 | Whitefish ... e 872,144
Haddock ... ... 1,643,554 | Brook trout... 5,995
Frostfish or tomcod 58,831 | Salmon trout 35,720
Blackfish 184,171 | Catfish is ine 36,267
Mackerel ... 3,236,197 | Smallfreshwater fish 394,358
Spanish mackerel ... 346,678 | Terrapin : 1,219
‘Weakfish 1,213,141 | Green turtle ; 2,494
Kingfish ... 10,732 | Lobsters, No. 1,311,981
Sheepshead 55,586 | Scallops, gallons 29,499
Porgies 1,565,836 | Turbot =... 86
Sea bass. 284,602 | Redfish wee = 22,854
Striped bass 478,716 | Perch ue «. 143,332
Bluefish 4,284,613 | Buffalo fish ... 8,398
Smelt 575,005 | Pompano ... 1,768
Salmon... .- 150,642 | Swordfish ... Sus 1,285
Shad, counts 923,474 Small salt water fish 393,325
Herring ,, 463,884 Mullet av ses 11,658
Eels... 993,248 | Bonita oe 67,231
Sturgeon .., 46,170 se
Black bass ... 36,943 Total... » 27,540,218

The value of the fish, fresh, dry, pickled, etc., imported:
into the United States in 1880 was returned at 3,403,000
dollars.

After these few preliminary and general remarks, let
us pass on to consider the fish-capture of various coun-
tries, and the groups or families that furnish the chief

supply.

266 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

Commercial fish may be divided generally into “ round
fish” and “ flat fish.”

The round fish include the cod, conger, haddock, hake,
herring, ling, mackerel, torsk, pilchard, whiting, etc.

The “principal flat fish are soles, turbot, halibut, plaice,
skate, and brill.

The fish families that yield the largest food supply are
the Gadide, embracing the codfish, the haddock, ling,
hake, whiting, etc. ; ‘the Pleuronectide, embracing the
turbot, sole, brill, flounder, and other flat fish : the
Chipeidee, furnishing the herring, sardine, sprat, ete. Then
we have the family of the skates, known scientifically
as the Raiide. The mackerel is also a plentiful fish, and
when procured in a thoroughly fresh state, it is of excel-
lent service for table purposes. The .Murenide, or eel
family, is also in great demand.

It is scarcely possible to follow any systematic classifi-
cation in treating of the catch and consumption of fish
in various countries, nor can they be arranged entirely
under families, hence the remarks and descriptions must,
to some extent be disjointed and discursive.

Codfish.—The following was the take of cod, ling, and
hake by the Scotch fisheries in 1878. Number of fish °
taken and cured in vessels, 2,560,142 fish, of which were
cured and dried 55,257 ewt. Number cured on shore
3,658,583, of which 128,552 ewt. were cured and dried, and
9,219 barrels in pickle. This shows a total of 6,218,725
fish taken. The exports were 94,970 ewt. (out of 183,809
ewt.), which is the largest export for many years.

Iceland appears to be a more reliable field for the cod-
fishing than either Faroe or Rockall. At Stornoway, and
upon other’ parts of the west coast of Scotland, the fishery
did well.

The fish are cleaned, split, slightly salted and packed
in barrels, twenty to twenty- -four fish in a barrel. They
are sold at Aberdeen at 40s. to 55s. a barrel.

The flesh of the cod contains a large quantity of
creatine. The fish are in best condition from October to
January. It has been remarked that the immense

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 267.

fecundity of the cod seems to be an appointment of
Providence in affording a supply of food to bleak and
frozen countries that are unfit for the production of
grain ; not only so, but the cod supplies all Europe with
a considerable quantity of provision.

The black cod (Gadus carbonarius), formerly called coal
fish, abounds in the waters of the Pacific, on the coasts of
North West America. This fish is highly spoken of in
America, and is considered far superior to the cod of
Newfoundland, the flesh being richer and of finer fibre.
It received its popular name of coal fish from the dusky
pigment which tinges the skin and soils the fingers when
handled. In England it is considered a coarse fish and
principally eaten by the poor, but in America it is salted
and sold by the hundredweight.

The hake (Merlucius vulgaris) is an excellent fish, and
considered good eating, especially when cut in fillets and
fried in butter.

The fish which passes under the name of hake on the
coasts of America is the Phycis chuss, Wall., P. americanus,
Storer. This is sometimes called ling by the fishermen,
but differs in many points from the ling of Europe. The
squirrel hake is Phycis tenuis, Mitchell, and there is
another American species, the long-finned hake, P.
chestertt, Goode and Bear.

The whiting (Merlangus [Gadus] vulgaris), a small deli-
cate fish, seldom exceeding a pound and a half in weight,
is one of the cod family. In Devonshire and Cornwall
whiting are salted and dried in the sun immediately
after being caught, and when sufficiently dry are tied
up in bundles of six or upwards; but most of those
caught are now sent fresh to the London market by the
fast trains.

The whiting of North America is Menticirrus nebulosus,
[Mitch.] Gill, also known as the king fish.

The fish which pass under the name of whiting in
India are Selago schama, Forsk., and S. pama, the flesh
of which furnishes a light and nourishing diet.

The haddock (Gadus [Morrhua] eglefinus) fishing is of

268 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

great importance to this country, inasmuch as it affords
occupation to a large number of poor fishermen during the
winter months. They are in the greatest perfection for
the table from October to the beginning of January,
just before they are about to spawn. A great many
small haddocks are sometimes caught by the trawlers ;
they are largely sold to the poor, and fetch from 8d.
to 1s. 6d. per basket, weighing three stones. In some
of the Scotch cities these small haddocks dried are sold
under the name of “speldrings,” and also under the name
of “Finnon haddocks,” from the name of the village near
Aberdeen, where they were first cured and smoked by
burning the green branches of fir. Thousands and tens
of thousands of haddocks are cured in every possible
state of freshness ; but none are equal in quality to the
Scotch cured, The fish there are cured all but alive.
Some are dried with peat smoke instead of sawdust, .
which is used in the London curing. The Norway had-
dock is Sebastes Norvegicus.

The cod (Gadus morrhua, Lin.) and its allies, Gt. navaga,
G. virens, contribute largely to human food. The
annual average catch on the great breeding grounds
of the species, and where the finest fish are obtained,
as on the banks and shores of Newfoundland and
the coasts of Labrador, is about 4,000,000 ewt. <As-
suming fifty fish to the cwt., this gives a yearly take of
200,000,000.

In 1872 the take of cod in the Gulf of St. Lawrence
and the Lower British American Provinces (exclusive of
Newfoundland and Labrador) was 824,411 quintals,

In 1880 Canada exported 996,870 cwt. of dried fish,
and 27,084 cwt. and 264,953 barrels of pickled fish. In
1882 the value of the fisheries of Canada was given at
£3,217,734,

The export of cod-fish from Newfoundland of British:
take in 1874, reached a total of 1,250,000 ewt., worth
more than one million sterling ; in 1882 it was 1,463,439
ewt., valued at £1,170,751.

The cod fishery, which is the staple produce of New-

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 269

foundland, is prosecuted from June till October, and
affords occupation to the mass of the population, who
carry on this fishery around the shores of the island and
on the coast of Labrador, from whence one-third of the
annual catch is now, during a prosperous season, taken.
The fishery on the banks is almost exclusively confined
to the-French and Americans. It is remarkable that the
cod fishery shows very little progress, and the fluctua-
tions are considerable. In 1820 there were exported
901,159 ewt.; in 1850, 1,089,182 ewt. ; in 1866, 716,690
ewt.; in 1874, 1,240,320 cwt.; in 1878, 694,339 ewt.;
in 1879, 994,334 ewt.; and in 1880, 1,419,503 ewt.
Thus, while the population has more than doubled, there
has been scarcely any increase in their chief means of
support, which, it will be observed, is precarious. Cod
to the value of £59,000 are caught by the French in
Newfoundland.

The largest export of the cured fish is made to Spain,
Portugal, Italy, and Greece, which, together, take about
half the catch, and Brazil one-fourth: the rest goes to
the West Indies, the British North American provinces,
and the United Kingdom. The local consumption of
fish in the island of Newfoundland is estimated at 14 to
2 ewt. per head of the population per annum.

Of cods’ tongues and sounds salted, about 3,000 barrels
are sent away annually from each of the provinces of
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, besides large quanti-
ties from Newfoundland.

At Archangel, if the fishing is good, every fishing boat
can gather, in the season, about 3,500 Ibs. of cod fish
tongues. They are salted separately, 15 lbs. of salt being
used to 100 lbs. of tongues. These tongues sell at about
‘13d. a pound.

The coasts of Norway are another great haunt of the
edible fish of the cod family, as well as of herrings. The
yield of cod in Norway in 1877 was the most abundant
of which we have any record, the catch having been
_. 76,000,000 fish, of the estimated value of £1,220,000.
The total value of the Norwegian fisheries averaged in

270 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

1876 and 1877 nearly £3,500,000—a large amount for
a country having hardly two millions of inhabitants.

The following was the export of fish from. Norway in
1878 :—.

Dried codfish said aie es 320,511 centners.*
Klip fish, salted cod ... ene we 819,221 4
Fresh or living fish ... a aie 44,420 *%
Other salted fish ... sie sing 61,644 tondes.
Spring herrings et se one 35,5384,
Other herrings ace aug sas 641,467,
Anchovies... au ane Ber 201,081 duntres.

Salt fish is prepared there in two ways, as klip fish
flattened, or as stock fish and round fish. The prepara-
tion of klip fish was first introduced at Christiansund,
in Norway, by the English about the close of the eigh-
teenth century.’ In preparing it in this way it is cleaned
soon after it is caught, salted and carefully dried. Ifthe
fish remain more than ten days in the wet they are unfit
for klip fish. The best salt is required to prepare cod
fish properly. Stock fish is not salted, but merely dried
in the sun and wind for local consumption.

The old-fashioned plan of keeping the fish in brine
has been nearly abandoned since the more general adop-
tion of salting and drying.

About two-thirds of the fish caught are salted and
prepared as klip fish, and one-third sun-dried, known as
round fish. The quantity of cod fish taken annually
ranges from fifteen to seventy-six millions. In 1871,
24,000 tons were caught at the Lofoden isles, which is
the largest and most renowned of the Norwegian fishing
grounds.

The Russian fishermen buy annually from the Nor-
wegians twenty-six to. thirty-six million pounds of cod
and other fish. From Iceland five to seven million
pounds of cod fish are annually exported.

* The centner is not quite 1 cwt., but only 1093 Ibs. The tonde
of fish is 3186 bushels. The dunire is a small keg. .

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES.. 271

Besides the smoked, salted, and fresh fish locally con-
‘sumed in Norway, about 250,000 lbs. is sent annually to
England, packed in ice; 1,000 to 1,200 barrels of salted
salmon is exported, and the sale. of salmon brings in
about £100,000.

Norway exported in 1880—

Dried or split cod... a « kilos.. 72,215,000
Herrings sats awa ... _hectolitres 536,333
Other salted fish ... ail 45 118,348
Anchovies 11,755

aes cals i
And fresh fish to the value of £51,000.

For home consumption in Iceland, under the name
of heingefish, the cod is split along the back and hung
up unsalted to dry, in sheds, when it has a shrivelled
up appearance. It is eaten uncooked by the natives,
who likewise dry and eat the refuse heads with great
relish.

The export of fish products from Norway averages
about 170,000 tons per annum, of which 14 per cent. is
fresh or iced fish, and the remainder salted, dried, pickled,
spiced, or smoked fish, roe, and fish oil. The value of the
exported fish will average now about £2,500,000; and
if all the fisheries are put together, there is an average
export dried and dry-salted fish of 75,000,000 yearly,
which would answer to about 375,000 tons of live fish,
leaving out of account the home consumption.

The number of species of known fish in Swedish waters
is at present about 170, of which, however, only fifty are
commonly caught.

The Baltic herring (stroemming), a smaller variety of
Clupea harengus, Lin., is.sold either fresh in the towns
along the coast, or else salted in barrels. The barrelled
article is generally sold in Sweden, salted herring being
the daily food of the Swedish peasant, but of late years
it has also been exported to Germany.

In Northern Europe the herring of the second year is
called “Christiania herring,’ in the third year “middle
herring,” in the fourth “ merchant’s herring,” and in the

272 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

fifth “spring herring.” There is no essential difference
between these varieties, except the size and the greater
or less development of the sexual organs. There are also
some other classifications, as boundary herring, winter
herring and fall herring.

Sprats are partly sold fresh and partly pickled or
spiced, while some are prepared as “anchovies,” and
sold under that name, although of course they are a
different kind of fish to the true anchovy.

Capelin.—tn the month of June, each year, the shores
of Newfoundland are visited by enormous shoals of
capelin (Mallotus arcticus) for the purpose of spawning.
The masses of them in the various bays and harbours are
so great that two men with a small landing-net will fill
a boat in a couple of hours. So little account is taken of
this delicious little fish that it is largely employed in
manuring the fields and gardens, as sprats often are in
England.

The flavour of it, when fresh, is delicious, and its size
is about that of the sardine. There is little doubt that,
if properly cured, the capelin might compete with either
sardines or anchovies, which are so profitable to the fisher-
men of the Mediterranean. If merely pickled and dried
it is worth more than a dollar per barre]. But no atten-
tion is paid to this little fish, the supply of which seems
inexhaustible. It is principally used by the fishermen
as bait for the cod. About 100 barrels of capelin, salted
and dried, are sent to England.

In Switzerland the imports of fish amount to about
45,000 lbs. annually, chiefly fresh fish.

It is an incontestable fact that although since 1830
prices have at least doubled, the sale of sea-fish has
grown enormously in Belgium. Fish always abounds in
the markets of Ostend, and the supply reaches 2,000 tons
yearly. The annual proceeds of the sale of fish at the
Ostend market averages about £140,000.

The fishery products on the coast of Spain for the
year 1882 were estimated at about 8,000 tons weight;
half of the catch was salted and preserved ; about fifty-

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 273

five tons of fresh fish were exported and the same quan-
tity of pickled fish; 380 tons of sardines were salted and
pressed, and 100 tons of shell fish exported.

In some countries, fish when tainted, or even putrid,
is preferred to that which is fresh. The inhabitants of
the banks of the Senegal and Orange rivers in Africa
pound some small fish of the size of sprats in a wooden
mortar, as they are taken from the stream, and after-
wards make them up into conical lumps, like our sugar-
loaves, which they dry in the sun. In this state they
soon become slightly decomposed, and give out a most
unpleasant odour; notwithstanding which these people
consider them a luxury.

Several northern nations possess the art of preparing
fish in a variety of ways unpractised in Europe, such as
in the form of flour, bread, ete. Sir John Richardson
mentions that a very good bread may be made from the
roe of the pollack (Pollachius carbonarius) and of the
methy, and this is used in the fur countries as tea bread.
A kind of fish flour or powder is made from the stock-
fish in Norway, which has a high nutritive value. It
may, therefore, when compressed into the form of
biscuits realise, under certain circumstances, the problem
sought by armies in the field, of having the largest
amount of nourishment in the smallest compass and
least weight. There are at present two houses which
make this fish-flour at the Lofoden Islands, but the
manufacture is likely to extend. About 2,000 packages
of fish flour (of 2 lbs. each) were made at the factory
of Llyngver, Norway, in 1876, and 2,424 packages in
1877. Crackers of fish-meal made by Mad. Rosing,
Christiania, were shown at the Philadelphia Centennial
Exhibition in 1876.

The biscuit is made in Norway out of this fish-flour in
the following manner :—500 grammes of the dry fish-
flour are mixed with three litres of water, and 43 pounds
of oatmeal are added and all well kneaded. The paste
is then rolled out and cut into squares and cakes.
These are pierced with holes and dried in an oven, but

T

274 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

not at a sufficiently high temperature to cook or bake
them. They should be turned several times while in
the oven. From the experience of M. Rosing, Professor
of Agricultural Chemistry at the Royal model farm at
Aas, it results that these biscuits are very nutritious,
being four times richer in albuminoid pS than
beef, four and a half times than fresh cod, and six
times richer than milk or rye bread. And it has also
the advantage of being very rich in phosphates. The
Siberians also bake bread with a meal formed by grind-
ing down the dried remains of fish.

An extract of fish is now made from the juice of
the flesh of the menhaden (Breevoostra tyrannus), also
called the ocean trout, by S. L. Goodale, Saco, Maine.
Professor Johnson, of the Sheffield Scientific School,
Yale College, formerly a pupil of Baron Liebig, writes
of it, “I find your extract of fish both by actual use,
and by chemical analysis, in all respects equal to the
best Liebig’s extract of beef.” The menhaden is un-
known in Europe, but in the herring, its near relative,
Professor Almen, of the University of Upsala, reports
finding eighteen per cent. more of extractive matter,
and fifty per cent. more of soluble salts (these two to-
gether constituting flesh extract) than in beef.

Mr. Goodale states: “From each barrel of menhaden
fish as taken, I get three pounds of extract when flesh
alone is used, and four pounds if the spine is retained
in dressing. Considering the large amount of fish an-
nually taken and hitherto treated for oil and manure
alone, the juices of which have been allowed to run
back into the ocean as a worthless bye-produict, I can-
not avoid the conclusion that a new source of food is
within reach, which at no distant day may contribute
materially to human welfare.” Mr. Goodale estimates
that the fish used by the oil factories in the towns of
Bristol and Booth Bay, Maine, in 1873, 1874, and 1875,
allowing the product to equal one-fifth of the weight of
the live fish, would have yielded in either year upwards
of a million of pounds, or 500 tons of extract of fish.

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 275

Carrying out the same calculation for the entire catch of
the Atlantic States, the potential yield of the menhaden
eee would exceed ten millions of pounds of “extract
of fish.”

Among various food preparations of fish and other
sea animals put up in America are the following :—

Cod-fish balls, canned fish chowder (cod and haddock),
smoked smelts and canned smelts (Osmerus mordaz),
canned mackerel (Scomber), smoked Spanish mackerel
(Cymbium maculatum), smoked halibut (Hippoglossus rul-
garis), pickled clam chowder, pickled scallops (Pecten
trradians), pickled mussels (Mytilus edulis), pickled oyster
crabs (Pinnotheres ostrewm), and devilled crabs.

Some of the purely national dishes of different nations
are most extraordinary things, such as the Swedish lut-
fisk on Christmas eve.

Lut-fisk is the salted stock or cod fish steeped in a
solution of potash until, in fact, decomposition takes
place. On Christmas eve, the great evening of Sweden,
this mess is boiled and eaten with oil, and this and
grot, which. is simply boiled rice, are the Christmas
dishes of Sweden, just as roast beef and plum pud-
ding are with us. The smell of the lut-fisk is terrific,
but a true Swede clings to his national dish on
Julaften as much as any beef-eating Englishman does
to his.

Very many food fishes are preserved in oil, and thus
form considerable articles of commerce and food dainties,
such as the tunny, the halibut, the sardine, menhaden,
and small pilchards.

Fish Sauces.—We have our anchovy, lobster, and
shrimp sauce for fish, but the ancients and some of the
Eastern nations also indulged in fish sauces, as their
garum, balachong, gna-pee, and other condiments prove.

Balachong is a compound made of prawns, sardines
and other small fish, pounded and pickled. This article,
is of universal use as a condiment, and one of the largest
articles of native consumption throughout both the
Malay and Philippine Archipelago. It is not confined

m 9

276 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

indeed as a condiment to the Asiatic islanders, but is
also largely used by the Burmese, the Siamese, and
Cochin-Chinese.

The garum, or celebrated fish sauce of the Romans,
was principally made out of the Sciena umbra and the
mackerel, the entrails and blood being macerated in brine
until they became putrid:

“ Experantes adhuc scombri de sanguine primo,
Accipe fastosum munera cara garum.”—- Martial.
Pp g

Galen affirms that this disgusting preparation was so
precious, that a measure of about three of our pints
fetched two thousand silver pieces. So delightful was
the effuvium of the garum considered, that Martial in-
forms us it was carried about in onyx smelling-bottles.

Flat Fish—Let us now glance at some of the principal
flat fish used for food. For the London market, and the
British public in general, soles (Solea platessa) are the
most important of sea fish. They are required by all
classes of society; the higher classes get those of the best
quality, the poorer, the smaller fish known in the trade
as “tongues” and “slips.” Two thousand tons of soles
are sent up by the railway from Brixham in a year. In
“London Labour and the London Poor,” Mr. Mayhew
stated that in 1864 the number of soles sold at Billings-
gate Market was 97,520,000, and that the weight was
26,880,000 Ibs., or 12,000 tons. Another good authority,
Mr. Poole, gave the number of soles sent to the London
market a quarter of a century ago as 100,000,000.

The turbot (Pleuronectes maximus) is the rich man’s
‘fish, its flesh being delicate, sweet and fine, and being so
valuable, the fishermen pay rather more attention to its
abundance or scarcity than to that of almost any other
sea fish. Six to seven hundred tons of turbot are received
yearly in London.

_. The Jews are forbidden by law to eat anything that
has no scales; the question is whether the turbot has or
has not scales, and upon this decision depends whether
the Jews may or may not eat turbot.

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 277

When turbots are scarce, hotelkeepers frequently serve
up brills (Rhombus vulgaris) as turbots. Many persons
prefer them to turbot if taken before spawning. The
brill is distinguished from the turbot not only by size
and quality but by the perfect smoothness of its skin,
which is covered with scales of a moderate size. These
fish have been caught of very large size in the North
Sea, near the Silver Pits; sixteen pounds is about the
largest seen at the Yarmouth fish market.

The best are caught by the Dutch off their coasts.
The American turbot is Platessa oblonga, Dekay, which
is fully equal to the English turbot. The fish known as
turbot in Newfoundland is Reinhardtius hippoglossoides.
In Scotland the halibut is called a turbot.

Of the smaller flat fish the flounder (Pleuronectes
flecus) is perhaps the best for the table. In North
America the common flounder is Pseudo-rhombus dentatus
[Lin.] Gunther; the southern flounder C. oblonga, the
smooth flounder Pleuronectes glaber, and the sand
flounder Lophopsetta maculata. On the west coast of.
England these flat fish are generally called “flukes,”
the white fluke is the flounder, the gar fluke the dab
(Platessa limanda), and the plain fluke the plaice.
Plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) at certain periods fetch
high prices; as much as 7s. 6d. each has been paid.
The plaice is a favourite fish with the Jews, being
a food which they are permitted to eat at all their
feasts and fasts. Eaten cold, dressed as the Jews cook
this fish, it is a most delicious article of food, and they
‘usually lay in a stock sufficient for several days’ con-
sumption.

The plaice may be considered the poor man’s fish ;
it is nevertheless highly nutritious, and affords good,
wholesome and cheap food. They are in season from
May to December, but are finest at the end of May
although sold all the year round. To ensure firmness in
this fish it should be powdered with salt and hung up
for a day. Enormous quantities of plaice are sold all
over the country. Mr. Mayhew reports that there were

278 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

sold in Billingsgate in 1864, chiefly to the costermongers,
over 334 millions, averaging one pound each. A large
number are also consumed in the shops that sell fried
fish. The plaice is there cut into junks, and sold from
a half-penny to two-pence a junk. The fish is first
dipped in batter and then fried in boiling oil.

The John Dorey (Zeus faber) is also called St. Peter’s
fish, on account of the dark mark on each side, like the
impression made by the human thumb. The common
name is said to be derived from the French jaune
(yellow) and doré, referring to the golden yellow of the
fish when fresh. Although an ugly fish, it is thought
a delicacy by epicures.

The dorey is a very voracious fish, and the more a sea
fish is carnivorous the better will be its flesh. That of
the dorey is not unlike that of the turbot, and is es-
pecially good from January to March.

The most important members of the Clupedie are the
common herring (Clupea harengus), the sardine (C. Sar-
dina), the sprat (QC. sprattus), and the pilechard (C. pii-
chardus), the whitebait and the anchovy.

Herrings.—The Dutch became a great nation princi-
pally by the herring fishery, and Amsterdam, they say,
is built on a foundation of herring bones. Even at
present the Dutch herrings, though caught on the same
ground as the English or Scotch, bear a higher price than
any other in the world, and are eaten raw as a relish in
Holland and Germany. The first barrel of new herrings
that is taken, is forwarded to the King at the Hague.
It is carried in procession with banners and military
music—the day is one of public rejoicing, and a few of
the new herrings are sent as presents to the nobles of the
land. The captured herrings are for the most part cured
almost immediately they are taken and on board ship,
while another portion are first salted prior to being
smoked and sold as red herrings to the trade. Those
gutted and salted on board, are acknowledged to be
much superior in quality, being more tender and fatter
than all other kinds, preserving their agreeable flavour

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 279

even till the following year. The first Dutch herrings
in former times frequently brought £60 per barrel, and
were sold by small quantities from 2s. to 3s. a piece.
In the year 1815 the first 195 barrels were sold for rather
over £3,450, thus averaging about £17 per barrel. Ban-
quets were held, of which herrings formed the principal
dish, and the hosts sang their praises :

“ Who first between his teeth
The dainty morsel takes
Enjoys a glorious treat.”

The production has of late years remained prosperous,
reaching in 1880 about 227 million, and in 1881 1974
million of fish, representing a market value of from
£250,000 to £330,000.

The principal destination of the salted herrings. is
Germany, the smoked ones being sent to Belgium. The
export of cured herrings increased from 80,000 barrels in
1872 to 139,500 barrels in 1882. The quantity of fresh
fish exported chiefly to Belgium ranges from 44 to 7
million kilos., 10,000,000 to 15,500,000 pounds.

The herring fishery of Ireland in 1878 resulted in a
catch of 193,606 mease, valued at £220,278, or an aver-
age of £1 2s. 9d. per mease of say 630 fish. In 1883
the Irish herring fishery only resulted in 109,250 mease,
valued at £105,738. The number of fish landed at Tyne-
mouth, North Shields, in 1878-79, was 2,785 lasts of
herrings and 2,286 tons of white fish. The “last” is 100
long hundreds of 132, or 13,200 fish.

The herring fishery of Scotland in 1878 resulted in
905,768 barrels being cured, which proved the fishing of
the year to have been remarkably good, and so much
above an average fishing as to have been exceeded only
by the great fishings of the years 1873, 1874, and 1875.
Of the quantity exported (623,934 barrels) 608,970
barrels went to the Continent, principally to Germany
and Russia.

It was stated in the Report of the Herring Fishery
Commissioners for 1878, that 2,400,000,000 herrings are

280 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

caught annually by the British, French, Dutch, and Nor-
wegian fishermen.

The take of herrings in Scotland varies from 600,000
to 1,000,000 barrels, that is, reckoning the quantity
cured, exclusive of those eaten fresh. The quantity sent
abroad ranges from 500,000 to 700,000 barrels.

The Norfolk fishery obtains about 64,000 tons of her-
rings, and the Dutch catch about 35,000 tons.

Spiced herrings, known as kryddsell, are much sought
after in some places of Sweden, and especially in North
Germany. They are thus prepared. The fresh-caught
herrings are immediately put into vinegar, with one-
fourth water and some salt. After remaining in this
mixture for twenty-four hours, the herrings are taken
out and the vinegar drained off. The fish are then
placed in a keg with a mixture of the following spices,
reckoning these quantities for every fourscore herrings :
one pound fine dry salt, one pound pulverised sugar,
half an ounce each of pepper, bay-leaves, and saltpetre, a
quarter of an ounce of ginger and a very little hops and
cloves; others add double the quantity of pepper, all-
spice, and cloves. The herrings must be left in this
mixture for two months before they are fit for use. -

Pilchurds-——The pilchard fishery (Chipea pilchardus),
which is confined to the coasts of Cornwall and Devon,
is variable in its yield, reaching sometimes 47,000 hogs-
heads, as in 1871, and at others not a fifth of this
quantity are caught, as but 9,477 hogsheads in 1877. It
takes nearly 4,000 summer pilchards and 3,000 winter
pilchards to fill a hogshead, which will weigh when
well pressed 467 pounds gross.

Besides what are consumed locally fresh, the ship-
ments, when salted, go almost entirely to Italy, where
they are largely consumed during Lent.

Whitebait.—The whitebait which are reported so great
a delicacy in London are composed in reality of the fry
of various small fish, but they consist chiefly of those of
sprats and herrings. Their capture has hitherto been
confined to the neighbourhood of London, but it is now

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 281

rapidly extending to other places, and continually in-
creasing quantities of young herrings and young sprats-
are annually consumed in various parts of this kingdom.

There are tons of whitebait caught in the Thames
about Greenwich and Gravesend. They are much more
numerous than they were. At one time they were con-
fined to the estuary from Blackwall to Gravesend ; now
they have extended to the Medway and the Crouch to
Harwich.

The fishery for whitebait commences when Parliament
meets, and ends with the session, or from February to
August. About £40 a week for twenty-six weeks is
paid at Queenborough for wages in catching whitebait.
From £1,500 to £1,800 is expended in catching white-
bait. The average quantity of fish caught during the
season is about half a ton a day. It fetches from 1s. to
to 2s. a quart wholesale, and a pint will weigh about
eighteen ounces.

Twice a year the coasts of the South Sea Islands are
visited by innumerable hosts of tiny fish, which, from
their resemblance to the small fry caught in the estuary
of the Thames, and so highly prized during the “ Lon-
don season,” have been christened by the general name
of “ whitebait.” Nobody knows really of what species
this little fish consist; but there is no doubt that, like
their English prototypes, they consist of the young of
many different varieties of fish in the earliest stages of
their growth. Their appearance is hailed with delight
by the natives, who are inveterate fishermen, and who
take advantage of the harvest while it lasts. The waters
of the South Pacific teem with many kinds of edible fish,
and most of the other islands of the Pacific are visited
by shoals of these “ whitebait” in one form or another.

The Fijiislands boast of a special delicacy in the shape
of a species of annelid, known to the natives as “ balolo”
(Palolo viridis, Gray), which swarms round their coasts
about September, and is eagerly sought for by both the
natives (who cook them in ovens dug out of the earth)
and by European settlers and visitors. Although not an

282 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

actual ‘‘fish,” these little marine worms are as highly
esteemed as any Thames whitebait, which they closely
resemble in flavour; and both they and the various
forms of fish life are eagerly sought for. Fortunately the
destructive powers of the natives—terrible “poachers ”
as they are, killing the fish by means of poisons and
explosives, and using old sails, baskets, and all kinds of
instruments of a very unsportsmanlike character—are
out of all proportion to the productiveness of the waters,
and as the disappearance of the “ whitebait” is as sudden
as their appearance, they have not much time to make
any impression on the stock of fish in the sea. The
Maori is looking forward to the time when he may be
able to supply England with salmon; and the Fiji
islanders may possibly some day be sending us over
supplies of “ whitebait” to grace the table of the English
epicure.

France—Much as fish is appreciated in France, and
essential as it is as food, owing to their fasts and
religious observances, the consumption is after all com-
paratively small.

In a paper by Captain Lemonssu, published in the
“Bulletin of the Society of Acclimatation,” Paris, in
1860 (vol. vii. p. 332), he stated that the average annual
consumption per head was about as follows :—

250 grammes of fresh fish ;
‘a prawns ;
1 decagramme of crayfish or lobsters; and
3 oysters,

or about nine or ten ounces in all. Of other molluscs
the consumption is also very small, although they might
be cultivated and multiplied extensively.

Of fish preserved in oil, or marinaded, the consumption
is equally limited. Each individual uses of

Sardines ... ae a _ a 6 decagrammes,
Anchovy... va ws oe bie 2 oe

Tunpy ... wes sia sis ae 3 grammes,

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 283

. From this it will be seen how restricted is the con-
sumption of sea fish, etc., notwithstanding the increasing
price of the other food necessaries of life. And yet this
providential manna passes and repasses the coast, and
might be taken and utilised at a price four or five times
below that at present charged. In 1860 the sales of
fresh fish in the Paris market were to the value of
£450,000. The quantity was about 12,000,000 kilos. ;
2,000,000 kilos. of salted fish is consumed in Paris, and
500,000 kilos. of marinaded or fish preserved in oil.
The value of the fresh water or river fish sold is set
down at about £80,000.

The weight and kinds of fish consumed in Paris in
1877 were given as follows :—

lbs.

Eels aug bee ce seh side ore 328,000
Barbel ... ee wis tee es des 23,826
Bream ... Se sic nie ae ne 94,176
Pike rn a aH a5 rer ais 354,232
Smelts ... ee nag a tote rn 290.454
Gudgeon... eae use aa is oe 39,060
Lampreys sie ae ae ad ig _ 286
Perch ... sea aaa = siete ie 28,738
Tench ... aes aioe ae 253 Sei 154,674
Trout... — os — 5,128
Various small white fish Bas ok ee» =—-1,157,484

2,476,008

There was sold of sea fish at the central markets
31,500,000 lbs. From four to five million pounds of
salted and smoked cod, herrings, mackerel, and salmon
is also sold in Paris. The trade in sea fish in that city
has doubled in value in the last ten years, and now
amounts in value to about 40,000,000 frs. (£1,600,000).

The consumption of fish in Paris in 1883 was about
22,400 tons, or 1,000 tons more than in 1882, and nearly
a fourth of the whole were herrings, sold at an average
wholesale price of 3d. per lb. About a fourth of the
whole supply of Hee came from abroad, chiefly from
England.

284 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

The official statistics of the French fisheries gave as
the total value of the catch for—

1876. 1878.

Boat fishery ne we £3,341,220 00... £3,239,276
Angling or hand fisheries 218,405... 239,600
38,559,625 £3,478,878

The aggregate quantity of codfish sent from France to
her colonies in the five years ending 1876, was close
upon 41,000,000 kilos., or over 8,800 tons per annum.
The shipments were less in 1877, and have been on the
decline since. The quantity of herrings, fresh or salted,
brought into French ports in 1877 was 361,574 metrical
quintals. The total weight of fish caught by the French
fishermen averages about 120,000 tons.

The following was the weight and kinds of fish
obtained by the French sea fisheries, in kilogrammes,
in—

a 1876. 1878.
Cod, Newfoundland ... G seaes 16,070,560
» Iceland... mea ina ane 12,951,751
Herring ... wae .. 26,061,536 ...... 21,764,707
Mackerel... oes « 11,863,478 ...... 7,368,143
Anchovy ee i L1G 7728 sevens 860,347
Other species... vw. 42,577,902... 44,134,983
109,557,116 103,150,497
Sardines .» No. 1,198,402,181 seaudia 1,919,302,829

In 1878 the French had 685 vessels engaged in the
Newfoundland cod fishery, employing 13,217 men, who
received in premiums of fifteen to fifty francs each a
sum of 594,120 francs (nearly £24,000).

The shipments of cod were from the seat of the
fisheries—

Kilos.
To the French Colonies.. ais w= 1,689,344
From French ports to foreign countries .e 1,337,196
To Algiers and Sardinia a tes ve 1,879,139
Cod roe imported sas ite ae va —-:273,970

5,179,649

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 285

The aggregate premiums paid by the State on these
were 786,201 francs for the fish and 54,794 franes on the
cod roes imported for bait in the sardine fisheries. The
bounty varies from twelve to twenty francs per 100 kilos.

The total value of the fish taken by the French
fisheries in 1883 was £4,289,076, being £570,000 more
than in 1882. The quantities caught were 34,000 tons of
cod, 36,000 tons of herrings, and 6,000 tons of mackerel.
The catch of sardines was also nearly double that of
the previous year.

In Newfoundland 17,683,289 kilogrammes of cod were
caught by the French in 1881, and in Iceland 9,695,411
kilos.

The take of fresh table fish (usually called “La Marée
fraiche”) in 1881 was about 50,000,000 kilos., which
comprised turbots, brill, soles, plaice, flounders, rays,
gurnets, mullets, whiting, conger, salmon, lampreys,
sturgeons, &c. The sea fisheries for the whole Republic
in 1881 resulted in sales of fish of the value of nearly
three millions and a quarter pounds sterling.

The fresh-water fish of France are divided into two
categories, according to their degree of utility for public
consumption. The first comprises the shad, the pike, carp,
chevenne (chub), sturgeon, lamprey, ombre (Thymailus
vexillifer), perch, salmon, tench, trout, eel, barbel and
bream. The second includes the bleak, dace, bullhead,
stickleback, roach, gudgeon, loach, rotengle (Leuciscus
erythrophthaimus), vandoise (L. vulgaris), veron (L.
phoxinus), &e.

Besides the cod, herring, mackerel, and sardine coast
fisheries, the “other species” of fish comprised in the
French returns are “barbues” (brills), turbots, soles,
carrelets (flounders), limandes (dabs), merlans (whiting),
skate, rougets, mullets, congers, salmon, lampreys, stur-
geons, &c. Of these there were caught in—

1875 keene wee 41,300,121 kilos.
FOR xe ems wees,
$678 ee taste oes, (Sa IB OCD
UES es les (OO

1880 0. eae wees 48,324,308

286 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Sardines.—Few have any idea of the great importance
of the fishing for that diminutive fish the sardine, or
the extent of the commerce in it. The largest shoals of
these fish are found on the coasts of Sardinia, whence
the popular name they bear, which has been incor-
porated into the specific name, Clupea sardina, Cuv. The
preserved sardine is said to have been brought into
fashion by Henry IV. The sardine is a dainty morsel
in any way, whether delicately cooked, fresh in his paper-
casing like a mummy embalmed in spices, preserved in
oil, or salted as in Italy. In Norway they are put up
spiced, and also preserved in sugar. The French fisheries
on the coast of Finisterre and Morbihan are of very
great importance. In some years the sardines are very
plentiful; in others they are more scarce.

The sardine fishery is eminently French, although also
prosecuted in Italy. It is carried on from the Gulf of
Gascony to the east. The fish are sold all over France
fresh (when this is possible), half salted, and salted
pressed in barrels. But the preservation of sardines in
oil forms the most important branch of the trade, the
shipments when prepared being usually estimated to be
over one million sterling in value. Indeed, the annual
value of the French fisheries on the western coast are
stated at twelve to fourteen million francs, divided
among about 140,000 inhabitants.

This delicate fish has been termed “the manna of the
sea.” On the French coasts it gives employment to no
less than 13,000 boats in Vendée and Brittany. Con-
carneau alone has 500, which in 100 days’ fishing will
bring in on an average of years one million and a half
of fish.

The little tin boxes with French labels are found all
over the world, and the fish is everywhere held in good
repute. They are mostly put up in what are called half
and quarter tins, weighing sixteen or eighteen ounces
and seven ounces. If properly prepared, and not too
salt, the longer the tin is kept unopened the more mellow
do the fish become.

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA— FISHES. 287

Sardines and anchovies to the value of 723,000 dollars
are imported into the United States. The whole boxes
of sardines are 5 x 4 x 34 inches; the half boxes, 5 x
4x 14 inches; the quarter boxes, 42 x 34 x 14 inches.

Over 10,000,000 tins are yearly exported from the
coasts of Brittany to other countries. The fish as brought
in are taken to the market, and either sold to dealers,
who pack them off by rail to Paris and other towns,
where they are used fresh, or they are bought by the
local factories for preserving in oil. The average annual
value of the sardines caught on French coasts, in the
three years ending 1870, was officially returned at
£400,000, but this was only the nominal declared value,
and of late years the amount is much larger. The sardine
fishery increases every day in importance, and so do the
preserving establishments. At D’Auray, in 1870, there
were about twenty of these. The number of fish tinned
was 17,300,000; pressed’ and salted, 774,000; consumed
locally, 1,500,000; and sent fresh into the interior,
10,000,000; and yet in that year it was only half an
average catch. At the port of Croisic, where the value
of the catch was returned in 1870 at £8,000 for the fresh
fish, they sold at twenty francs (16s.) the 1,000, and were
readily bought by the preserving factories at Tremblade,
Croisic, and Polignen. At Sables d’Olonne the five or
six preserving establishments at Gujan, Mestres, &c., put
up annually about 1,000,000 lbs. In some years the
porpoises are very destructive, frighten off the fish, and.
break the nets.

In 1883 the total number of sardines caught on the
French coasts was 1,1484 millions, or rather more than
twice the take of 1882.

The sardine fishery in Tuscany is carried on chiefly
around the islands of Elba, Giglio, Orbitello, and Grossito,
and produces about 450,000 lbs. of fish. They are
generally salted and shipped in barrels of about 130 lbs,
The sardines of Gallipoli are excellent, but badly pre-
pared. The quantity of sardines and anchovies caught
on the coast of Italy amounts to about 1,600,000 lbs., to

288 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

which has to be added the product of the fisheries of
Genoa and Sicily. Other countries have attempted to
enter into competition in the preservation of fish in oil.
Brazil, Spain, Italy, and the United States have tried;
but their efforts, more or less successful, have not been
able to compete with the French production. In North
America they have tried to preserve in this manner the
young of a species of herring, the Alosa menhaden. Lately,
too, a company was formed in Cornwall to convert young
pilchards into sardines; and no doubt a good many sprats
are occasionally put up in tins as sardines.

Anchovies—The anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) is
another fish, the catching and preserving of which gives
extensive employment on the French Atlantic coast and
in the Mediterranean. The value of these fish caught
on the French coasts is returned at about £16,000 per
annum, The fishing is carried on from May to October.
Bayonne, Port Vendres, St. Jean de Luz, Marseilles,
D’Agde, Douarnenez, and L’Orient are the principal
ports for anchovies. At Marseilles the annual average
value of fresh fish caught is over £1,000. A smaller and
more delicate kind of anchovy (£. meletta, Lin.), is also
caught in the Mediterranean. Small sardines are very
often put up as anchovies. After gutting and removing
the head, they are washed and simply placed in barrels
with layers of salt, and a little reddish ochrous earth
added to give them colour. The mineral used to colour
the fish is rather dangerous, but fortunately the fish
are never used without being previously well washed in
-water, which removes most of the colouring substance,
that might otherwise prove injurious. The Romans used
to prepare with the intestines of the anchovy a sauce of
a detestable odour, and so strong that it burnt the tongue
and the palate.

Mr. Couch, in his “Cornish Fauna,” says the anchovy
abounds there towards the end of summer and if atten-
tion were paid to the fishery, enough might be caught to
supply the consumption of the British Islands; and also
adds that he has seen it in the Cornish seas of the length

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 289

of seven inches and a half. Anchovies are also caught
in the Zuyder Zee, Holland.

The catch is, however, extremely uncertain, for
while in abundant years it sometimes amounts to over
70,000 baskets, each of about 3,500 fish, in poor years
the whole may be put down at 1,000 baskets.

If the fisheries on the Spanish coasts cannot compete
in importance with those of some of the other European
States in the supply to foreign markets, they at least
furnish sufficient for the interior consumption. There
are about 37,000 fishermen employed in boats, and the
fish taken averages about 78,700 tons per annum, of
which half is consumed fresh and half is salted, some
few hundredweight being marinaded. At Corunna there
are 220 establishments for salting and pressing sardines
and pilchards, a trade of much importance. In 1871
salt pilchards sold there at 1} to 24 dollars per thousand.
They are caught very largely on the coast in favourable
years, and promptly cured or salted for removal. The value
of the fish caught in 1871 was estimated at £350,000.

Many of the skates and rays are caught by our fisher-
men, but for some reason the British public do not
readily eat this fish, and they are therefore exported
in large quantities to France and Holland. The French
chefs have many ways of cooking rays, of which “ Raie
au beurre noir” is about the best. . The commonest of
these fish in the British markets is the blue skate (Raia
batis or vulgaris), and the thornback or rough ray (R.
clavata). Another, the Homelyn ray (&. maculata), is also
generally sold as skate in the London market. The sharp-
nosed ray (Zt. oxyrhynchus) is the favourite species with
the French. In Iceland they eat the ray when it is half
rotten. At Nantes, under the name of “goules rondes,”
the heads of rays are sold separately in bundles of twenty,
and they are regarded as dainty morsels, somewhat as
their backs were esteemed by the ancients according to
Antiphanes. .

Mackerel—The mackerel (Scomber scombrus) fishery is
prosecuted on many parts of the British coasts, but it is

ue

290 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

difficult to state with precision the quantity taken. On
the Cornish coast about 1,600 to 2,000 tons are caught in
some years. In 1875 about 4,000 long hundred (120) were
taken on the Norfolk coast. In 1876 the Irish mackerel
fishery yielded 139,000 boxes of six score fish each. The
mackerel fishery in 1878 resulted in a take of 92,626
boxes, as compared with 114,562 boxes in 1877. In
1883 the catch of mackerel in Ireland by 270 boats
amounted to 242,975 boxes, averaging 14s. per box, and
realising £170,624, the largest amount ever received in
one year.

On the Sussex and other coasts they are also taken ;
10,000 to. 12,000 tons are sold annually in London.
The average catch on the French coasts is greater than
that of Ireland. A large quantity are sent from Norway
in ice. On the North American coasts a very extensive
trade is done in pickled mackerel. About 200,000
barrels are taken there yearly in British waters, and
350,000 barrels in American waters. In 1870, 16,000
barrels of mackerel were cured in Prince Edward Island,
and in 1883, 93,000 barrels in New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia.

Fishing for mackerel and herring isnot pursued to so
great an extent as might be the case if the demand were
greater and the expense less. The fishery returns for
1872 were—

Herring. Mackerel.

Barrels. Barrels.
Nova Scotia... ies 170,657 oe. 115,833
Quebec ... sie see 29,069 sa... 1,759
New Brunswick... sists 124,157 a... 2,217
Ontario ... con sa 6974 ee —

330,857 119,809

Besides the salted mackerel a good many are put
up in hermetically sealed tins, about 351,000 cans were
exported from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in 1883
valued at 74d. per can.

From a careful diagram of the mackerel catch of Massa-
chusetts it appears to have grown steadily from 7,000

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 291

barrels in 1804, to 385,000 barrels in 1831. In the next
- ten years it declined to 50,000. The scale has since been
fluctuating, being for 1880 about 150,000. This account
is only of salt mackerel, and is not appreciably affected
by the use of pounds, weirs, and traps, all caught thus
not exceeding 5,000 barrels yearly, most of which are
consumed fresh. The number of barrels used in this
way, in 1876, was for the whole United States but 27,000.
Evidently causes different from mere methods of capture
must account for the partial disappearance of mackerel,
and much is yet to be learned as to this valuable but
singular fish, upon whose migratory movements so many
depend for a living. In early spring they strike the
coast of Virginia, moving northward in immense shoals,
visiting successively Cape May, Sandy Hook, Block
Island, Cape Cod, and various points as far as Labrador.
Captain N. E. Atwood, in illustration of the vicissitudes
of mackerel fishing, states that with the help of a boy he
has caught in one night off Cape Cod 2,050 fish, and the
next night 3,520; but on another trip he fished all the
way from the Grand Bank to the Azores and caught
only one mackerel !

The mackerel is much esteemed, its flesh having an
excellent flavour, but it is fat and not easily digested.

Mullet—There are several kinds of mullet. Those
principally seen in the markets are the grey mullet
{Mugel capito), an excellent fish, and the red mullet
(Mullus surmuiletus). The grey mullet is an estuary fish.
The name mullet is said to be derived from muwl/us, the
searlet sandal or shoe worn by Romanconsuls. This fish
is also termed the woodcock of the sea.

The red mullet seldom come into the market with
their scales on, as the fishermen generally scrape them
off with their thumb nails immediately they are caught,
else the rich crimson hue invariably fades, but the bared
skin becomes brilliantly red.

This fish is also called the striped surmullet, from the
circumstance that its bright red colour is relieved by

three longitudinal stripes of yellow. The flesh is white,
tm 9

292 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

firm, and remarkably free from fat, and has always been
esteemed one of the epicure’s greatest luxuries. Its flavour
improves with the size, and small fish deprived of the
liver are more or less insipid. The method of cooking
by rolling them in paper to prevent injury to the skin
has been observed for at least two thousand years. The
red mullet was held in such a distinguished category
among the genteel fishes of the Romans, that three of
them, although of small size, were known to fetch up-
wards of £200.

Mullus surmulletus is called on some of the French
coasts “ barbarien,” and IMudlus barbatus “rouget,” or “le
barbarien petit.”

The mullet was one of those fish which was most
sought forin Rome. It is difficult for us to realise the
enormous value which the Romans placed upon this fish,
for as it never reaches any great size, they did not hesi-
tate to pay its weight in gold if it was unusually large.
Seneca and Suetonius have given us in their writings
descriptions of the extravagant taste in the preparation
of the mullet for the table of the rich. According to
Seneca (Epistle 95) the Emperor Tiberius sold at auction
a mullet, weighing four pounds, to Apicius and Octavius
jointly for the sum of 4,000 sesterces (£32). In this
country they do not usually exceed three pounds and a
half in weight.

The scarus, mureena, tunny, and sword-fish were other
esteemed fishes among the ancients. They knew how
to preserve some, first frying them in oil with bay
leaves, salt, and spices, and then pouring boiling vinegar
over them. They were more appreciated when brought
alive and gradually allowed to die immersed in the
delicious garum, when the Romans feasted their eyes
in the anticipated delight of eating them, by gazing on
the dying creature as he changed colour like an expiring
dolphin. Seneca reproaches them with this refinement
of cruelty, “ Oculis quoque gulosi sunt.” The most re-
nowned of Apicius’s culinary discoveries was the alec,
2 compound of their livers,

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 293

Several fishes were immortalised by the ancients ; the
Murena Hellena was raised in their ponds, and rendered
so tame that it came to be killed at the tinkling of his
master’s bell or the sound of his voice, “ Natat ad
magistrum delicata murzna,” says Martial. Hirtius
ceded six thousand of these fish to Ceasar as a great
favour, and Vitellius delighted in their roe. One of the
mullets, M. cephalus, and its roe are now largely em-
ployed in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean coasts,
and the prepared roes have been mentioned in the
Chapter on Eggs, ante, p. 213.

The mountain mullet of Jamaica (Dajaus monticola,
Cuv. and Val. ; Mugil monticola, Bancroft) is a very deli-
cate fish. The flesh is remarkably sweet and white,
and the roe is a most recherché morsel. In general it is
found nearly as large as the fish itself. There are two
modes of dressing them for the table, first wrap them
up in a plantain leaf and put them in hot ashes, and
there let them remain for an hour, or they may be fried.
The fine large roes should not be treated in any other
way for the gourmet. It is the best mode of preparing
them for the table. The mountain mullet weighs from
half a pound to a pound. The long-nosed mullet (Mugit
albula, Cuv. and Val.) is the largest and perhaps the
sweetest. Inthe month of September they are in prime
order for the table. The king and queen mullets of
Jamaica are species of Upeneus, a sub-genus of Mullus.

The callipeva, or Jamaica salmon as it has been called,
and the sea mullet, are rich and well tasted, and abound
with a thin yellow fat that gives them an excellent
flavour. The head and neck are a mass of rich, sweet
gelatinous substance, and scarcely any other fish can
compare in flesh and flavour with this fine delightful
specimen of the finny tribe.

The callipeva (Mugel lisa) is a river mullet, seldom ex-
tending further than the embouchure of streams or into
the ponds and marshes. It is met with in some other
of the West Indian islands and Central America.

Tunny.—The fishing for and employment of the tunny

294 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

(Thynnus vulgaris, Cuv.) as food is principally on the shores
of the Mediterranean, but the use of its firm flesh is spread-
ing a little over the Continent. In America and England
it is held but in low estimation. It is eaten fresh, salted,
preserved in oil, or pickled like salmon. Some parts of
the fish are said to resemble beef in flavour, and others
veal and pork. In Italy it is boiled down into soup and
made into pies, which will keep, it is said, for two
months. The average exports from Sardinia are about
3,000,000 Ibs. The fish which are to be preserved in oil,
then called ‘‘ scabeccio,” are first boiled for an hour, then
allowed to cool and dry, when they are packed in barrels,
two gallons of oil being poured into each barrel, so as to
well permeate the fish. Those tinned are prepared in
the same way. While the tunny is wholesome and
agreeable when used fresh or salted, it at once becomes
hurtful when it begins to ferment or at all approaches
decomposition. The police of Venice examine carefully the
boats that bring in the fish, especially when the sirocco
has delayed their arrival—and even if ever so little
touched, they throw them into the sea. The fresh tunny
ought to be sold within twenty-four hours.

The fish averages about four feet long, but sometimes
attains ten to fourteen feet,

Although the common tunny (Orcynus thynnus of some
authors) is the most important special sea fishery in
Italy, not a few allied species are also caught, such as O.
brachypterus, O. germo, Thynnus thunnina, and Ausxis Rochei,
all sea fishes, which periodically and successively visit in
large numbers different parts of the coasts.

The Dorade (Coryphena suerwi,Cuv. and Val.; Sparus
aurata), a very excellent sea fish, sometimes called the
dolphin, is eaten fried in butter, but it ought to be
cooked immediately.

Congers.—The sea eel or conger (Muwrena conger) is
very abundant on the coasts of England and France, in
the Mediterranean sea (where it was much sought after
by the ancients), and in the Propontis, where it is held in
considerable estimation; those of Sicyon were especially

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 295

esteemed. The flesh of this fish is coarse, but white and
well-flavoured ; as it is however very fat, it does not agree
with all stomachs. In many places the conger eels arc
dried for exportation. For this purpose they are cut
open in their underpart through their entire length, the
intestines are removed, deep scarifications are made upon
the back, the parts are kept separate by means of small
sticks, and they are suspended by the tail to poles or
the branches of trees. When they are perfectly dry, they
are collected in packets, each weighing about two
hundred pounds.

The extensive fringes of reefs and rocks encircling all
the Channel Islands, the shallows and banks between
them, are grand habitats of this species of the genus eel,
and nowhere on our British coasts are they so numerous,
so huge, and so generally utilised for food. In the
markets of Guernsey and Jersey they may constantly be
seen in larger or smaller quantities, their coarse, repul-
sive, snake-like carcases selling readily for three half-
pence, twopence, or threepence per pound, according to
the “take ” and the condition ; for, coarseness and un-
comeliness notwithstanding, your Conger vulgaris, as some
naturalists call him, is esteemed delectable and nutritious
fare by the Channel Islander: He swears by the tooth-
someness and restorative properties of his conger eel
soup, and seems to have inherited the taste from many
a bygone ancestor. So far back as King John’s time we
hear a something of this predilection, for conger fishing
and salting were included in the charter of privileges
which that monarch granted to the Channel Isles. A
duty on this fish and on mackerel—“esperkeria” is the
old name of the tax—was, we may also find, paid to the
Crown in 1331, for in Edward III.’s Eztent, or rent roll
for Guernsey, one of the articles says, ‘Our Lord the
King also has a revenue from a certain custom called the
fishery of congers and mackerel, and on all fish of the
islands, the whole extent of which is 210 livres 13 sous and
4 deniers. Then, after mentioning who might or might
not carry on the fishery, and to whom the fish might or

296 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

might not be sold, the arbitrary Royal document con-
tinues, ‘The fishermen may do what they like with
congers that are so small that they may span them round
the middle with the fist, and they may reserve from the
large as well as the small as much as may be sufficient
for their diet.’

“But even previously to 1331 we get an inkling of the
magnitude and value, pecuniary and gustatory, of this
fishery, for Mr. Falle, another writer, says that one Otho
de Grandison, governor of these islands (¢empore Edward
I. and IT.) ‘forced an impost upon congers salted for
transportation, and that at one penny only per conger
above 10 lbs. so salted and transported, he raised yearly
400 livres Tournois. Until the beginning of the seven-
teenth century, when the Newfoundland cod fishery
materially interfered with that of conger in Guernsey
and Jersey, it remained a source of much industry and
profit to their inhabitants; at present, however, its ex-
port is nothing, and its consumption is limited to home
appetites.

“The particular family, the Murenide, or eel tribe, is
not a large one, the common fresh-water eel being its
type, but in many respects the conger differs from this
well-known slippery gentleman. His average Jength is
between three and four feet, his weight from 15 to
20 Ibs., but we read of him growing much longer and
weighing very much heavier. Not unfrequently he
has measured six or eight feet, and has turned the
scale at 50 or 60 lbs; and now and again piscatorial
records note his attaining the huge size of ten feet, and
the heavy weight of 90 or 100 lbs.; but, under those
gigantic conditions, the ‘monstrum horrendum, informe,
ingens’ is an ‘anak’ of his race, and fame deals with
him as such.” *

Congers are in some parts of England, especially where
the coasts are rocky, an important sea fish. At Fowey,
Mevagissey, and other parts of Cornwall, they have been

* The Globe.

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 297

taken weighing seventy to eighty pounds. They are
not particularly common in the London markets, but may
often be seen in the markets at Liverpool, Birming-
ham, &¢. The French and Italians are particularly fond
of congers. According to M. Court, congers were formerly
cut across in such a manner as to allow of their being
sewn five or six together in the form of asheet. In this
condition they were dried in the sun without salt, and
under the name of “conger douce” formed a profitable
article of commerce with Spain and Portugal. They are
sometimes exported to those countries in the dried state,
where they are ground down into a kind of powder, and
used for enriching soups. An excellent soup is thus
made in the Channel Jslands, and is called “Bouilli
Baisse.” According to the late Mr. Buckland, from
whose report on the sea fisheries I quote, a large quan-
tity of them are exported from the Channel Islands for.
soup-making, and they form the basis of a very large
proportion of London-made soups, especially mock turtle.

Eels.—The fresh-water eel is valued very highly, as it
forms the principal flesh food of large populations in
Europe, and salted, smoked or pickled it is an important
article of trade. The skin and fat are used for technical
purposes. At one period there was a strong prejudice
against eels, which still prevails among some people.

There is an excellent eel fishery in the Parret, large
numbers of elvers or young eels are caught when ascending
this river in the spring months; these are boiled, com-
pressed into cakes, and sold in the neighbouring markets,
-where they form palatable and nutritious food.

The price of eels varies from 2d. to 9d. the pound.
The broad-nosed eel is caught in the summer, and the
sharp-nosed eel in the fall of the year.

Kels were once a staple of English diet, since they
supplied almost the only animal food to which the poor
could aspire. The rich and oily flesh was a welcome
addition to their daily fare of rye-bread and beans.

The England of the Middle Ages, abounding in lagoons
and ponds, and full of sluggish streams and sullen

298 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

marshes, was a very paradise for the eel-fisher, notably
so the flat fen counties lying to the east.

Eels appear to have been early favourites, particularly
in the monasteries. The cellaress of Barking Abbey,
Essex, in the ancient. times of that foundation, was,
amongst other eatables, “to provide russ aulx in Lenton,
and to bake with e/ys on Shere Tuesday :” and at Shrove-
tide she was to have ready “twelve stubbe eles and nine
schaft eles.” The regulation and management for. the
sale of eels seems to have formed a prominent feature in
the old ordinances of the Fishmongers’ Company. There
were artificial receptacles made for eels in our rivers,
called anguilonea, constructed with rows of poles, that
they might be more easily taken.

“Tn Scotland few people can be found who will venture
to partake of eels. Whether the prejudice against this
kind of food is founded on the resemblance which the
eel bears to the serpent, or is a remnant of the ancient
Jewish prohibition of its use as an article of diet, we
will not venture to say. The most important eel-fisheries
in England are those situated in the estuary of the
Severn and the streams which run into that arm of the
sea, and here not only full-grown eels, but the fry of
eels, called ‘elvers, are captured in large quantities.
Like almost every other fish, eels are oviparous, the
spawning usually taking place in the brackish waters of
estuaries, whence the young fry, called ‘elvers’ or ‘ eel-
fare’ soon migrate up-stream in countless myriads. In
the Severn this fact is taken advantage of by the fisher-
men, who reap an abundant harvest of delicious food
during the months of March, April, and May, when
other kinds of fish are scarce. The adult eels are caught
in their progress down the streams in the later months
of the year, in most parts of England; but it is princi-
pally in the Bristol Channel and its tributary streams
that the capture of ‘elvers’ is practised.”*

The best kind, the silver eel, is that found in the

* Chambers's Journal.

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES, 299

clearest waters. The dingy yellow and the deep sallow
green are very inferior to the clear coppery brown-backed
eel, and even to the bronze-coloured. Welled vessels
often bring over a cargo of 15,000 to 20,000 eels from
Holland. The consumption of eels in Great Britain is
very large, amounting to 4,000 or 5,000 tons a year. We
get the largest portion from Holland, but the best come
from Ireland. One thousand packages of eels were sold
in Dublin in 1870, worth 30s. a package.

The eel is the oiliest of all fishes, but is correspondingly
deficient in nitrogenous matter, containing only 10 per
cent. of the latter, but having at least 14 per cent. of
fat. The Jews were prohibited from eating eels by the
Levitical law, which forbade the eating of “whatsoever
had no fins nor scales in the water,’ although in other
fish-eating countries they form a favourite dish. Espe-
cially is this the case in England, where the demand for.
eels always exceeds the supply, and where no fewer than
ten millions of them are annually brought to Billingsgate
for the supply of the Metropolitan market. The eel is
also a special favourite with the Italians, who cultivate
it in the great lagoons of the Adriatic, and the Nea-
politans import it to the extent of a million pounds
annually.

The eel, with its many varieties and sub-species, is one
of the most common fishes in Italy; it is caught in the
sea, in brackish waters, and in fresh water, but more
especially in lagoons and estuaries, and forms one of the
most important items of the local fisheries. In the
valley of Commachio are extensive salt and brackish
waters, lagoons about thirty miles in length, at the delta
of the Po; eel fishing there is an ancient and important
industry. The mean annual produce there is about.
2,000,000 Ibs. of preserved eels. In 1871, nearly
3,000,000 Ibs. of eels were got there. They cultivate here
also soles, plaice, chub, dory and other fish. In 1878,
44,000,000 kilos. of fish of different kinds were imported
into Italy.

There is a large trade carried on in this valley of

300 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Commachio in eels, transported either alive in viva-
riums, salted, dried, pickled, or marinaded, and sent
across to the Naples market. About 1,300,000 lbs. are
annually caught there, and half as much more in other
districts. The produce of the lakes, in fish of all kinds,
is about 5,000,000 Ibs. Many of the eels are cooked
before being sent to market. The heads and tails are
taken off, and the larger ones are cut in joints. They
are roasted on spits, and the fat which drops from
them is saved. Some which cannot. be spitted are
fried. They are then packed in barrels with layers of
grey rock-salt, and strong vinegar is then poured on.
A barrel of pickled eels weighs about 150 lbs. _Some-
times the eels are merely salted and dried by the heat of
the kitchen fire. The eels are sold at about 5d. per lb.
when marinaded, and 44d. salted. The fish are some-
times five or six lbs. in weight.

In Italy eels are eaten for breakfast, dinner and
supper, by the masses; they grow to a large size and are
reputed to be of excellent flavour.

The Neapolitan of the lowest class has his winter
dish of roasted sea-eel, when his summer dinner of
sliced melon goes out of season. The great capitone,
often of 30 or 40 lbs. weight, is to the lazzaroni, what
solid beef is to the Yorkshireman.

In New Zealand eels reach nearly six feet long and
are as thick as a man’s thigh, weighing between 20 and
25 lbs. They are dried and cooked as wanted. In India
eels also attain a large size. Being seldom eaten except
by the lower classes, there is but little demand for
them.

Eels of a large size and of the finest quality are
abundant in all the bays and creeks of Prince Edward
Island. Twenty-eight tons were taken in 1883 for con-
sumption fresh. They might be sent in large quantities
pickled or fresh, to New York, where there is a good
demand. Two thousand three hundred and eight barrels
of eels, valued at nine dollars a barrel, were shipped from
Nova Scotia in 1883.

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA— FISHES. 301

Minnows.—The Staffordshire people, so late as the time
of Walton, and even of Pennant, reaped a harvest of
minnows from tbe meres for which their shire was
famous. The silvery shoals of tiny fish were surprised
in the shallows, and caught, in sheets and sail-cloth
instead of nets, in incredible quantities, then cooked and
compressed into a sort of fish-cake, flavoured with herbs,
under the name of minnow-tansies, a local phrase that
still lingers. The dwellers beside Windermere and
Ullswater used to capture, at certain seasons, enormous
numbers of a small bluish fish popularly known as the
skilly, or fresh-water herring.

302 ANEMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

CHAPTER, IX.
Foop PropwuctTs OF THE SEA—FISHES.

Fisheries of Sweden — Of Roumania —- Lampreys — Sturgeons—
Balyk—Mode of Preparing—Russian Fisheries—Fisheries of
Tunis—Of Egypt and West African Coasts—Indian Fisheries
—Choice Fish—Statistics of Imports and Exports—Trade in
Sharks’ Fins and Fish-maws — Bonito — Gourami— Fish of
Guadaloupe—Consumption of Fishin West Indies—Barbados
—Jamaica—Honduras—Sharks as Food—Their Flesh Eaten
in Various Countries—Swordfish—Oulachans, Large Fishery
for—Carp Family—Trout and Salmon—Statistics of British
Trade—Salmon Fisheries of Canada— Tinned Salmon,
Enormous Trade in—Halibut—North American Fisheries—
Fish Preserved in Ice—White Fish (Coregonus) and other
Lake Fish—Flying Fish—Consumption of Fish in Zanzibar
—New Zealand Fish — Tasmanian Fish — Fish of Ceylon,
China, and the Indian Seas—Of Japan—Brazilian Fish—Fish
of River Plate and Paraguay.

Swedish Fisheries—The lake and river fisheries of
Sweden furnish the perch, the sandre, the pike, the
bream, and other cyprians, the Lota vulgaris and the
common eel. The fishery for the lavaret, the Coregonus
albula and the alpine salmon (S. Adpinus) in the Vitter bring
in annually about £5,600. The largest salmon fisheries
are those of Elfkarleby in Uppland and Morsim in
Bletinge, which yield annually a revenue of about £4,000;
but the aggregate returns of the salmon fisheries in
Sweden are set down at £41,000. The greater part of
the fish is consumed locally, but some is sent fresh in ice
to England and Germany, and some to Denmark, where
it is smoked. About 150,000 barrels of herrings are
salted annually on the Baltic coasts of Sweden, but these
are insufficient for the home demand, and large quan-
tities are imported from Norway.

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 303

The Baltic herrings are partly sold fresh, or smoked
in the. towns on the coast, partly salted, packed in
casks, and sent all over the country. As salt herring
constitutes the daily food of the Swedish peasants and
the lower classes in general, the amount secured in the
country is not sufficient, so that a considerable quantity
has to be imported from Norway. On an average the
total annual yield of herring on the Swedish coasts of
the Baltic amounts to 150,000 tons, of which about half
is sold fresh to the inhabitants and the other half
salted.

The gar-pike or gorebill (sow belone) is excellent
eating, when cut in pieces and fried as eels; but the
public do not seem to like it, because the bones are
of an emerald green, and erroneously supposed to be
poisonous. The Jews are very fond of this fish.

The maigre (Seiena aquila), although not a common
fish, is sometimes seen in the English markets. It is
very like a huge bass, and good eating, having a flavour
between sturgeon and salmon.

Of the 460 species of fish known to inhabit the
Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas, most are sought for
by fishermen and used as food. The Elasmobranchs
are all eaten, even the larger species of. sharks, which
are sent to inland markets, and, when cut up, sell well.

In Roumania they prepare their fish for keeping in the
following manner: A series of stages of osier-work are
built up, which are covered with walnut leaves, in these
trout, barbel, and other fish are wrapped; the building
is then filled with the smoke from burning wood for
several days, and the fish acquire an amber colour and
an exquisite flavour. They are then made into packets,
and surrounded with pine branches, which adds a new

erfume to them. The quantity of fish, fresh and salted,
ocally consumed in Roumania is valued at twenty
million piastres, and about one million worth more is
exported.

There are four kinds of gurnards sold in the markets.
The grey gurnard (Trigla gurnardus), the piper (T. /yra),

304 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

the red gurnard or ellick (7. cuculus), and the sapphirine
gurnard (7. hirundo). The gurnard is an excellent table
fish. Much of the fish which is now sold as “ offal ””—such
as latchets, which are a species of large gurnard—is
equal in quality to turbot, or any other of the fish called
“prime ” which swim the sea.

Lampreys.—The lamprey is abundant in many parts
of the Caspian Sea, and yet is almost entirely neglected,
or only dried to be burnt as a candle.

The fame of the lamprey—the Mustela of Ausonius
and Pliny—is generally known; that and the sturgeon,
(Acipenser sturio) were served at table with triumphant
pomp; but the turbot, one of which was brought to
Domitian from Ancona, was considered such a present,
from the gods that this emperor assembled the Senate to
admire it. The dorade (Sparus auratus) was even conse-
crated to Venus; the Labrus scarus was calied the brain
of Jupiter, and Apuleius and Epicharmus maintain that
its very entrails would be relished in Olympus.

Many kinds of sea-bream (Sparus) are sold for food
in the London market. The commonest is the Sparus
auratus, a very brilliant fish.

Sturgeons.—The sturgeon is still considered a royal
fish in Britain, but it is not common or much esteemed.
It was highly appreciated by the ancient Romans and
Greeks, and was the principal dish at all great dinner
parties. Cicero reproved epicures on account of spend-
ing so much money for this fish. Pliny tells us that the
sturgeon was served at the most sumptuous tables, and
always carried by servants, crowned with garlands of
flowers, and accompanied by a band of musicians. Even
at this time the fish is rare and dear at Rome. Pickled
sturgeon is a favourite food of the colonists of Spain
and Portugal in South America, as well as of the in-
habitants of the West India Islands, principally during
Lent.

The sturgeon abounds in British Columbia, and in
Quebee, and other parts of Canada; it differs from the fish
of the same name of the European waters. It is caught

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—-FISHES. 305.

as large as 800 Ibs., and frequents not only the seas and
rivers, but the lakes of the country. The flesh is by
some considered excellent; it is dried by the Indians,
and is also salted. Generally speaking, however, the
flesh of the sturgeon is dry and tough, nor could we
expect aught else from a fish weighing several] hundred
pounds. Specimens reaching from 800 to 1,000 lbs.
have frequently been caught in the Danube in olden
times.

It is said that a good cook can obtain beef, mutton,
pork, or poultry from the flesh of the sturgeon, which is
very likely, as some of its flesh is quite white and some
the colour of rump steak. The sturgeons have, instead
of bones, soft flexible gristle.

There are few other fishes which are of greater use to
man than the sturgeon. In Russia a large proportion of
the population is supported by the sturgeon fisheries, and
they live chiefly on it. The flesh is there considered to
combine a certain firmness with excellent flavour, and is
even preferred to veal by many persons. They are either
salted, dried in the sun, or smoked, and thus shipped to
a great distance. The choicest species is the sterlet (A.
ruthenus), which seldom weighs more than eight or nine
pounds. It is in the Russian rivers that the different
species of sturgeon most abound, the principal ones
taken are Acipenser huso, A. Guldenstadtii, Brandt,
A. schipa, Guld., and A. stedlatus, Pallas. Besides their
flesh, other products obtained from them, as caviare,
isinglass, and vesiga, form a considerable portion of their
value.

The flavour of the flesh and the quality of the products
of the four species named differ very little. The aggre-
gate value of these may be estimated at £1,200,000, more
than half being made up of the fish frozen, salted, or
prepared in balyk, weighing in the aggregate perhaps
75 million pounds.

Besides the sturgeon, there are numerous other fishes
caught in Russia as the sander (Lewcopercus sandre), of
which 60,000,000 to 100,000,000 are taken ; the ordinary

xX. ‘

306 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

herring in the White Sea and the Baltic ; the herring of
the Volga and the Sea of Azov (Clhipea pontica, Kichu),
of which from sixty to one hundred millions are salted ;
the bream, of which upwards of fifty million are caught
in the Lower Volga, and large quantities in other quar-
ters; the lake smelt (Hperlanus), of which nine million
pounds are obtained from the Lake of Peypons alone.
The cod, carp, silurus, salmon, coregonus, and many
other fish are also caught in different localities.

The aggregate value of the Russian fisheries was
officially estimated in 1867 at 20,000,000 of silver roubles
(about £3,000,000 sterling), and the quantity of fish
taken annually from the waters of Russia, at 1,000 mil-
lion pounds’ weight, without counting those locally
consumed at the seats of the fisheries.** This amount
far surpasses the catch of the Newfoundland and other
large fisheries ; and with this enormous take of fish it
may well be asked why so little fish is exported from
Russia. The answer to this is that Russia has but little
sea coast, and that there is a very large demand for
supplying the population of 72,000,000.

It may also be added that during the greater part of
the fasts (which amount to over one hundred and fifty
days in the year), the Russian people have only fish
as their animal food, hence large imports have even to
be made to supply the demand. The import of salted
herrings yearly into Russia is from 300,000 to 500,000
barrels.

Not less than 396,000,000 pounds of fish are annually
caught in the waters of the Caspian Sea. Of this total
36,000,000 lbs. is sturgeon ; 7,200,000 Ibs. carp; sander
and pike, 95,400,000 Ibs.; bream, 49,500,000 lbs. ; shad,
108,000,000 lbs. ; and the rest is made up of other fish,
perch, silurus, coregonus, ete.

Besides the ordinary mode of salting, fish are prepared
in other ways in Russia, they are smoked, marinaded,
and simply dried in the open air or in an oven. This

* Danilewsky, “ Coup d’ceil sur les Pezheries en Russe.”

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 307

last method of drying in a furnace is only employed for
the lake smelt, the cod is dried in the sun in spring,
when the weather is still cold. The lampreys are alone
marinaded in quantities sufficient to be sent into com-
merce. There are smoked about a dozen million of small
herrings of Saroka, two species of mullet (Mugil saliens
and UW. auratus) taken on the southern coasts of the Black
Sea, and particularly about the Crimea, in millions, and
the chemaia (Aspius clupeoides, Pall.) which is in great
repute, and of which 1,500,000 to 2,500,000 are prepared.
They are preferred to red herrings, and appear on the
best: tables from St. Petersburg to Astrakan and Odessa.
The reputation of this fish is indicated by its popular
name, which is a corruption from the Persian chach-
mahé, signifying “ royal fish.”

Balyk.—A. considerable quantity of sturgeon and of
the so-called white salmon (Coregonus leucichthys, Pall.)
is prepared in what is called “balyk,”’ the Tartar word
for fish. This is only salted and dried, but so much care
and precaution is taken in the preparation, that the fish
acquires a special and exquisite flavour. As balyk is
only made in Russia, some details as to the processes
adopted may be interesting. Balyk is always prepared
in spring before the great heat commences, for later on,
it would be necessary to salt the fish more to prevent
its spoiling. At the fisheries on the northern part of the
Caspian Sea and those of the Sea of Azov, they only
employ for balyk the sturgeon (Acipenser Gulden-
stadtit,) and the belouga (4. huso), but on the Koura
in Transcaucasia they employ annually 300,000 sevrugas
(A. stellatus) to make an inferior quality of balyk called
“ djirim.”

it is hard and necessarily salt; but this is its chief
merit with the inhabitants of Kakhetie, the principal
market for it, as it incites thirst, which they quench
with the excellent wine of their country.

The fattest fish are chosen, and they commence by
removing the head and tail, and then the entrails and
lateral parts of the body, leaving only the back, which

x 2

308 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

forms what is properly called “balyk,” that is, fish of
excellence, balyk implying refined or prepared fish. The
parts of the fish removed, are salted in the ordinary
manner and employed as food by the fishermen and
working classes; but the coats of the stomach, which
are very fat, are sometimes prepared like balyk and
called tiochka. The backs of the sturgeons (A. Gulden-
stadtii), are left entire, each forming a balyk, but
those of the large huso are divided lengthwise and
crosswise, in many parts, to form balyks; for they
would else be too large and too thick for the salt to
penetrate. The backs are then placed in troughs, or
‘wooden reservoirs, well covered with salt, care being
taken that one balyk is separated from another, and
does not touch the wood, or it would infallibly be
spoiled or tainted. They are left in the salt for nine
or ten days, or for fifteen, if the weather is hot, and
the pieces large. To the salt, saltpetre is added, in
the proportion of 2 Ibs. to 1,500 lbs. of balyk, to give
it ared colour. There is also added the best kind of
pepper, cloves, and bay leaf. When it is thought the
fish is sufficiently penetrated with salt, it is removed
from the troughs, and is steeped for two days in fresh
water, or in the water of the sea of Azov, which is
preferred. When the steeping has removed the surplus
of salt, the fish is suspended in the air to mature, and
remains exposed to the direct rays of the sun; after’
which it is hung in sheds open at, the sides, so that
the air may freely reach the rows of fish hung to dry.
Here it is kept for a month or six weeks. When
it is ripe, or properly cured, it will be found covered
with a sort of mould, if this does not form it is an
indication that the fish is too salt. Notwithstanding
all the care given to the preparation, the balyks will
not all cure equally well; and there are those who at a
glance, from experience, will detect which are the best
by their deeper colour.

Good balyk, such as is prepared near the embouchures
of the Don and some parts of the littoral of the sea of

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 309

Azov, especially the northern and eastern coasts of the
peninsula of Kertch, is almost as tender as salted salmon,
of an orange brown colour,-and translucid. Its smell is
peculiar, and has nothing disagreeable about it, resem-
bling a little the odour of fresh cucumber; it should
not have an after-taste at all rancid or putrid, nor be
too salt. It is only skilful men who. can give to their |
balyk these good qualities, and although it is bought
cheap wholesale at the seat of production, it is often sold
to consumers as high as 3s.a pound." |

Vesiga.—Another edible. fish-product of Russia is
“ Vesiga,” which is the dried dorsal cord of several
species of sturgeon. When the fish has been gutted,
and the roe and the swimming-bladder removed, a small
incision is made in the flesh, and by inserting the finger,
the dorsal cord is removed in. the form of a long and
straight ribbon. This is carefully washed, and by
squeezing, the soft matter it contains is removed, and it
is then left for from three days to a week to dry in the
sun, according to the temperature. When thoroughly
dry, it is made up into packets, fifty of which weigh
about 36 lbs. <A packet of vesiga of the great sturgeon
or belouga (A. uso) will only consist of a dozen dried
dorsal cords, while there may be twenty in a package of
the vesiga of the common sturgeon (A. Guldenstadtii)
and other small species.

A thousand belougas of average size will furnish
ordinarily 180 pounds of vesiga, while the same number
of common sturgeon and sevruga will only yield about
thirty or forty pounds.. When the vesiga is boiled it
swells, and in this state it is cut into small pieces, which
enter into the composition of excellent fish-cakes.

The following is an estimate made in 1873, of the
products of the fisheries of the Caspian Sea and its
principal affluents, or one fishing district. alone of
Russia.*

i}

* A. Schultz, President. of the Administration of Fisheries,
Astrakhan, :

310 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Pouds of Value,
36 lbs. Roubles of 3s.
Belouga (A. huso) a8 «» 475,000 ... 1,288,000
Sturgeons (A. Guldenstadtii and

A. schipa) ... a5 .. 405,000 ... 1,620,000
Sevruga (A. stellatus)... re 65,000 ... 1,962,000
Sterlet (A. ruthenus) ... aes 50,750 ... 275,000
Carps ; 200,000 ... 120,000

Sanders (Lucioperca sandre)
and Pikes... Baa «.. 2,650,000 ... 2,450,000

Bream ... ‘es see . 1,375,000 ... 1,275,000
Shad... ner we ... 38,000,000 ... 1,050,000
Voblas (Leuciseus rutilus) ... 600,000 500.000
Perch and other small fish ... 760,0005 °° g

Siluruds ... ea sii 185,000 .. 315,000
Salmon ... ai is oer 33,000 ... 106,000
Whitefish (Coregonus)... sy 32,000 ... 103,000
Tsinglass ... ees we Pe 5,500 ... 600,000

Vesiga ... Fer bats = 4,000 ... 70,000:
Caviare of sturgeon... «» 139,000 ... 1,390,000
Do. of the sander and bream... 300,000 ... 300,000

10,279,250 13,424,000
Equal to about 185,000 tons, value £2,000,000.

Africa —tThe fishery is important on the coasts of Tunis.
About 1,000 ewt. of dried fish is shipped annually to.
Greece. The lake of Beguta abounds in fish ; the right of
fishing is let, and about 600,000 fish of from three to six
pounds weight each are sent from there to the Tunis
markets yearly. Another lake which separates Tunis.
from Goleta, is also full of fish.

The tunny fishery is carried on in summer from May
to July off Cape Bon and the island of Tonera, and
9,000 to 10,000 fish taken, which yield from 1,200,000
to 1,400,000 lbs. of fish annually; this is chiefly sent
pickled in barrels to Genoa, Leghorn, and Malta, but
some small portion is salted and put up in oil in tins.

The value of the maritime and private fishery in
Egypt is estimated at three million francs (£120,000.)
There are mullets and many other very delicate fish,
which are slightly smoked, or dried in the sun, The

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. oll

roes of the mullet are made into the botargo of com-
merce,

Senegal, and the sea which waters its coasts, abounds
in fish. The negroes take great quantities, which sup-
port the population, and a considerable quantity, sun-
dried, is carried into the interior.

Fish abound also in the archipelago of the Canary
Islands, and the inhabitants derive much of their food
from the fish, while large quantities salted are exported.

Teneriffe has important fisheries. Cod, sardines, her-
rings, and tunny are caught.

The number of fishing establishments which cover the
River Gaboon, evidence the occupation of the natives.
They load their pirogues with dried fish, which they sell
on the upper part of the lagoon, exchanging it for palm
oil. As a rule, it may be said of the Tropics that fresh fish
to be enjoyed, must be consumed on the day of the catch.

The population of the Gold Coast colony, with Lagos,
is estimated in round numbers at 400,000, and as these
live chiefly on fish, some conception can be formed of the
considerable catch there must be annually to supply such

amass. The curing shrimps and herrings forms a large
industry, and represents a considerable trade within the
colony and beyond its border. The people suffer much
‘from cutaneous diseases and ulcerations, which are attri-
« buted to the bad condition of the fish diet on which
they, as a rule, have to depend.

Indian Seas—The seas which surround the island of
Ceylon contain an enormous quantity and variety of
.. fish; hardly any place in the world has been so richly
endowed in this respect by nature.

The Maldive islands, under the protection of Ceylon,
maintain a large fishing industry, and yield considerable
exports. In 1882 they exported to Ceylon 1,600 tons
of dried and salted fish, worth £27,000. India also sent
to Ceylon 2,800 tons of salt fish, worth £47,000. This
salt fish is used all over Ceylon, asa relish with curries,
by the natives. Fresh fish also finds a ready market on
the sea coast, but the want of means of quick transport

312 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

inland confines its consumption to a distance of a day’s
journey from the coast.

In India and Burmah only a proportion of the people
consume fish as food, or rather, are able to do so without
infringing caste prejudices. Dr. Day tells us that in the
Punjib comparatively few of the inhabitants are thus
prohibited, although Brahmins and the rural population
in some places reject it; but among the residents of hilly
districts and towns its consumption is only limited by
the paucity of the supply and the cost of the article. In
the North-west provinces, Hyderabad, Mysore, and Coorg,
more than half the population are permitted by their
religion to consume fish. In Oudh the majority can do
so; in Sindh, nearly all except the Brahmins; in
Bombay, by far the largest proportion of the people; in
South Canara, 89 per cent.; in Madras, the majority,
the exceptions being Brahmins, goldsmiths, high-caste
Sudras, the followers of Siva, Jains, etc. ; in Orissa, more
than half the people; in Bengal proper, from 90 to 95
per cent.; in Assam and Chittagong, almost the entire
population; andin Burmah, in the form of ngapee, its use
is universal.

The sea-board of India and Burmah extends for about
4,611 miles, and the seas are much more abundantly
stocked with fish than are those of Europe. The dried
and salted fish sold in the different districts on the west
or Malabar coast of Madras is from £17,000 to £18,000
in value.

Wherever any quantity of water is present in the
East, there we are almost certain to find fishes, and this
from the sea level to nearly the summits of the highest
mountains. As soon as young fish are moving about, or
shortly after the monsoons have set in, men, women and
children obtain myriads of fry from paddy fields and
every sheltered spot to which they have retired for
shelter and security.

In Asia nearly every kind of fish that swims either in
salt or fresh water is greedily eaten by most natives; and
as many as 200 or 300 kinds of dried fish and different

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 313

preparations of them are to be found in the bazaars.
Owing to the high price of salt, which is a Government
monopoly, the cured fish have a very unpleasant odour
and flavour, for very often they are merely rubbed with
saline earth. The fish most in repute among Europeans
are the seer ( Oybiwm commersonii), the pomfrets (Stromateus
niger and S. argenteus), andthe mullets. The seer is sold
in cutlets, like salmon inEurope, and is in some respects
perhaps superior to salmon, more especially as regards
digestibility. Hilsah (Clupea ilasah) is a delicious fish,
either boiled, baked, or fried. When cured with tama-
rinds it forms a good substitute for herrings.

Pomfrets are also prepared in this way, and much
esteemed as a breakfast relish. The fish are cut in trans-
verse slices, and preserved in kegs with the acid pulp of
the tamarind fruit.

Burtah, the salted and spiced flesh of the suleah fish
(Polynemus sele) is a piquant relish well known at the
breakfast tables of Bengal.

The dried sounds or swimming-bladders of many
fishes are largely shipped to China and other parts under
the name of “fish maws,” singally and sozille; Poly-
nemus plebeius and P. indicus seem to furnish the greater
portion. These fish are caught of a great size and sold
in the Calcutta bazaar during the cold season.

The larger part of the salted fish imported by the
Burmese and Arabs was formerly re-shipped, chiefly to
Ceylon, 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 Ibs., but much is now used
athome. The following figures give the Indian trade of
the last few years ending 1st April, in pounds weight.

Imports. Exports.
Ibs. Ibs.

1876 ... aa we 8,615,873 asses 3,569,150
1877 ... ee w. «BF 556,508 ln... 5,222,889
1878 ... dice nee 5,105,957 4,633,987
1879 ... tes ai 6,710,842 a... 2,817,580
1880 ... ae w» 10,157,408... 1,810,850
1881 ... se aay 7,125,927 ssa 3,335,281
1882 ... se ve 12,811,805 4,324,769
1883 ... se ww» 10,621,929... 4,681,881

1884... ee 11,660,485 ws 7,890,854

314 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

Of the imports in the last-named year, 5} million
pounds came from the Straits Settlements.
_ The following figures show the trade in fish-maws,
shark’s fins, singally and sozelle, all species of isinglass
or fish glue.

Imports Exports.
Ibs. lbs.

1877... a ss 966,658 a... 483,150
1878... es sei 1,082,681... 411,895
1879... ise ae 1,238,728 a... 438,849
1880... re aa 1,145,968 —...... 523,658
1881... ae ad 979,014 oe 569,843
1882... ase ais 972,912 ssenns 447,340
1883... ais see 1,080,470 494,100
1884... see ase 1,126,372 1,612,014

The exports are made principally to Hong Kong and
Singapore, and some to Great, Britain.

There is a considerable local trade in salted fish
between the ports in the Bombay Presidency, and a good
deal is imported into the province from Diu, Goa, and
Katheawar. From Madras also some is sent to Burmah
and there is a large local trade in that province, much of
it being what is known as gnapee, fish in the form of
paste, generally used as a condiment with their rice by
the Burmese.

The imports of salted fish into India in 1883-84,
11,660,485 Ibs., were valued at £105,000. The fish
brought from Mekran and Sonmiani is salted whole
and is consumed in Western India.

The exports of salted fish from India by land in
1883-4 were 61,240 cwt., value £93,813, almost all to
Upper Burmah, the Northern Shan States, Karennee
and Siam. It is principally imported from the Straits
Settlements. Ngapee was also exported to those coun-
tries to the extent of 282,951 ewt., value £92,141.

Ceylon imported in 1879 74,322 ewt. of salted and
dried fish. The Cape Colony exported in that year
four million pounds of cured fish, principally to Mauritius.

In the Maldive Islands the flesh of the bonito (Thynnus
pelamys) is thus prepared, The backbone is removed and

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA — FISHES, 315

the fish laid in the shade and occasionally sprinkled with
sea-water. After a certain period has elapsed, the flesh
is wrapped up in cocoa-palm leaves and buried in the
sand, where it becomes hard. Fish thus prepared is
known in Ceylon and perhaps alJl over India by the
name of “cummelmums.” The pieces of fish, as brought
to market, have a horny hardness, and are rasped or
grated on rice to render it savoury.

One of the most exquisite of the Indian fresh-water
fish is the Gourami (Osphromenus olfar) a native of
Cochin China and the Eastern islands. It has been
introduced into Penang, Malacca, Mauritius, Reunion,
Cape of Good Hope, Australia and Cayenne, but has
not yet been successfully acclimatised in Europe. It.
somewhat resembles a carp and is covered like that fish
with large round scales. It is not less remarkable for
its size than for its excellent flavour, being usuaily
larger than a turbot and sometimes attaining twenty to
fifty pounds weight.

Its flesh is delicious. Commerson tells us that he
never ate anything more exquisite in the way of
fish, whether of the sea or of the fresh water. He
adds that the Dutch in Batavia rear these fishes in
large earthen vessels, renewing the water every day and
feeding them on nothing but fresh-water plants. It is
served in the East at the tables of the most opulent and
sumptuous, and at St. Denis, Reunion, a young gourami
will sell for 15s. or 16s.

West Indies—In Guadaloupe they have several river
fish which are esteemed, among others the Dormeur
(Philypirus dormitator), a sluggish fish with few scales,
its flesh is white and delicate, and transparent when
young. It attains a weight of six or eight pounds.

The Loche (Eleotris guavina) has a white, fine and
delicate flesh, but is rather inferior to the Dormeur. It
is only eaten fried, but like most of the river-fish has
many bones.

The Pancou (Godius martinicus) has white flesh, with
somewhat of the flavour of the eel, and resembles that

316 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

of the Loche, but is more firm and less delicate, and
one of the smallest of the fishes.

The Tetard (Eleotris gyrinus) is, of all the river-fish,
that of which the flesh is most esteemed and sought after.
The liver is large, and when cooked, has a slight per-
fume of orange flowers.

The Sarde (Pagellus calamus) is a large fish which
somewhat resembles a mullet, and will weigh six to eight
pounds.

The West Indies require large supplies of cured fish
for the negro population. In 1880 the imports into
Jamaica were,—dried or salted fish, 11,500,000 lbs.;
pickled fish, 50,000 barrels; besides 100,000 lbs. of
smoked fish.

Barbados in 1879 imported 90,574 ewt. of dried fish ;
Trinidad, 6,500,000 lbs. of dried, and 1,200 barrels. of
pickled fish ; British Guiana 81,832 ewt. of dried fish.

In Honduras two-thirds of the population, numbering
24,000 souls, live on fish, fresh or salted. Around Cuba
about 125,000 cwt. of fish are taken annually, and at
Porto Rico 9,000 ewt.

The import of fish into Jamaica in 1880 was to the
following amount, at invoice value :—

Saltfish .., ee 2a ae ase w. £106,336
Herrings ... oe ai ae ae a 28,968
Mackerel ... te aie as sa aus 20,309
Shad ae se es oer ve bs 2,729
Salmon ... i vs nee ee ace 1,800

£160,142

and other foreign fish to about £40,000. But there is
a very fair supply of fresh fish and turtle brought into
the markets by the native fishermen. The approximate
value of the coast fishery of Jamaica is about £30,000.
The callipeva, or Jamaica salmon (Mugel lisa) as it
has been called from its appearance, is classed with the
mullets, and generally held to be the finest fish of the
island. Itranks among three specially Jamaican dainties,

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES, 317

the other two being the ringtail pigeon and the moun-
tain or black land-crab. Almost all writers on Jamaica
have united in praising the variety, abundance and
superior quality of its sea and river fish.

Sharks as Food—Sharks are more commonly eaten as
human food than is generally supposed. In parts of
India their flesh is much valued and said to be very
palatable and nutritious. By seamen they are often
eaten as a change of food on board ship.

The picked or common dog-fish (Acanthias vulgaris ;
Squalus acanthias), if salted and dried, affords very fair
food. At Folkestone it is known as “Folkestone beef.”
In the west of Cornwall the flesh of the rough-horned
or lesser spotted dog-fish (Scyllium catulus) is used some-
times to make what is called “ Morghi” soup.

The flesh of the picked dog-fish is also sometimes
eaten in the northern countries fresh, but must be
skinned before being cooked. It is also dried like split
stock fish for consumption in Norway as well as for
export to Sweden, where it is greatly appreciated. The
fishermen on the coasts of France salt the flesh of Squalus
caniculata and. S. galeus for winter use.

At Morecambe Bay the fishermen contrive to sell all
the dog-fish they can catch, which are sent to Blackburn
and Preston for food, and are known as “Darwen
salmon.” It is stated that the people of these two towns
like them much, and the fishermen obtain as high a price
for them as for skate.

In Norway the flesh of the Greenland shark (Scymnus
borealis) is occasionally used for human food, being cut
up into long strips and dried in the open air or buried
in the ground until partially decomposed, when it is
taken up and prepared in a peculiar manner, so as to
become edible. It requires, however, an Arctic stomach
to digest it.

Bosman tells us that the negroes eat sharks on the
Gold Coast and to make their flesh tender they “lay
them a rotting and stinking for seven or eight days
after which they are greedily eaten as a delicacy.”

318 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Sharks of various species are plentiful about New
Zealand. They are taken in thousands by the Maories
and dried on poles for winter use. The species most
valued is the “smooth hound” (Hustelus antareticus),
which is the only shark that is properly edible, as it
subsists on shell fish and crabs, and has clean feeding
habits. Sharks are eaten in Japan.

There is a large trade carried on from India to China
in the fins of sharks and fish-maws, which are con-
sidered by the Celestials as a great food delicacy
From Bombay about 5,000 ewts. are annually shipped,
and from Madras 250 to 300 ewts. The shipments
from India of sharks’ fins, fish-maws, and other species
of fish isinglass have been already given. Sharks’ fins
are also sent from Akyab, Sumatra, Manilla, Borneo
and the Sandwich Islands. There are two qualities,
the white and the black fins, the former being the
dorsal fins which are uniformly light-coloured on both
sides and are reputed to yield more gelatine; the black
are the pectoral, ventral and anal fins, which being
less esteemed sell for a lower price. The species of
sharks taken in the Indian seas and from which the fins
are obtained are chiefly Rhyncobatis pectina, R. levis and
Galiocorda tigrina. The flesh of these sharks is also cut
off in long strips and salted for food by the natives.

We have a few more miscellaneous fish to speak of.

On the Atlantic coasts of the United States the flesh
of the sword-fish (Xiphias gladius, Lin.) is eaten, both
fresh and salted. Before being pickled the flesh is cut
into slices, and it is said to keep good for a year; in
Massachussetts several hundred barrels are put up an-
nually. The flesh is much esteemed in the Mediterra-
nean; itis of a dull red colour, but very palatable, and
a sword-fish steak makes an excellent substitute for
a salmon cutlet.

Oulachan.—The ulikon or oulachan (TZhaleichthys paci-
ficus, Gerard). This has long been an ichthyological
curiosity, and has been noticed by almost every traveller
who has visited the coasts of British Columbia and

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 319

South Alaska. It is a small silvery fish, averaging
about fourteen inches long, and in general appearance
much resembling a smelt. They are the fattest of
all known fish. Dried they serve as torches; when
a light is needed, the tail is touched with a match and
they will burn with a bright light for some time.
No description can give an adequate idea of their
numbers when ascending the rivers from the sea. The
water is literally alive with them and appears to be
boiling. Many native tribes come to these fisheries, which
begin about the third week in March. The first fish is
addressed as a chief; apologies are made to him by the
Indians for the necessity of destroying his kindred for
the supply of their own wants; a feast is given with
appropriate speeches, songs and dances in his honour,
and after that the fishing goes on. The fish are caught
in wicker baskets, and are dried or smoked as much as
their oily nature will allow. The fishery lasts a fort-
night or three weeks, and supplies many hundred
aborigines with food for a considerable period.

They enter the Fraser river in millions about the first
of May. They are delicious when fresh, smoked or
salted, and their oil is considered superior to cod-liver
or any other fish oil known. It is of a whitish tint,
about the consistency of thin lard, and is a staple
food and article of barter between the Indians of the
coast and the interior tribes. The fish are taken in purse
nets, frequently a canoe load at a single haul, and are
piled in heaps on the shore. They are then placed in bins
made of plank and having sheet iron bottoms holding
from three to five barrels, and are boiled in water about
four hours. The concoction is then strained through
baskets made from willow roots, and the oil is run into
red cedar boxes of about fifteen gallons capacity each.
When the run of fish is good each tribe will put up
about twenty boxes.

The surf smelt is almost as numerous as the oulachan,
and about the same size, eight inches long. It is an
excellent table fish. The very common smaller smelt is

320 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

prized at table, but the flesh is softer than that of the
surf smelt and oulachan. Anchovies are only second to
the oulachans in abundance, and may be taken with |
great ease during the autumn.

Carp.—The family of the Cyprinids is so large that
it embraces nearly half of all the fishes of Europe. It.
consists of more than fifty genera; but there are not
more than a dozen of any real importance.

The carp may be considered the head of this large
family. Dr. Horach possesses in Bohemia carp ponds
covering more than 100 hectares (about 250 acres). He
finds that between April and September the fish increase
10 per cent. in weight.

The carp, after the Salmo hucho, is one of the largest.
producers of flesh, for it is gluttonous and feeds on every-
thing, and is a great purifier of the waters. Its colour
varies with age, season, and the chemical composition of
the water in which it lives.

The weight of the carp from Upper and North
Lusatia, represented at Cottbus by their breeders, is
8,000 to 10,000 cwt.,and every year on the first Monday
of the Cottbus fall market, there is a so-called carp ex-
change for selling the fish, which are mostly sent to
Berlin by water. The carp in beer is a favourite dish
there, and about 500,000 lbs. are annually consumed in
that city.

Recently three species of carp have been introduced.
into the United States, the mirror carp, the scale carp,
and the leather carp.

In a recent communication Professor Baird expresses
great faith in the future of this new fish. He is satis-
tied that within ten years it will constitute a very pro-
minent portion of the animal food of the North American
continent. Although scarcely known in the United
States, and but little more, as an article of extended
application, in England and France, the carp is in Ger-
many and Austria cultivated to the highest degree, so as
to constitute a notable article of the market supply.

The carp will have 100,000 eggs per pound weight of

Q

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA— FISHES. 321

the female. Mr. Niklas (p. 17 of his “ Treatise on Fish
Ponds”) confirms this, for he found 650,000 eggs in a
carp of 54 lbs. weight.

The carp is much esteemed in France; it is seldom
obtained there heavier than 15 lbs., but on the Oder
they have been caught weighing 60 lbs. On draining
the marshes of that river, the carp were found in such
quantities that they employed them to fatten pigs. The
carp of the Saone in its fifth or sixth year is reported
to be excellent eating, while that of the Loire living in
clear and running waters is vile.

The carp is said by Rondolet to have been brought
into Europe from Persia, and introduced into Italy by
Lucullus. It was introduced into England by Marechal
in 1514, in Denmark by Oke in 1560, and into France
it is mentioned as early as 1312.

The tomcod (Gadus gracilis, Tilesius ; Microgadus proxi-
mus, Guard.), serve the natives of Alaska for food, either
boiled or in the frozen state. They are preserved by
removing the intestines and drying in large bunches
strung on seal line, or by throwing them as they are
caught in seines, and preserved frozen, in great heaps
upon staging erected for the purpose. They are among
the most palatable of the many fish found in those seas,
and the number preserved is so great as to be almost
incalculable.

The most abundant of the fresh-water fish in Finland
is the lavaret argente (Coregonus lavaretus, Lin.), which
salted constitutes the principal food of the people in the
interior. The roe is sold largely at the markets of Hel-
singfors and other principal towns, and is considered a
food delicacy.

Trout.—The common trout (Salmo fario, Lin.), a well-
known fresh water fish of the rivers and lakes of Europe,
is an excellent fish for the table. They are finest in
flavour from the end of May till the end of September.
The variations of its tints and spots, from golden yellow
to crimson and greenish black, are almost infinite, and
depend in a great measure on the nature of its food, for

322 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFEREXT NATIONS.

the colours are always the most brilliant in those fish
that feed on the water shrimp; and these are also the
most highly prized for the table. The flesh of the gray
trout (Salmo feror) is very inferior in quality to this
species. The lake trout (Salmo lacustris, Lin.) and the
Swiss charr (S. wmbla, Lin.) ae both esteemed fish of the
lakes of Switzerland.

The bull trout (Salmo esox), according to Mr. Buck-
land, are not such good eating as the salmon proper ;
their flesh is white and not so tasteful as that of the
salmon. The reason of this is as yet unexplained. In
the local markets in Wales the price is slightly less per
pound for bull trout than for salmon, but the great
market for them is in France. The fish hawkers some-
times clip the round tail of the bull trout into a square
shape, and sell the fish for salmon. The bull trout of
the Cognet sometimes attains a considerable size; one
was caught in 1878 which weighed 223 lbs.

The delicate flavour of the brook trout or American
charr (Salmo [Salvelinus] fontinalis, Mitchell), is known to
all. As Aldrovandus quaintly expresses it, “The salmon,
the grayling, and the trout, all fish that live in clear
and sharp streams, are made by their mother Nature, of
such exact shape and pleasant colours purposely to
invite us to joy and contentedness in feasting with
her.” St. Ambrose of old called the grayling the “ flower
fish.”

Salnon.—Formerly the salmon of the Tweed was all
pickled and salted, after being boiled, and sent to Lon-
don under the name of Newcastle salmon. Within the
memory of some old people, salted salmon formed a
material article of food in the farmhouses of the Vale of
Tweed, insomuch that indoor servants often bargained
that they should not be obliged to take more than two
meals of salmon weekly. It could then be bought
fresh at 2s. per stone, now it is usually that price per
pound,

The average value of Salmo salar sold in London
may be stated at £250,000. In 1869 32,450 boxes of

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 323

120 lbs. were sold in Billingsgate Market. In 1870
and 1881 the supplies were drawn from the following
sources :—

1870. 1881.
Scotch ... as Jee ws = 20,648 23,905
Trish... dea ees oan GOT kicwes 10,633
Dutch... ... os ve 626s 638
Norwegian... aes a6 8520 kes aee 573
English and Welsh ... aes 3,120... 3,709

34,457 39,458

In 1871 35,275 boxes, weighing 1,7 64 tons, were dis-
posed of at Billingsgate, and besides this some 14,000
boxes were sold in the Midland towns and other

places.
' In 1879 24,422 boxes of salmon were received at
Billingsgate, in 1880 31,471 boxes.

ARRIVALS OF SaLtuMon IN LonpDon.

In Boxes, averaging 2 cwt.

1881. 1882. 1883. 1884.

Scotch ... bie 23,817 22,968 34,506 27,219

Trish eng ey 10,633 4,720 9,033 5,979
English ... ch 1,875 2,186 2,261 1,591
Berwick ... 0... 1,692 1,412 2,263 1,774
Norway ... sia 466 167 345 426
Sweden ... ies 107 52 50 531
Dutch... ie 370 1,402 2,026 1,497

38,960 32,907 50,484 39,017

The average annual value of the salmon caught in the
Severn in the last ten years was over £12,000; 19,500
fish were taken in 1881, 15,500 in 1882, and 30,000 in

1883, weighing 174 tons.
¥2

324 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

In the district of the Tyne the take of salmon has
Leen as follows :-—

No. No.
1870... «. 36,450 1877 was .. 41,300
1871... ... 120,600 1878... .. 48,150
1872... ... 129,100 1879... .-. 20,670
1873... ... 86,792 1880... ws 45,688
1874... ... 21,746 _ 1881... aw. 45,946
1875 we ... 23,290 1882. w= 41,110
1876... ... 24,840 1883 ..» 82,566

About 250,000 salmon, weighing in all 1,418,000
Ibs., were taken in England and Wales in 1883, against
1,000,000 lbs. weight caught in 1882. These figures do
not, however, represent the aggregate catch in the whole
of the salmon rivers.

The quantity of salmon from the Irish fisheries sent
off in 1870 was as follows, to—

Boxes Value

Nottingham ... wee ase 250 suas £1,750
Wolverhampton ea a 300... 2.100
Bradford aa as aes 800... 5.600
Sheffield ve ate wie 800... 5,600
Leeds ... see eure aie 23000 anaes 7,000
Birmingham ... weg «2.000... 14 000
Manchester... se ave “S,D00° exes 24 500
Liverpool _ ie wt G2ABB eeseee 14.966
London ois ie sve 92TT gaceys 73,688
19,899 149,204

Each box then weighed on the average 120 Ibs, and was priced at
1s, 2d. per Ib.

The salmon sent to England from Ireland in 1878
was 44,6374 boxes, computed at Is. 3d. per lb., value
delivered £418,476. The proportion was, to London
4,378 boxes, to Nottingham 2,793, Bradford 3,679, Man-
chester 6,555, Sheffield 4,641, Wolverhampton 3,110,
Leeds 4,000}, Liverpool 8,761 boxes, Birmingham 6,720.
In 1877 the total quantity sent from Ireland was rather
larger, namely, 47,934 boxes.

Besides the above shipments, 2,880 boxes were sold in

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 325

the Dublin market, and no doubt much also in other
large towns, and the aggregate value may be set down
at nearly £200,000. In 1880, 9,660 boxes were sent to
London.

Salmon Fisheries of Canada—The salmon and trout
fisheries have greatly increased under careful culti-
vation. Many salmon ladders have been built, and
thousands of ova have been hatched artificially and
distributed through the Dominion. In streams that till
lately were devoid of salmon these fish are now to be
found in abundance, The captures were in 1872 :—

Nova Scotia ... 6,690 barrels, valued at 144,195 dols.
Quebec ... we AIDS 55 45 65,830 __,,
New Brunswick... 8.291 _,, 5 210,386 ,,
Ontario ... ww. 7586 ,, _ 60,688 ,,
Total .-- 26,720, - 481,099 ,,

_ The Californian salmon, the Onchorhynchus quinnat,
(Salmo quinnat, Rich) is a handsome fish, with silvery scales
and a deeper body and less delicate look than the salmon
of Europe; but the quality of the flesh is quite equal to
the latter.

From the annual report of the Oregon Board of Trade
we learn that the salmon catch of the spring and summer
of 1880 yielded 530,000 cases. In 1875 a catch of 231,500
cases was considered enormous; 1877 yielded 400,000
cases, and 1879 as many as 435,000 cases. This rapid
increase shows the vast extent and financial value of the
Oregon salmon fisheries. Of the half million and more
eases packed in 1880, 211,522 cases were sent to San Fran-
cisco, and 239,241 cases shipped direct to Great Britain.

The fisheries of British Columbia are among the
richest in the world. They are probably only equalled
by those on the eastern coast of Canada. The most
important fish is the salmon, of which there are six
species or varieties. Those of Fraser river are justly
famous; they make their way up the river for 1,000
miles. The silver salmon begin to arrive in March or
early in April, and last till the end of June. Their

8326 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

average weight is from four to twenty-five pounds, but
they have been caught weighing over seventy. The
second kind are caught from June to August and are
considered the finest. Their average size is only five to
six pounds. The third coming in August, and continuing
till winter, average seven pounds and are an excellent
fish. The noan, or humpback salmon, comes every second
year, lasting from August till winter, weighing from six
to fourteen pounds. :

The hookbill arrives in September and remains till
winter, weighing from twelve to fifteen and even forty-
five pounds. Salmon is sold in the capital, Victoria,
at 3d. to 4d. per pound and there seems to be no
limit to the catch. The salmon fisheries in the pro-
vince now employ about 5,000 men during the season.

It is while making their annual pilgrimage from the
sea that the salmon are caught, generally near the en-
trance to the streams, though often many miles inland,
and prepared for market. The salmon has always been
one of the most important of the various forms of food
used by the Indians of the Pacific coast, who annually
gather along the streams and catch thousands of them,
drying them in the sun for winter use. Long ago the
Hudson’s Bay Company began salting them for its own
use, and of late years many canning factories have been
established at favourable points, where thousands of cans
are prepared for market annually.

The salmon packed on the Columbia river (American
section), in 1883, was 629,438 cases, from the Cali-
fornian and Alaska fisheries 210,978 cases, and from
British Columbia 196,292 cases, making a total for the
Pacific coast of 1,036,708 cases of four dozen pound cans
each.

Preserved Salmon is conspicuously the poor man’s
luxury, and with the capacity of purchase by the lower
classes in England and on the Continent of Europe, the
rise or fall of the market must materially depend.

The first cargo of canned salmon of the catch of 1880,
from the Columbia River, when cleared from Port-

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES, 827

land, Oregon, for Liverpool, England, comprised 56,756
cases, each containing four dozen one pound cans,
or their equivalent. The gross weight was over 1,400
tons. Two other ships followed soon after, both taking
nearly full cargoes. Large consignments were also
received at San Francisco, for reshipment to England,
Australia, and New York. The steamer Oregon, from
Portland, June 25th, brought 22,546 cases, the largest
invoice of the season if not the largest single shipment
ever made to San Francisco from the Columbia River.

The business has grown rapidly, until now salmon-
packing is the largest industry, save wheat-growing, in
the north west, and more salmon is put up on the
Columbia river than in all other localities in the world.
In the year 1881, the quantity packed consisted of
540,000 cases at 5 dollars, against 4,000 cases in 1866 at
16 dollars. Between Cape Disappointment and the
Cascades there are thirty-tive canning establishments
and more than a dozen fishing stations. The greater
part of the indoor work is done by Chinamen, of whom
about 4,000 are employed on the river.

The Californian salmon is one of the largest of this
family. Its average weight in the Sacramento River is
twenty pounds, while in overgrown individuals it is as
high as 100 pounds. Its flavour when fresh, and pro-
perly cooked, is scarcely inferior to that of the Atlantic
coast salmon, (Salmo salar), and in the markets of Cali-
fornia and as far eastward as New York, it is sought asa
luxury and commands a high price. Prepared in cans
it finds a wide market throughout the United States
and Australia. In the season of 1875, 13,000,000 lbs.
were put up at the different canning establishments on
the Columbia river, worth on the average 6d. per
pound.

In 1876, twenty million pounds of salmon were ex-
ported. The catch of salmon in the rivers Sacramento
and San Joachim in the year ending, August, 1879, was
4,432,250 lbs. The river Columbia furnishes 45 million
pounds annually. Astoria, in Oregon, is the centre for

328 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

canning, there being seven establishments there.. The
principal one, that of Mr. Booth, sends away 23 million
pounds annually. There are over forty establishments
in all on the Pacific coast, and for 100 days in the year
they work night and day in putting up fish. The prin-
cipal catch isin June. It is estimated that in the pro-
vince of Alaska alone, 12 million salmon are taken
yearly; two million are dried annually in the river
Yukon, this fish forming the chief food of the Indians.

The spring salmon, as it is termed, is the principal
kind used on the Pacific coast for canning, as it is the
best of the family ; its flesh being rich and delicate, and
by many considered far superior in flavour to any of the
European varieties. This species averages ordinarily
from 15 to 40 Ibs. in weight, and is only valued at Is. the
fish when sold in the market fresh. A person can stand
at any of the cataracts above the river Columbia, and
with a scoop net capture from thirty to fifty in an hour,
as they crowd each other, while preparing for a leap.
They are also speared by the Indians and netted. In
about four months, four to five million pounds weight
of salmon will be taken.

The fish are either salted, sent to the smoke-house, or
prepared for canning. This latter process is now the
means generally adopted for exportation, and is the most
successful, as the packages are of convenient size, port-
able and sold at such a price as to enable even the
foreign labouring classes to indulge in the luxury of
fresh or spiced salmon on festal occasions.

To prepare the fish for canning they are first cleansed
in the most thorough manner, and cut into slices of
one or two pounds, according to the size needed. These
pieces are then put into a can of the required size, and
with them is placed some spice to flavour them. They
are then covered up, except a small hole in the top
of the can to allow steam to escape, placed in a boilex
filled. with boiling salt water and allowed to remain
there a specific time; they are then taken out and boiled
for half-an-hour in fresh water; the cans are then

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES, 329

soldered air-tight, and are ready for shipment. Some
persons boil the can in three waters, but two is the usual
number. This canned fish is now eagerly sought for in
the principal markets of Europe and Asia for its excellent
flavour. A large quantity is also smoked and barrelled,
but this is used at home, except a small portion which is
shipped to the Sandwich Islands.

Salmon canning is one of the most valuable indus-
tries of British Columbia, and there seems to be no
limit to its extension. In 1876 there were only three
canning establishments, which put out 8,300 cases, each.
containing four dozen one pound tins. In 1883 there
were thirty-one canneries, with an out-put of probably
320,000 cases, or 15,360,000 lbs.

The king salmon (Onchorhynchus orientalis, Pallas), is
the chowicpee of the Russians and the largest and finest
of the Alaska salmon, reaching a weight of sixty to
ninety pounds. It is dried for winter use by the
natives All dried fish is called Ukali, or Yookalee, by the
Russians. This is prepared by cutting the fish in three
slices, after removing the head, leaving the backbone in
the middle slice, and all three connected by the tail.
Two or three dry chowicpee ukali will weigh at least
fifty pounds, and one is accounted sufficient for a day’s
food for six men. The more northern the ground
where the fish are taken, the finer their flavour; and
the chowicpee of the Yukon were held in such esteem
that several hogsheads were annually salted for the
Emperovr’s table by the Russians.

The salmon fishery of Newfoundland is abundant, but
of secondary importance to the cod fishery. The method
of taking the fish is generally in nets. So plentiful is
the supply of fresh salmon during the season in St.
John’s, that it is often sold at 2d. to 3d. the pound.
Salmon abound in many of the rivers, and the innumer-
able streams and lakes teem with trout, which are fre-
quently of large size, five or six pounds.

About 3,000 tierces and barrels of salted salmon are
shipped annually, chiefly to the States and the United

330 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Kingdom, and preserved salmon to the value of £400 or
£500. Six or seven hundred barrels of trout are also
sent away to Spain and the United States, and 400 to
500 kegs of cod’s tongues and sounds, 1,300 barrels of
mackerel and 700 cwt. of halibut.

The fishing of salmon in the Dutch rivers is lange In
1874, 77,070 fish were caught at Krelingen, a village in
the neighbourhood of Rotterdam, which is the centre of
the trade. There were sold in 1882, 55,079 fish.

In 1877 the produce of the salmon fishery in Norway
was 905,454 pounds. It is exported almost exclusively
to England fresh, preserved in jee. The smoked salmon
is equally esteemed ; it is consumed for the most part in
Norway, but a certain quantity is exported to Denmark
and Germany. The price has gone up considerably ; two
years ago a pound of fresh salmon was rarely worth
more than 3d. or 4d., while now it brings from 6d. to 7d.

The preparation of salmon in oil commenced in Sweden
in 1864, and is carried on for about three months of the
year. The quantity put up by one firm in 1877 was
29,140 boxes or tins, sold at 1s. 3d. per box.

Enormous quantities of salmon are caught in the
Petchora, Mezene, Dwina, Onega, Vazoukha and other
affluents of the White Sea. It is rarely’ smoked, but
generally salted. The best is that of the Onega and the
Dwina.

Halibut.—On the coast of Mommane very many hali-
but (Hippoglossus maximus) are taken, and salted down
for consumption in the interior.

Halibut are found in great numbers on the Pacific
coast of North America, especially off the west coast of
Queen Charlotte Island, where they are frequently taken
upwards of 100 pounds in weight, and often twice that
size. The Indians of that region catch and dry them
for food.

Halibut in America are to some extent salted (espe-
cially the heads), some parts are smoked (principally the
bass and the bellies). The cheeks are considered a deli-
cacy. Salted halibut heads are sold at 20s. to 26s. per

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. aol

barrel. The white naped halibut are worth 100 per
cent. more than the black naped.

In London this fish is occasionally seen in the markets
in the months of March and April; it is sold in slices at
a low price by the pound. The Jews are very fond of
it. The flesh, though white and firm, is dry, and the
muscular fibre coarse; the head and fins are the best

arts.

United States Fisheries—The export of American
fishery products is comparatively small, owing to the
fact that the demand for home consumption is really
greater than the supply, and is constantly on the increase.
In 1880 the total value of exported fish products
amounted to £1,550,000 of which England received about
half, consisting chiefly of canned preparations. In 1882,
according to the returns of the census, the value of the
fisheries of the sea, the great rivers, and the lakes of the
United States was placed at $43,046,053, and that of
those of the minor inland waters at $1,500,000; in all
$44,546,053. These values were estimated upon the basis
of the prices of the products received by the producers,
but if average wholesale prices had been considered, the
value would have been much greater. In 1882, the yield
of the fisheries was much greater than in 1880, and prices
both at first hand and at wholesale were higher, so that
a fair estimate at wholesale market prices would place
the value of the exports at that time rather above than
below the sum of £2,000,000.

The practice of setting aside the surplus of the city
fish markets in seasons of plenty to meet the demand
when fish are scarce or entirely out of season, has led
to the establishment in New York of enormous re-
frigerators, or buildings for “cold storage,” in which
tons of fresh fish are securely locked up in ice and kept
for months. The magnitude of this cold storage busi-
ness and its relative novelty have attracted to it no little
popular attention.

Less generally known, but probably of greater finan-
cial and economic importance, is the business that has

332 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

grown up there in drying, pickling, and smoking fish.
For the most part the city cured fish are taken by
fishermen under contract, and roughly salted at sea.
They are mainly cod, mackerel, and salmon. Other
establishments are directly engaged in sea and shore
fishing. One firm, which cures from 15,000 to 40,000
pounds of fish a week, makes a speciality of smoked
shad and sturgeon. The sturgeon are taken in drift
- nets off the coasts of Florida and Georgia. The nets are
100 fathoms long and 20 fathoms deep, the sturgeon
often weighing from 300 to 500 pounds each. Ocea-
sionally the capture of a large shark or alligator gives
serious and unprofitable diversity to the work of the
fishermen. When caught the sturgeon are cleaned, the
back bone is cut out, and the sides packed in ice and
sent to Savannah. There the fish 1s packed in fresh ice
and shipped by steamer to New York. The sides are.
cut in slices, pickled in brine for four hours, dried,
and smoked. The drying takes about six hours and the
smoking fourteen hours. The smoke is made from
hickory wood and cedar sawdust, and the smoking room
is hot enough to thoroughly cook the fish. Other fish
. are smoked in substantially the same way. The sturgeon
roe is immediately treated to successive washings, passing
each time through sieves to cleanse it thoroughly, and
is then packed in salt. The same parties have sturgeon
fisheries in Delaware, and eel fisheries there and in New
Jersey. The best and fattest eels are said to come from
the mouth of the Shrewsbury River. The eels are
thoroughly scrubbed to remove the slime, and either
smoked or put up in jelly. Herrings are smoked and
also put up in kits in pickle. Considerable quantities of
smelts from the coast of Massachusetts are smoked, also
many lake whitefish, which are accounted particularly
fine in flavour. Mackerel smoked round when fresh—
Boston smoked—is becoming a popular preparation. All
the fish to be smoked are brought to the city fresh,
packed in ice, except salmon, which during part of the
year is pickled,

-

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 333

The home and foreign demand for fish cured in New
York is large and rapidly increasing. The industry pro-
mises to become very great.

The pompano (Zrachynotus carolinensis), a member of
the mackerel family, is the champion of the sub-tropical
waters, and so esteemed as a delicacy that it fetches as
high as 4s.a pound in New York. There sre several
other species, as T. ovatus, T. glaucus, &e.

Another much hunted fish is the Spanish mackerel
(Cybium maculatum), which is fat, delicate and savoury.

In North America the losh (Lota maculata) grows to a
very large size, sometimes weighing sixty pounds, and
forms an acceptable dish in the absence of the white
fish of the lakes, which are usually also fat and excellent
eating. The flesh of the losh is comparatively hard and
dry, and the fish are chiefly valued for their livers and
roe. The liver is of a triangular shape, weighing a pound
or two, and is an extremely rich and delicate morsel when
broiled. It affords a pint or so of sweet rich oil, used by
the Russians in cooking, and which doubtless might be
employed instead of cod liver oil.

White Fish and other Lake Fish—No more delicious
repast can be offered than a fine Mackinaw trout, caught
from the depths of his cool retreat; but when pickled
and packed for future market, much of the flavour is
lost, or so incorporated with the brine, that they lose
caste in comparison with their smaller and more
numerous rivals the white fish. These fish range in
weight from three to six pounds, and in some rare
instances attain treble that weight. In size and general
outline, they resemble the eastern shad, but upon close
examination prove more symmetrical and striking.

It would be useless to give the names of all the
prominent kinds caught in the American lakes, but
among the different varieties of trout, maskalonge,
siscowet, white fish, bass, perch, cat fish, and sturgeon,
enough are found to hold strong competition with the
best taken along the Atlantic. There are innumerable
species of small fish to be found in the lakes which are

334 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

highly prized, but for extensive packing and profitable
investment as an article of traffic, white fish stand con-
Spicuous.

The excellence of the white fish as an article of food
is described by all travellers in the Northern regions of
America, where it forms the staple diet of the Indians
and trappers during a large part of the year. It is a
plump-bodied fish, free from small bones, with firm,
delicately flavoured flesh in large white flakes. As an
article of food it is highly nutritious; but at the same
time free from the rich cil which renders the salmon so
cloying to the appetite if constantly used as food. The
size of the full grown fish is pretty uniform if caught in
the same locality; but in some places they reach a
weight of 20 lbs., and even 40 lbs., while in others the
average is about 2 lbs. weight, the difference being no
doubt due to the paucity or abundance of their favourite
food, which consists of small crustaceans and sheil fish.
They grow rapidly and are very fertile, the number of
egos deposited by the female being about 10,000 for
every pound weight of fish. They have the great
advantage of being in season and procurable at all times
of the year, although they have regular migrations from
the shallows to the deeper waters of the lakes for the
purpose of spawning.

One of the most valuable fish of Canada is this white
fish (Coregonus albus), a species of salmon common to
most of the lakes in the North-West and called by the
Indians “attehawmeg.” It is esteemed the prince of
fresh-water fish, and affords the staple food of thousands
in the remoter parts of the country; it varies in size,
and is caught principally in the autumn, when it is
spawning, and is consequently in its worst condition.
These fish are hung up in bunches of a dozen, by means
of sticks passed through the tails, and dried and frozen ;
when sufficiently solid they are brought down and stored.
The value of these fish annually cured on the American
and Canadian lakes has been estimated at about £200,000,
besides the larger amount consumed fresh. The winter

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—-FISHES. 335

supply is caught with nets in the shallow water on some
of the lakes, between October and November. This
practice is injurious and a reduced capture has ensued.

An ice factory in New Orleans has introduced a new
way of shipping fish, particularly red snappers. They
are frozen in cakes of ice, or rather cakes of ice are
frozen around the fish, and in this condition they are
forwarded to all sections of the country.

Flying Fish—There is a sea fish which must not be
passed over without notice, and that is the flying-fish
(Exocetus volitans). Of this there are three species or
varieties met with in the North Atlantic, the large
double-winged, the smaller double-winged, and the
single winged, but there would seem to be other varieties.

In the ocean near the frontier island of Barbados they
are very plentiful, and are a source of profit to the negro
fishermen, who take them with the cast net; they are
afterwards baked in a plantain leaf and sold to the
ships in harbour. Some of these fish are fourteen inches
in length. They have been likened to the herring, but
except in size there is not much resemblance.

The species Exocetus Robertii is that caught in large
numbers about the island of Barbados from the Ist of
November to the end of July by about 250 boats,
manned by three or five men. In a few hours they will
get fifty or sixty fish, with which they will return; these
are sold at about 1d. each, but often if the fish are
abundant they will not fetch more than 2s. the thousand,
and often they are only useful for manure. In 1880
they were selling at 2d. the 100. The best time is from
March to May, when the fish are fat and succulent, and
they are then called gulf fish. These fish are occasionally
preserved in oil or vinegar to be sent to other islands,
and it is strange that a larger export trade is not carried
on.

Zanzibar has a large import trade of dry and salt fish,
principally shark and seer fish. The import of cured
tish averages in annual value £30,000, representing about
500 tons, the greater part of which comes to the capital.

336 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

There is a fish custom-house at Zanzibar, and a regular
salt fish market, where the fish is sold wholesale, fetching
on an average 12s. per cwt. It is afterwards retailed to
the working population at about 2d. per lb. Dried fish
is the staple animal food of the poor and labouring
population there, both free and slave; it is either grilled
or cooked with a little roughly prepared curry, and served
as a relish with the evening meal of rice, or more com-
monly meal porridge, in every hut and cottage, two or
three ounces sufficing for each person. Any other
description of animal food is rarely within the means of
natives of the labouring classes, except in the case of
those residing on the coast, who at times can procure
fresh fish at equally low prices, as well as a great variety
of shell fish during the spring tides. There is a consider-
able quantity of sharks and small fish cured in the coast
villages, principally for home consumption. The price
of fresh fish‘may be considered high, being fully half as
much as is paid in London for fish of similar qnality.
The octopus is also dried in great quantities by the
native fishermen, and being sold at a very low price is
largely eaten by the natives. Its use is liable to cause
a very unsightly disease.

The unctuous lumpsucker (Cyclopterus himpus) is not
much used in this country for food, although it is said to
be considered a great delicacy in Edinburgh. The roe
is remarkably large. When boiled it forms an extremely
fat and oily food. The name of sea snail is sometimes
given to it, from the soft and unctuous texture of it,
resembling that of the land snail. It is almost trans-
parent and soon dissolves and melts away. On the
shores of Greenland and Kamschatka these fish often
attain a foot to eighteen inches in length. The flesh of
the fish, which is soft and oily, is devoured with avidity
by the inhabitants of Greenland, who esteem it as highly
nutritive and delicious.

New Zealand Fish—There occurs in the fresh water
lakes of New Zealand a little fish very nearly resembling,
both in appearance and flavour, our English whitebait.

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA-——FISHES, 837

The natives cook them by rolling them up in bundles in
the leaves of the Phormium tenaz, or New Zealand flax,

-and bake them in ovens in the ground, precisely as do
the Fijians. When thus cooked they form a delicious
repast.

The New Zealand seas and coasts abound in whole-
some fish, suitable both for immediate use in a fresh
state, and for preserving as an article of commerce.
There are about 150 kinds of indigenous fish and many
Europeans ones have been introduced.

The first on the list of marketable fish is the hapuka
(Oligorus gigas), a fish having a close affinity to the
famous Murray cod of Australia. The head and shoulder
of this fish is most dainty food, but the flesh of the
remainder is somewhat coarse and stringy. It is, how-
ever, well adapted for pickling, and may yet become a
valuable article of commerce. ;

The kahawai, sometimes called the native salmon
(Arripis salar), is excellent eating and weighs from two
to seven pounds,

The commonest fish is the snapper (Pagrus unicolor),
which has a brilliant metallic lustre, and is of an average
weight of five pounds. Large numbers are taken by
the natives, Further south it is represented by an
allied species, the tarakihi (Chilodactylus macropteros), a
very common fish in the market.

The trumpeter (Latris hectori), called kohikohi by the
natives, is considered the best flavoured of the New Zea-
land fishes. The frost-fish or para of the natives
(Lepidopus caudatus) is one of the most delicious fish in
the southern seas.

Many of the lakes and ponds in New Zealand abound
with carp, of the species known as Prussian carp
(Carassius vulgaris). These were first introduced into
Tasmania from Europe. In Lake Taupo, North Island,
especially, they are in very large quantities. The tem-
perature of this lake only varies from 54° in winter to
63° in summer, so that it is peculiarly suitable for this
fish.

Z

338 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

The trevally (Caranz georgianus) is a highly esteemed
fish and very common. The flesh is delicate, but gets
coarser in the large-sized fish.

The warchou (Neptonemus brama) is a very valuable
fish, and forms one of the chief articles of diet among the
natives in Cook’s Straits. It sometimes weighs twenty
to thirty pounds, but usually is much smaller. The
flesh is rich, with a delicate flavour.

The rock cod or coal fish (Percis colias) is the most
commonly caught fish along the coast, and averages
about five pounds. They are largely consumed by the
natives ; the quality of the flesh is improved by slightly
salting it for twenty-four hours.

The flesh of the king-fish (Seriola lalandii) is rich and
well-flavoured ; it sometimes weighs forty pounds. The
Maories prize them very highly, and the coast tribes send
them inland as gifts.

The butter-fish (Coredodaw pullus), known as marare
among the natives, is a stock fish in the markets during
the winter months. It is good eating, being exceedingly
short in the grain and well flavoured, without being
rich ; every part of the fish is singularly deficient in oil.
It weighs from four to five pounds. It is a singular fact
that the bones of this fish are of a bright green colour,
and this is so persistent that it resists prolonged macera-
tion, bleaching and even boiling.

‘The patiki or flat fish (Rhombo-solea monopus) is a staple
fish in the market, and the flavour is very good.

The gar-fish (Scomberor Forsterii) is a small fish but
much esteemed by the colonists for the table.

Tasmanian Fish—With a population of only 120,000
persons it cannot be expected that the fishing industry
of Tasmania can be very extensive; nevertheless it is
estimated that there are about 1,050 persons directly
dependent upon the capture and sale of fish, and Hobart
Town is the chief centre of the industry. *

* R. M. Johnston, F.L.S., in the “ Proceedings of the Royal
Society of Tasmania, 1882.”

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES, 339

Out of the 188 known species of fish of the Tasmanian
waters, there are about a third good edible fish. The
most important fresh-water fishes, so far as the market
is concerned, are

Lates colonorum.—Brackish-water perch.

Gadopsis marmoratus.—Blackfish.

Anguilla australis—The common eel.

Retropinna Richardsoni.—The smelt or whitebait.

Prototrocles maranena.—The fresh-water herring.

Various species of Galarias. The first-named three are
the only fish attaining any size; the remainder are
small, valued for their quality as food, and in most
cases for their wonderful abundance throughout nearly
all the rivers and streamlets of Tasmania.

Lates colonorum is a well-known fish in Australian
waters, although limited in Tasmania. The Chinamen
cut a slit down the back of the fish, and put them into a
composition which they keep secret; they then hang
and dry them, without removing the intestines.

_ The black-fish somewhat resembles a small ling in
markings and general appearance. It is much esteemed
as food, and is welcome fare to the bushmen and settlers
who are far removed from the centres of population.
Their average weight is three to four pounds, although
they do attain to ten pounds. The common eel is very
abundant, some have been taken over 30 lbs. in weight,
and over twenty inches in girth.

The fresh-water herring or cucumber fish, although
rarely exceeding ? lbs. weight, and twelve inches long,
is perhaps the finest of the native fresh-water fishes.

The fish passing as whitebait, in Tasmania, are
Retropinna Richardsoni, Gill, Galaxias attenatus, and a
species of Atherina. They are much esteemed as food
for the breakfast table.

The lamprey, though abundant in some rivers, seems
not to be in favour in the markets, as they are rarely
seen there.

Passing now to the marine fishes; of the perch family
as far as the fish market is concerned, the most impor-

Zz 2

340 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

tant members are Anthias rasor, the Tasmanian barber
or red perch; Arripis salar, the native salmon, and A.
truttaceus, the native salmon trout. The first of these
from its quality is highly esteemed. The second enter
rivers and wharves in myriads at certain seasons. The
trout is but the immature form of <A. salar. They
sometimes reach 7 lbs. weight, but are most esteemed
as food when they are under 1 lb. weight.

The snapper (Pagrus unicolor) is seldom seen in the
southern waters of Tasmania. This splendid fish seems
to favour the warmer latitudes, for it abounds and
forms the chief market supply, along the coasts of
Australia.

The perch and trumpeter family is by far the largest
and most important, so far as the edible fishes of Tas-
mania are concerned.

The real or Hobart Trumpeter (Latris hecatei, Rich.)
is deservedly held in high repute as the finest of the
Australian edible fishes. It commands a ready sale
in the neighbouring colonies, whether fresh, smoke-
dried, or salted. Many, indeed, consider the smoked
trumpeter equal, if not superior, to the Findon haddock
of Scotland (Gadus eglefinus).

The bastard trumpeter (Latris Forsteri, Cast.),
rarely exceeds 6 to 7 lbs. weight; it is most prized
for food in the silver bastard or mature well-condi-
tioned form.

The carp of the fishermen (Chilodactylus spectabilis,
Hutton), although a somewhat coarse-looking fish,
appears to be highly esteemed. The rock gurnet
(Sebastes percoides) is held in great esteem for the table.

The flatheads (Platycephalus bassensis, Cuv. and Val.)
are the most important members of the Triglia family
on the Tasmanian coasts. They are good edible fish,
and would be much more highly prized for the table
were it not that they are repulsive-looking and very
common.

The Tasmanian whiting (Sillago ‘ciliata) is a most
valuable market fish. It fetches a higher price, for its

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—FISHES. 341

size, than any other fish. They area delicious little fish,
averaging a quarter of a pound in weight.

The frost-fish (Lepidopus caudatus) is esteemed the
most of all the edible fishes in New Zealand, where it
appears to be more frequently caught than in Tasmania. |

The barracouta (Thyrsites atun) is caught all round
the coast in the greatest abundance. They are much
esteemed and command a ready sale. The fish usually
measure about three feet long and average 8 lbs. in
weight. Fishermen say that it would pay them if 3s.
a dozen could always be got for them, ¢.e., under 3d. a
pound. Another species (7. Solandri) averages from 12 to
14 Ibs. weight, and sometimes reaches 20 lbs. They ap-
pear at times in immense numbers; three fishermen
have frequently been known to capture over forty dozen
of these fish in a single night. The usual price in the
market is 5s. per dozen. When abundant they are
largely exported.

The snotgall trevally (Neptonemus brama, Gunth.),
although inferior in quality to the white or silver
(Caranx georgianus, Cuv. and Val.), and mackerel trevally
(Neptonemus dobula, Gunth.), from its abundance and size,
is of much greater importance as regards the general
market supply. They are exported in considerable quan-
tities to Victoria.

The rock cod (Pseudophycis barbatus, Gunth.), exist
in such wonderful abundance that they are captured
during a portion of the year in quantities far exceed-
ing the local demand. The rock cod rarely exceeds
23 lbs. weight. The flesh is rather soft, but it is held
in fair estimation as food. When smoked with cedar
sawdust they are highly prized.

There are four members of the flat-fish family stated
to exist in Tasmanian waters, but only two are found
abundantly. These are the sole of the fishermen
(Amnotretis rostratus, Gunth.), and the flounder (Rhombo-
solea monopus, Gunth.). They are among the most highl
prized fishes for the table, and are taken in considerable
quantities all the year round.

342 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Fish to the value of £60,000 annually are taken at.
the lake of Tonli-sap, Cambogia, and sold, salted; also
the fish-maws or swimming bladders; the Chinese use
this fish-glue or gelatine largely in cooking and in the
arts and industry. There are about twenty principal
varieties of fish taken, but we have only the native names,
which are useless for identification. *

Ceylon imports many tons of dried fish annually
from India and the Maldive Islands. The singularly
weird-looking red fire-fish (Pterois volitans) is much
prized as food by the Singhalese, the flesh being firm,
white, and nutritious.

That the water can be made to yield a larger per-
centage of nutriment, acre for acre, than the land, is
well known. China, with its enormous population,
greater to the square mile than that of any other part
of the world, derives the largest portion of its animal
food from the interior waters of the empire, the methods
of fish cultivation there being conducted in a very
efficient manner, and every cubic yard of pond and.
stream thoroughly utilised. ;

The samlai or shad of China (Alosa Reevesii, Rich.), ac-
cording to Mr. Salter, extend their migrations up the
Yang-tse-Kiang for over a thousand miles, and, accord-
ing to Dr. Macgowan, to a distance of three thousand
miles from its mouth.

The ordinary esculent fish of the seas of the Indian
and Philippine islands are numerous. In the markets
of Celebes it is said that not fewer than 300 different
species are at one time or another offered for sale. A
few of them are of excellent quality, equalling if not
surpassing in delicacy and flavour those of the European
seas. The curing of ordinary fish and the pickling of
prawns forms a considerable branch of trade between
the coast and interior.t

* A long descriptive article on this fishery is given in the French
“ Revue Maritime et Coloniale,” vol. Ixi., p. 534,
+ Crawfurd’s “Indian Islands,” p. 16.

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—-FISHES, 343

Fish constitutes the chief animal aliment of all the
inhabitants, and everywhere of those of the sea coast,
who are by profession fishermen.

In Japan fish are very abundant and varied, and re-
puted excellent; fish enters largely into the food of the
people. Everything produced by the sea is considered
edible—whale’s flesh, fish of all kinds, mollusea, and
octopi, marine animals of every description, sea plants
and weeds, are all made to contribute to their support,
as they have few edible land animals. Among both rich
and poor the red flesh of the whale, which looks like
beef, is considered very wholesome and nutritious, and
is largely consumed when obtainable.

The markets are always well supplied,and the stranger
is struck by the abundance and variety of species,
amongst which are found the principal food fishes of
Europe. The tunny is often seen in the markets of
Yeddo and Yokohama. The Japanese often eat it raw,
cut in thin slices, which they dip. in mustard. The
mackerel is also common, and the sardine, at the time
of its passage, is very abundant on all the coasts, but
the consumption cannot absorb the catch. The people
on the coast preserve large quantities of fish by simply
drying in the sun, and they keep very well by this simple
mode of preparation, with only the inconvenience of an
unpleasant smell. The cod, sole, flounder, and other flat-
fish are taken. The shark is for the Japanese an edible
fish,as with the Chinese. There is always a large quantity
to be seen in the markets, but they are mostly small
ones, and belong to the common species ; the hammer-
headed shark, met with on the southern coasts of China,
is not seen. The rays attain a large size. The Tai
(Serranus marginalis) is considered, with just reason, to be
one of the most esteemed of the sea fish. It is as abun-
dant on the Japanese coasts as on those of China. They
eat ‘it raw, seasoned with soy. The herring, like the
sardine, is carried to the interior either in its sun-dried
state or slightly salted. The salmon, carp, and other
fresh-water fish are also abundant. The salmon forms

344 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

a considerable article of commerce, and is sent salted all
through the interior. This fish also abounds in Hakodadi,
and great quantities are caught in all the rivers of the
province of Niagata and those to the north-east.

So far as the bounty of Nature goes, fish in Victoria
should be as plentiful as it is in Kamschatka, where
the law forbids any dog having the roes of more than
six salmon given to it in a day. Yet there is scarcely
any part of the civilised world where fish is at such
a price. In London fish and poverty go together. As
the experienced navigator recognises his approximation
to the coast by the successive specimens of gravel, sand,
and mud brought up by the lead, so the wanderer in the
giant metropolis may pretty accurately estimate his dis-
tance from the opulent West End by the increasing
number of stalls covered with ancient flounders and
offal fish.

From 1,500 to 2,000 tons of fish are taken annually
by the fishermen of San Francisco, and as there are
about ninety different kinds of fish brought to market,
the population would seem to be well supplied.

Brazil, with its long coast line and bays, and immense
rivers and lakes, is abundantly supplied with fish, crus-
taceans, and mollusks. The spawn, salted, of many fish
forms an article of commerce. The Bay of Rio Janeiro
abounds occasionally with sardines, which are equal to
those of Nantes. The river Amazon alone and its tribu-
taries furnish more than eighty species of fish. Notwith-
standing this abundance of fresh fish, there is a large
import of salt fish for the supply of the negroes, aver-
aging in value about £400,000 a year.

The whole valley of the Amazon abounds in streams
that help to make up the entire volume of waters.
These spread out into lakes, lagoons, and swamps, that
extend over large regions of country. This is especially
so in the rainy seasons or flood times.

The channels and lakes are abundantly supplied with
fishes. Even large ones are often left in the swamp
lakes and streams when the water is low. A hundred

t

FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA—-FISHES. 345

different kinds of fish can be bought in the markets of
Rio, many of which come from the Amazon.

Those most valued are piranhas and pirarucus (Vastris
cuverti). They are the largest, but there are numerous
smaller varieties. The Indians catch the latter with
hooks and lines, or shoot them with arrows. But the
larger fish are speared with a kind of trident.

In the summer months the people come by hundreds
to the lakes and channels to fish for the great pirarucu, or
red fish, and to prepare it much as codfish is prepared by
the northern fishermen. Some of these fish are seven or
eight feet in length. They are first dressed and cut into
wide thin slices. These are well rubbed with salt and
hung on poles to dry in the sun. The slices are taken
under cover every night and carried out again in the
morning. Thestranger does not at once relish this dried
fish, yet it is the standard flesh food of all the poorer
classes throughout a large part of Brazil, especially the
provinces of Para and Amazonas.

The piranhas are much prized and are easily caught,
for they are greedy to bite at almost anything, from a bit
of salt meat to a bather’s toe.

The Tupi word piranha is a contraction of pira sainha,
meaning “toothed fish.” The same word is used by the
Indians to describe a pair of scissors. There are several
species of these’ savage piranhas, some being more than
two feet long. They make nothing of biting an ounce
or so of flesh from a man’s leg.

Fish are abundant in the rivers of the Argentine Con-
federation, and of a large size, such as the dorado
(Coryphena suereti, Cuv. and Val.), surubi (Tetraodon
lineatus), and pacou. The catch is plentiful, especially
in the Parana and Vermejo, but the fish of the Uruguay
river are the most delicate.

No fishing is carried on on the shores of the ocean,
notwithstanding that excellent fish are to be found, as
also oysters, lobsters, and other crustacea. About 550
tons of salted fish are imported into Buenos Ayres
annually, besides the fish locally caught.

346 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

In Paraguay, besides the Si/urus and the pacou (Tetra-
odon lineatus), which reach a weight of 40 lbs., there
are a great many edible fishes. There is one called a
trout, of a handsome yellow colour, and hence named
dorado, the flesh of which is excellent ; it often attains
the weight of 20 to 30 lbs. When the rivers fall, large
quantities of fish are caught in baskets, and simply
boiled down for the oil, which is skimmed from the
top.

The pompano (Trachynotus sp.), caught only at Chorillos
on the Chilian coast, is not always to be obtained, but is
so highly esteemed at Callao, that one weighing eight or
ten pounds readily commands five or six dollars.

As already mentioned (p. 333), this fish is also highly
prized in the North American markets.

347

CHAPTER X.

Various Insects EATEN AS Foon.

Cockchafers or Vers Blanc Eaten—Modes of Cooking—Bees and
Ants Eaten—Cossus of the Ancients—Gru-grus or Palm-
worms—Caterpillars—Tobacco Worms—Locusts—Extensive
Use of Locusts in Africa, Asia, and America—Various Modes
of Cooking—Termites Eaten in India and Africa—Silkworm
Chrysalids—Red Ants—Honey—Siatistics of Productioa—
Lerp and Trehalose.

DESCENDING low in the scale of animal life we find on
investigation that insects furnish more food delicacies
than is generally supposed.

In warm countries omnivorous man wages war in turn
upon the petty insect tribes as upon the larger animals
of creation, and converts them into food dainties. There
are many insects looked upon with disgust, which, in-
reality, are more clean, more wholesome, and feed on
better food than those other animals with which we
constantly load our tables. The old poet, Herrick,
seemed well acquainted with this fact, for some two
hundred years ago he thus described a feast given by
Oberon to the fairy elves :—

“ Gladding his palate with some store
Of emmet’s eggs: what would he more ?
But beards of mice, a newt’s stew’d thigh,
A bloated earwig, and a fly.
With the red-capp’d worm that’s shut
Within the concave of a nut,

Brown as his tooth ; a little moth,
Late fattened in a piece of cloth.”

The common rain-worm is carefully gathered in China,
and raw or roasted considered most palatable food. Still
itis the poor mainly that appreciate, by the side of

348 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

pleasant taste, the cheapness of such provisions. But
what shall we say to the gourmet who praises the lus-
cious wood snipe, and still more the black mass from
the inside that he carefully places on his toast and eats
with a feeling akin to veneration? He is eating the
worms that live in the snipe’s intestines. How many,
too, eat ripe or decayed cheese with the cheese mites
and maggots crawling over it.

A few years ago at the Café Custoza, in Paris, a grand
banquet was given for the special purpose of testing the
vers blane, or cockchafer worm. This insect, it appears,
was first steeped in vinegar, which had the effect of
making it disgorge the earth, etc. it had swallowed
while yet free; then it was ‘carefully rolled up in a
paste composed of flour, milk, and eggs, placed in a
pan, and fried to a bright golden colour. The guests
were able to take this crisp and dry worm in their
fingers. It cracked between their teeth. There were
some fifty persons present, and the majority had a
second helping. The larve, or grubs, generally, not
only of the cockchafer, but those of the ordinary
-beetles, may, according to some naturalists, be eaten
safely. Cats, turkeys, and different birds devour them
eagerly.

We find in a Continental journal, the Gazette des Cam-
pagnes, the following receipt for cooking these insects,
which is adopted in certain parts of France :—

“ Roll the vers blancs, which are short and fat, in flour
and bread crumbs, with a little salt and pepper, and
wrap them in a stout piece of paper, well buttered in-
side. Place it in the hot embers and leave it to cook
for twenty minutes, more or less, according to the degree
of heat. On opening the envelope a very appetising
odour exhales, which disposes one favourably to taste
the delicacy, which will be more appreciated than
snails, and will be declared one of the finest deli-
cacies ever tasted.” *

* “ Les Insectes Utiles,” par Henri Miot, p. 89. Paris, 1870,

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 349

The Goliath beetles are roasted and eaten by the
natives of South America and Western Africa, and the
Roman epicures were very partial to certain breeds of
European larve.

The famous palm-worm of the West Indies, roasted
on tiny spits and richly spiced, forms one of the best
dishes of luxurious dinners. Its near relation, the
grugru worm of Java, is said to be richer still and
more delicate. Nor do the costly chrysalids of the
silk-worm escape the fate of all that is eatable; freed
from their cocoons, and daintily dressed, they are
highly honoured and largely swallowed by the people
of China and the noblemen of Madagascar. The dis-
carded chrysalids after reeling silk from the cocoons
are hawked about the streets of China and sold to
the lower classes as an article of diet. The price is
about 5d. per pound.

At Chinkiang they are sold at thirty-four dollars per
picul of 1334 Ibs. The Chinese, with their incredible
power of overcoming all natural instincts, go here also
farther; they raise the larve of blue-bottle flies in
heaps of putrid fish near the sea-coast, and value the
produce more highly than the facility of obtaining it
would lead us to believe. They place themselves thus,
with all their boasted superiority, on a level with the
poor Indians of the Orinoco, whom the traveller Schom-
burgk saw eagerly dig in the ground for grubs and
worms. Itis true they ate them raw, while the children
of the Flowery Kingdom dress their worms with spices
and sauces. Huge centipedes are eagerly devoured by
the Indians of South America, and leeches adorn the
tables of the very princes of Japan.

If the palate has, like the eye, its laws of beauty,
which would lead it to prefer nobler forms, insects ought
to be eaten as little as molluscs. They are rarely blessed
with a beauty that is intended for other senses but the
sight; their long, dry bodies, their restless, countless
feet and quaintly-shaped heads are interesting in their
ugliness, but far from attractive to the hungry. What

350 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

natural taste could lead us to carry to the mouth a larva
that changes its shape from day to day—now looks dry
and dark, and to-morrow bursts and pours forth a yellow,
dismal fluid? Like a true Proteus it defies all know-
ledge of its next shape, and, in all stages, inspires dis-
gust rather than desire. Still, insects are eaten, but
their lowest kinds only by the lowest races of mankind.
Tschudi saw the natives of Peru hunt assiduously in the
forests of hair on the heads of their children and eagerly
devour the minute game—a taste which they share with
‘the Hottentots and other African tribes. New Caledo-
nians prefer spiders to all common food; and the amiable
inhabitants of New South Wales catch even moths
(Euplaca hamata), remove the gray powder on their
tiny bodies, and roast them in masses. Bees—which
civilised nations deprive of the fruit of their labour—
are eaten in Ceylon as spice, and on account of the
fragrant odour they give to the breath. The pleasant
‘acid taste of ants tempts.many races of Brazil and the
‘East Indies; and even in other more fastidious countries
the old and the feeble consume them under an impres-
sion that they strengthen the spinal marrow! The acid
they contain bears a striking resemblance to that of the
lemon ; and many a European has learned, in Java and
Eastern countries, to thrust his arm into a hill of white
ants and to eat the quaint food without cooking and
dressing. The huge termites, however, those skilful
artists of Africa, require, even at the hands of the
natives, a more careful treatment. They are caught,
as they fall into the water, in calabashes, and roasted
like coffee-beans in huge iron-pots; then they are flung,
by the handful, into their mouths. The Hottentots also
are fond of. them, and admire their fattening power.
In the East Indies they are caught by thousands and
baked in pies, which are brought to the public markets
—a custom which prevails in South America also, where
they are sold after having been roasted.

Mr. Max Buchner’s “ Contributions to the Ethnography
of the Bantus ” contains the following interesting notes,

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 351

which show that insects are by no means despised as
food by this tribe of negroes, which inhabit a large por-
tion of South-eastern Africa. Toward the end of the
rainy season, in April, when the white ants are swarm-
ing, the conical buildings of these insects are covered
with a dense matting of banana leaves, while, within
‘this cover, vessels are placed with funnel-shaped en-
trances. In these vessels a large number of white ants,
" males and females, are caught and roasted on the spot.
They are considered a great delicacy, even Mr. Buchner
finding them very palatable. A large, fat, subterranean
cricket, as well as a large coleopterous larva, living in
hollow trees, are equally sought for and roasted over fire.
But it is especially a large caterpillar called “ugoungoo,”
which is harvested by the natives like a field crop. It
is about five centimetres long, black, with yellow rings,
occurs on the savannas, and “belongs perhaps to the
butterfly Crenis.” Whenever it appears in large numbers,
the negroes march out in full force from their villages,
camping out for weeks in the wilderness to gather and
cure the crop. After the intestines have been pressed
out, the caterpillars are dried before the fire and rolled
up in packages of fresh leaves. To a civilised taste they
are most disgusting, the smell reminding one of that of
our cabbage worms. In view of this custom it seems to
to be strange that the Bantus refuse to eat snakes and
amphibia of all sorts, even frogs and lizards not being
touched by them in times of starvation.

Locusts furnish the favourite food of many numerous
races of Africa; some nations live exclusively on them ;
but, it is said, they rarely grow older than forty years,
and mostly die a miserable death, produced by fearful
diseases. Alfred Cole tells us, in his graphic manner,
how a whole kraal of Caffres once died after having
consumed an unusual quantity of locusts. We read, not
without wonder, that even in classic Greece this repul-
sive food was not rejected. The same Athenians that,
later, wore golden crickets in their hair as proof that
they were natives on their own soil, like the insects

552 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

themselves, ate the smaller varieties skilfully dressed

But we must remember that antiquity also was not

always faithful to the first laws of beauty and hu-

manity. Were not their costliest fishes fattened upon

the bodies of slaves thrown into the ponds for that
horrible purpose? In our day the locusts are rarely

seen, but at long intervals, and permanently only in the

Orient. There the Arabs resort to them in years of
famine ; they dry and grind them to powder, and bake

them with flour into cakes, or roast them in butter.

Legs and wings are always rejected, the bodies are often

preserved in vinegar, and are considered a rare delicacy.

In Germany, where, in 1748, they committed incredible

ravages, the eggs at least. were eaten and highly

prized.*

That the old Romans were partial to a certain large
wood-boring larva as an article of food, is certain; we
know, too, that it bore the name of Cossus; but beyond
that we are left in darkness, except that the animal is said
by Pliny to live on trees, to change into an insect with
long antenne, and to have the power of emitting a
rather shrill sound—* Sonum edunt parvuli stridoris”
(“ Hist. Nat.,” book xvii. chap. 24). The larva, whatever
it was, was held in the highest estimation by the gourmets
of Rome as a singular delicacy, and was fattened for the
table on meal.

Naturalists are much divided on the knotty question
of the true Cossus of the ancients. Some are inclined
to give the distinction to the stag-beetle, whose larva is
sufficiently large to make a juicy mouthful; others con-
tend for some species of rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes) ;
while some are in favour of the exotic Rhynchophorus.
Kirby and Spence are in favour of some large species of
the “Capricorn tribe”; and of these the French ento-
mologist Mulsant has fixed upon the larva of the hand-
some beetle called Cerambyx (or Hammatocherus) heros,
In many parts of Europe “ heros” is counted among the

%«¢ All the Year Round.” :

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 353°

pests of the forest, the female depositing her eggs on
the oak. ‘

Les vers palmiste,as the French term them (Calandra
palmarum, Oliv.), are eaten broiled, with poor man’s

_ sauce, that is water, salt, lemon, and chillies.

Even the gigantic centipedes of Brazil, many of them
a foot and a half long and half an inch broad were seen
by Humboldt to be dragged out of their holes and
crunched alive by the children. Darwin assures us that
the caterpillar of the hawk-moth is delicious. Kirby
and Spence think the ant good eating, distinguishing
between the flavour of the abdomen and the thorax;
and Reaumur recommends the caterpillar of the Plusia
gamma as a delicate dish.*

A certain large grub (probably the larva of a species
of Buprestis), found abundantly in Western Australia, at
the roots of the Acacia, is much in request with the
natives, who eat it.

The larve of all the wood-boring beetles are eagerly
sought after by the aborigines of Australia, especially
Bardistes cibarius, which, though exhaling an odour at
least as pungent as that of the goat moth, is much
relished by the natives of King George’s Sound. The
negro of the West Indies and Tropical America searches
diligently for the gru-gru worm (Rhyncophorus palmarum).
The grub is an inch and a half long, of a white colour.
' In the Moluccas, Wallace tells us that the grubs of the
palm beetles are regularly brought to market in bam-
boos and sold for food. The natives of Mexico make
the larva of Trichoderes pint a part of their fare.

An old writer—Brookes, “On the Properties and Uses
of Insects,” 1772—says, “The larve are eaten by the
French, in the West Indies, after they have been roasted
before the fire, when a small wooden spit has been thrust
through them. When they begin to be hot, they powder
them with a crust of rasped bread, mixed with salt, and
a little pepper and nutmeg. This powder keeps in the

* “ History of Insects.”
AA

354 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

fat, or at least sucks it up; and when they are done
enough, they are served up with orange juice. They
are highly esteemed by the French, as excellent eating.”

The large caterpillars of a beetle (Cerambyx cervi-
cornis ?) commonly called “ Macaccas,” are eagerly sought
for in the decayed timber of trees in the West Indies,
and considered a great delicacy. They are nearly three
and a half inches long, and about the thickness of a
man’s little finger. The body is of a white colour, and
sustains a small brown head, which is generally cut off
when they are used. They are always gulted, opened,
and washed before they are dressed; and when well
fried are thought by many people to be one of the
greatest delicacies in America.*

The Malagasy eat, fried in oil, various kinds of white
fat caterpillars without hair.

The larva of the Calandra palmarum is considered a
great delicacy, by the inhabitants of South America, so
is that of the Curculio palmarum, found principally in
the South of India, where it feeds on the pith of the
sago palm. The gum grub, or gru-gru, is by some
Australian gastronomists considered a great dainty, and
similar to fine marrow, when fried with bread crumbs;
the natives, however, prefer it raw. The insect is about
six inches long and half an inch in diameter. When in
season the natives grow fat by feeding on them.+

Two insects, the Bugong moth, a kind of butterfly,
and a thick, white grub, found chiefly in dead timber,
are much esteemed by the aborigines of Australia as
articles of food. The former is eaten at certain seasons
by whole tribes of natives in the northern districts.
Their practice is to follow up the flight of the insects
and to light fires at nightfall beneath the trees on which
they have settled. The smoke brings the butterflies
down, and their bodies are pounded together into a sort

* Browne’s “ Natural History of Jamaica.”
+ Ogle’s “ Western Australia,” p. 256. See also Bennett’s “ New
South Wales,” p. 270 ; and Buckton, p. 97.

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 355

of fleshy loaf. Upon this delicacy the natives not only
feed, but fatten. The white grub is swallowed whole
in his living state, and is much sought for by sable
epicures. It is scarcely necessary to say that neither of
these dainties have found favour with the white settlers.

The larva of Mallodon costatus are eaten by the natives
of New Caledonia.

The large and fat caterpillars of Strigops grandis of
Australia are eaten by the aborigines. The fat larva of
the (Phytophagi?) coleopteras, which lived in the oaks,
figured on the tables of the Romans under the name of
Cossus, and the ladies, it is said, esteemed their delicate
cream under the impression that it gave them an embon-
point, which prolonged their beauty.

In Africa and other parts, locusts are eaten salted and
roasted. The chrysalids of a wild silk worm (Borocera
cajani) are esteemed in Madagascar. In an interview
which the French Ambassador had with the ill-fated
Radami IL., his son, a boy of ten years, had his pockets
filled with roasted chrysalids,. with which he regaled
himself during the interview. As we already eat many
crustaceans, who can tell whether we may not yet arrive
at insects as an hors-d’euvre.

Among the Pinos Indians, as among the savages of
Africa, tobacco worms, which are the caterpillars of
Macrosila Carolina, are gathered and made into soup, or
fried until crisp and brown. Vegetables, meal, or seeds
are usually added to the composition when made into
pottage, A writer in the official agricultural reports of
the United States records having seen this tribe gather
bushels of the worms for immediate consumption, or to
be dried and pounded for winter use. A whitish larva,
“kodcha-bee” of the Indians, occurring in immense
quantities, is much esteemed by them as an article of
food. At certain seasons it is carried in by the waves
and deposited on the shores of Owen’s Lake, California,
in layers of several inches in thickness. This was for-
merly collected in large quantities by the Indians, and
after being dried in the sun, rubbed between the hands,

AA

356 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

and roughly winnowed, was crushed in a stone mortar
and made into cakes, which furnished an important
article of food.

This insect, which has been described as a white grub,
is also found abundantly in the waters of Great Salt
Lake, Utah, and those of other saline and alkaline lakes
of the West, and appears to be the larva of a two-winged
fly which is described by the late Prof. Torrey under the
name of Ephydra Californica, and by A. 8. Packard as
Ephydra gracilis.*

Some of these larva are eaten raw by the Indians
of Western Nevada, and are of a rank and oleaginous
taste; others are made into soup.

Of the various insects, locusts are those most generally
consumed. The law of Moses, as declared in Leviticus,
chap. xi., verses 21 and 22, states :—“ Yet these may ye
eat, of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all
four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal
upon the earth; Even these of them ye may eat; the
locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind,
and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after.
his kind.”” The locust has six feet, but Moses did not
regard as legs proper the long hinder ones which enable
it to spring or leap. The beetle was the Bruchus,
or grasshopper without wings (St. Jerome, Ixx.), the
Attachus, a variety of the last-named, and the Ophio-
machus, a sort of grasshopper, so called because it was
said to fight the serpent (Pliny, book ii., ch. 29).

The authorities describing locusts as food in various
countries are very numerous. Pliny (book xli., chaps.
32 and 35) says the Eastern nations and the Parthians
considered locusts and grasshoppers as a choice food.
The gourmands preferred the males, and the females
after casting their eggs; while the Greeks preferred them
with the eggs. St. Jerome says that to feed on these
insects was to those nations as great a luxury as to the

* See Hayden’s “Geol. Survey of Montana, Idaho, ete., 1872,”
p. 744.

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 357

Western nations the beccafico and other food deli-
cacies.

Locusts or grasshoppers can be prepared in more ways
even than oysters; they may be eaten raw, stewed, and
fried in oil, broiled on a gridiron, smoked, or ground up
in a handmill and baked into cakes; first boiled in water
and then fried in butter they make an excellent dish.
Many savage and some civilised nations eat them with
delight.

Father Ovalle, writing in 1649, informs us that the
Indians of Chili, in the absence of grain, convert this
insect into bread. They watch where the locusts alight
to rest at night, then setting fire to the bushes, reduce
all to ashes, which are gathered and baked into cakes.
Mr. Gordon Cumming also has a word to say in their
favour. To him they proved palatable food, and he calls
them “fattening and wholesome for bird, beast, and
man.” If further testimony were required, we have it
in the declaration of Dr. Livingstone that locusts are a
real blessing to the country. This eminent traveller
adds, besides, “that when reduced to meal and mingled
with a little salt, they afford palatable food, which keeps
uninjured for months.” Boiled, he found locusts disagree-
able, but roasted they had a vegetable flavour, and on
the whole he preferred them to shrimps.

On the other hand, we must not forget that Diodorus
Siculus says that the Acridophagi, or locust-eaters of
Ethiopia, fell victims to their diet at the early age of
forty years, innumerable insects being generated in their
bodies. Nevertheless, however unlikely it may be that
any European nation would voluntarily select such food,
it is abundantly clear that locusts are relished by mil-
lions of both Asiaties and Africans. It must be obvious,
also, that the judicious and economic storing of this in-
sect, which at certain seasons pours over two continents
so abundantly:as to become a plague and a scourge, is a
fit subject to engage the attention of our philanthropists
abroad.

Grasshoppers were eaten by some of the soldiers of

358 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

the American Revolution. In Frederick Freeman’s
“ History of Cape Cod” (vol. i, p. 524), the author men-
tions that Col. Nathaniel Freeman, of Sandwich, Mass.
and Major Samuel Osgood, of Andover, Mass., were ap-
pointed Commissioners, in 1777, to attend to some busi-
ness in the American camp at West Point. He then
adds, in a footnote :—

“One of the Commissioners above named related to
the writer that when on this service at West Point, the
attention of the Commissioners was arrested by certain
inexplicable movements among the French troops en-
camped at some distance from the Americans. Perceiving
that they had kindled numerous fires in the adjoining
fields, and were running about in strange disorder, Major
Osgood and himself, accompanied by General Washington
and other officers, mounted horses and rode to the en-
campment. It was found that the Frenchmen were enjoy-
ing rare sport ina campaign against grasshoppers, which
were unusually numerous at that time. These insects,
as soon as captured, were impaled upon a sharpened
stick on posts, and held for a moment over the fire, and
then eaten with great gusto. The fires were furnished
with fuel of deposits from cattle in the fields, made by
the excessive heat and drought of the autumn suf-
ficiently dry and combustible.”

From a digested paper by Mr. W. F. Kirby, naturalist,
Dublin, and papers by Mr. Riley, I condense the follow-
ing details on the use of this insect as food :—-With the
exception of locusts, most other insects that have been
used as food for man are obtained in small quantities, and
their use is more a matter of curiosity than of interest.
They have been employed either by exceptional indi-
viduals with perverted tastes, or else as dainty tit-bits
to tickle some abnormal and epicurean palate. Not so
with locusts, which have, from time immemorial, formed
a staple article of diet with many peoples, and are
used to-day in large quantities in many parts of the
globe.

Any one at all familiar with the treasures on exhibi-

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 359

tion atthe British Museum, must have noticed among its
Nineveh sculptures one in which are represented men
carrying different kinds of meat to some festival, and
among them some who carry long sticks, to which are
tied locusts, thus indicating that, in those early days
represented by the sculpture, locusts were sufficiently
esteemed to make part of a public feast. They are
in Scripture counted among the “clean meats,” and
are frequently referred to in the Bible as food for
man.

In most parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, subject
to locust ravages, these insects have been, and are yet,
extensively used as food. Herodotus mentions a tribe
of Aithiopians “which fed on locusts that came in
swarms from the southern and unknown districts” ;
and Livingstone has made us familiar with the fact that
the custom yet prevails among many African tribes.
We have it from Pliny that locusts were in high esteem
among the Parthians, and the records of their use in
ancient times, as food, in Southern Europe and Asia, are
abundant. This use continues in those parts of the
world to the present day. In Morocco, where, as I am
informed by one Mr. Trovey Blackmore, of London, who
has spent some time in that country, they do more or
less damage every year, they are used extensively for
food whenever they abound, so as to diminish the ordi-
nary food supply, while they are habitually roasted for
eating, and brought into Tangier and other towns by the
country people, and sold in the market-places and on the
streets. The Jews, who form a large proportion of the
population, collect the females only for this purpose,
having an idea that the male is unclean, but that under
the body of the females there are some Hebrew charac-
ters which make them lawful food. In reality there are,
under the thorax, certain dark markings—the species
used, and which is so injurious to crops, being the
Acridium perigrinum.

Radoszkowski, president of the Russian Entomological
Society, tells us that they are also, to this day, exten-

360 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

sively used as food in Southern Russia; while many of
the North American Indian tribes, and notably the
Snake and Digger Indians of California, are known to
feed upon them. No further evidence need be cited to
prove the present extensive use of these insects as articles
of food.

Let us, then, briefly consider the nature of this locust
food and the different methods of preparing it. The
records show us that in ancient times these insects were
cooked in a variety of ways. Cidipoda migratoria and
Acridium perigrinum, which are the more common devas-
tating locusts of the “Old World,” are both of large
size, and they are generally prepared by first detaching
the legs and wings. The bodies are then either boiled,
roasted, stewed, fried, or broiled. The Romans are said
to have used them by carefully roasting them to a
bright golden yellow. At the present day, in most parts
of Africa and especially in Russia, they are either salted
or smoked like red herrings.

Chanier, in his account of the Empire of Morocco
(London, 1788), says that thus cured they are brought
into the market in prodigious quantities, but that
they have “an oily and rancid taste, which habit
only can render agreeable.” The Moors use them to the
present day in the manner described by Jackson in his
“Travels in Morocco,” viz, by first boiling and then
frying them. But the Jews in that country—more pro-
vident than the Moors—salt them and keep them for
using with the dish called Dafina, which forms the Satur-
day’s dinner of the Jewish population. The dish is
made by placing meat, fish, eggs, tomatoes—in fact,
almost anything edible—in a jar which is put in the
oven on Friday night, and taken out hot on the Sabbath,
so that the people get a hot meal without the sin of
lighting a fire on that day. In the Abbé Godard’s
“Description et Histoire de Maroc” (Paris, 1860), he
tells us that “they are placed in bags, salted, and either
baked or boiled. They are then dried on the terraced
roofs of the houses. Fried in oil they are not bad.”

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 361°

The Hill Damaras collect locusts by lighting fires in the
direct path of the devouring swarms. In roasting the
wings and legs crisp up and are separated; the bodies
are then eaten fresh or dried in hot ashes, and put away
for future use. The American Digger Indians roast
them, and grind or crush them to a kind of flour, which
they mix with pounded acorns, or with different kinds
of berries, make into cakes and dry in the sun for future
use. The species employed by the ancients were doubt-
less the same as those employed at the present day, viz.,
the two already mentioned, and, to a less degree, the
smaller Calopterus Italiacus.

We have no records of any extended use of the
Rocky Mountain species (Calopterus spretus), unless,
which is not improbable, the species employed by
the Indians on the Pacific coast should prove to be
the same, or a geographical race of the same. “It had
long been a desire with me,” says Mr. Riley, “to test
the value of this species (the Rocky Mountain locust) as
food, and I did not lose the opportunity to gratify that
desire which the recent locust invasion into some of the
Mississippi Valley States offered. I knew well enough
that the attempt would provoke to ridicule and mirth,
and even disgust, the vast majority of our people, unac-
customed to any thing of the sort, and associating with
the word insect, or ‘ bug,’ everything horrid and repul-
sive. Yet I was governed by weightier reasons than
mere curiosity, for many a family in Kansas and Ne-
braska was brought to the brink of the grave by sheer
lack of food, while the St. Louis papers reported cases of
actual death from starvation in some sections of Missouri,
where the insects abounded and ate up every green thing
the past spring. Whenever the occasion presented I
partook of locusts prepared in different ways, and one
day ate of no other kind of food, and must have con-
sumed, in one form and another, the substance of
several thousand half-grown locusts. Commencing the
experiments with some misgivings, and fully expect-
ing to have to overcome disagreeable flavour, I was

362 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

soon most agreeably surprised to find that the insects
were quite palatable in whatever way prepared.”

The flavour of the raw locust is most strong and
disagreeable, but that of the cooked insects is agree-
able, and sufficiently mild to be easily neutralised by
anything with which they may be mixed, and to admit
of easy disguise, according to taste or fancy. But
the great point I would make in their favour is, that
they need no elaborate preparation or seasoning. They
require no disguise; and herein lies their value in excep-
tional emergencies, for when people are driven to the
point of starvation by these ravenous pests, it follows
that all other food is either very scarce or unattainable.

A broth, made by boiling the unfledged Caloptert
for two hours in the proper quantity of water, and
seasoned with nothing in the world but pepper and
salt, is quite palatable, and can scarcely be distinguished
from beef broth, though it has a slight flavour peculiar
to it, and not easily described. The addition of a little
butter improves it, and the flavour can of course be modi-
fied with mint, sage and spices, ad libitum. Fried or
roasted in nothing but their own oil, with the addition
of a little salt, they are by no means unpleasant eating,
and have quite a nutty flavour. In fact, it is a flavour,
like most peculiar and not unpleasant flavours, that one
can soon learn to get fond of. Prepared in this manner,
ground and compressed, they would doubtless keep for
along time. Yet their consumption in large quantities
in this form would not, I think, prove as wholesome as
when made into soup or broth ; for I found the chitonous
covering and the corneous parts, especially the spines on
the tibiz, dry, and chippy, and somewhat irritating to
the throat. This objection would not apply with the
same force to the mature individuals, especially of larger
species, where the heads, legs, and wings are carefully
separated before cooking ; and, in fact, some of the mature
insects prepared in this way, then boiled, and afterwards
stewed with a few vegetables, and a little butter, pepper,
salt, and vinegar, make an excellent fricassee.

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 363

Lest it be presumed that these opinions result from an
unnatural palate, or from mere individual taste, let me
add that I took pains to get the opinions of many other
persons. Indeed, I shall not soon forget the experience
of my first culinary effort in this line—so fraught with
fear, and so forcibly illustrating the power of example in
overcoming prejudice. This attempt was made at an
hotel. At first it was impossible to get any assistance
from the followers of the ars coguinaria. They could not
more flatly have refused to touch, taste, or handle, had
it been a question of cooking vipers. Nor love nor money
could induce them to do either, and in this respect the
folks of the kitchen were all alike, without distinction
of colour. There was no other resource than to turn cook
myself, and operations once commenced, the interest and
aid of a brother naturalist and two intelligent ladies
were soon enlisted. It was most amusing to note how,
as the rather savoury and pleasant odour went up from
the cooking dishes, the expression of horror and disgust
gradually vanished from the faces of the curious lookers-
on, and how at last the head cook—a stout and jolly
negress—took part in the operations; how, when the
different dishes were neatly served upon the table and
were freely partaken of with evident relish and many
expressions of surprise and satisfaction by the ladies and
gentlemen interested, this same cook was actually induced
to try them, and soon grew eloquent in their favour ;
how, finally, a prominent banker, as also one of the editors
of the town joined in the meal. The soup soon vanished,
and banished silly prejudice; the cakes, with batter
enough to hold the locusts together, disappeared, and
were pronounced good; then baked locusts without con-
diments; and when the meal was completed with dessert
of baked locusts and honey d Ja John the Baptist, the
opinion was unanimous that that distinguished prophet
no longer deserved our sympathy, and that he had not
fared badly on his diet in the wilderness.

“Professor H. H. Straight, of the Warrensburg (Mo.)
Normal School, who made some experiments for me in

364 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

this line, wrote : ‘ We boiled them rather slowly for three
or four hours, seasoned the fluid with a little butter,
salt, and pepper, and it made an excellent soup, actually ;
we would like to have it even in prosperous times.
Mrs. Johonnot, who is sick, and Professor Johonnot pro-
nounced it excellent.’ I sent a bushel of the scalded
insects to Mr. John Bennet, one of the oldest and best
known caterers of St. Louis. Master of the mysteries
of the cuisine, he made a soup which was really delicious,
and was so pronounced by dozens of prominent St. Louis-
ans who tried it.”

Shaw, in his “Travels in Barbary” (Oxford, England,
1738), in which two pages are devoted to a description
of the ravages of locusts, mentions that when sprinkled
with salt and fried, they taste like crayfish; and Mr.
Bennet declares that this locust soup reminded him
of nothing so much as crayfish bisgue, which is so highly
esteemed by connoisseurs. He also declared that he
would gladly have it on his bill of fare every day if he
could get the insects. His method of preparation was
to boil on a brisk fire, having previously seasoned them
with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg, the whole being
occasionally stirred. When cooked they are pounded in
a mortar with bread fried brown, or a purée of rice.
They are then replaced in the saucepan and thickened
to a broth by placing on a warm part of the stove,
but not allowed to boil. For use, the broth is passed
through a strainer and a few croutons are added. Fried
locusts have been tasted by numerous persons, including
the members of the London Entomological Society and
of the Société Entomologique de France. Without ex-
ception, they have been pronounced far better than was
expected, and those fried in their own oil with a little
salt are yet good and fresh; others fried in butter have
become slightly rancid—a fault of the butter.

When dense flights of locusts visited India, the natives
fried and ate them. Mr. C. Horne, F.ZS., writing to
Science Gossip about swarms of locusts which visited parts
of India in 1863, says: “In the evening I had asked two

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 365

gentlemen to dinner, and gave them a curry and croquet
of locusts. They passed for Cabul shrimps, which in
flavour they much resembled, but the cook having inad-
vertently left a hind leg in a croquet, they were found
out, to the infinite disgust of one of the party and amuse-
ment of the other.”

‘These testimonies as to the past and present use of
locusts as human food might be multiplied almost in-
definitely, but I have said enough to prove that the
nature of this food is by no means disagreeable. In
short, not to waste time in further details, I can safely
assert, from my own personal experience, that the Rocky
Mountain locust is more palatable when cooked than
many animals that we habitually use on our tables. I
mention this species more particularly because the flavour
will doubtless differ according to the species, or even
according to the nature of the vegetation the insects were
nourished on. I have made no chemical analysis of this
locust food, but that it is highly nourishing may be
gathered from the fact that all animals fed upon the
insects thrive when they are abundant; and the further
fact that the locust-eating Indians, and all other locust-
eating people, grow fat upon them. Locusts will hardly
come into general use for food except where they are
annually abundant, and the Western farmers of America
who occasionally suffer from them will not easily be
brought to a due appreciation of them for this purpose.
Prejudiced against them, fighting to overcome them,
killing them in large quantities, until the stench from
their decomposing bodies becomes at times most offensive
—they find little that is attractive in the pests. For
these reasons, as long as other food is attainable, the
locust will be apt to be rejected by most persons. Yet
the fact remains that they do make very good food.
When freshly caught in large quantities, the mangled
mass presents a not very appetising appearance, and
emits a rather strong and not over pleasant odour; but
rinsed and scalded, they turn a brownish red, look more
inviting, and give no disagreeable smell.

366 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

It is well known that locusts have been eaten from
time immemorial in the East, and hence there was
nothing extraordinary in their forming one of the staple
resources of John the Baptist in the desert, where there
was little else to be got. It is reported that they
devoured everything in Utah in 1855 to such an extent
that the inhabitants had nothing else to eat but the
locusts themselves, and hence it is not surprising that
the Americans again tried to utilize them as an article
of diet. Another visitation, in 1874-75, also was more
serious than had been known for many years.

Mr. Riley, the State Entomologist of Missouri, to whose
writings I am indebted for most of my information, stated
at a late meeting of the Entomological Society of Lon-
don that a very good and nourishing soup was made of
the locusts. He had some baked locusts with him, which
he distributed to the members present, but he did not
recommend them when cooked in that manner. They
were not much relished in London, being compared by
those who tasted them to burnt mutton fat and other
unsavoury aliments. The common migratory locust is
said to taste like stale shrimps. But although they are
not likely to form a favourite article of food in civilised
countries, yet I think that American ingenuity may find
some other means of utilising these pests, and I would
suggest that cockchafers are sometimes used in Germany
to make an oil which can be applied to various common
purposes.

By the Indian tribes of California grasshoppers are
caught in great numbers. When the insect attains its
best condition, the Indians select some favourable locality
and dig several little pits, in shape somewhat like in-
verted funnels, the aperture being narrower at the sur-
face than at the base, the object being to prevent the
insect which chances to tumble in from hopping out again.
The pits being ready, an immense circle is formed, the
surrounding grass is set on fire, and the Indians, men,
‘women, and children, station themselves at proper in-
tervals around the fiery belt, keeping up a continual

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 367

ring of flame, until the luckless grasshoppers are caught
in the pits or roasted at the brink. Mixed with pounded
acorns, they constitute one of the national dishes.

The Editor of the Empire County Argus (California)
describes a great dish among the Digger Indians, in the
districts where the grasshoppers are very numerous, and
gives the following account of their mode of preparing
the delicacy :—“ A piece of ground is sought where they
most abound, in the centre of which an excavation is
made, large and deep enough to prevent the insect from
hopping out when once in. The entire party of Diggers,
old and young, male and female, then surround as much
of the adjoining ground as they can, and with each a
green bough in hand, whipping and thrashing on every
side, gradually approach the centre, driving the insects
before them in countless multitudes, till at last all, or
nearly all, are secured in the pit. In the meantime
smaller excavations are made, answering the purpose of
ovens, in which fires are kindled and kept up till the
surrounding earth, for a short distance, becomes suffi-
ciently heated, together with a flat stone large enough
to cover the oven. The grasshoppers are now taken in
coarse bags, and after being thoroughly soaked in salt
water for a few moments, are emptied into the ovens and
closed in. Ten or fifteen minutes suffice to roast them,
when they are taken out and eaten without further
preparation, and with much apparent relish, or, as is
sometimes the case, reduced to powder and made into
soup. And having from curiosity tasted, not of the
soup, but of the roast, really if one could but divest him-
self of the idea of eating an insect as we do an oyster or
shrimp, without other preparation than simple roasting,
they would not be considered very bad eating even by
more refined epicures than the Digger Indians.” Grass-
hoppers are also pounded up with service, hawthorn
or other berries. The mixture is made into small cakes,
pressed hard and dried in the sun for future use.*

* Report of Com. of Agriculture, 1870, p. 426, Washington.

368 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS

It is a well ascertained fact that locusts are in Arabia
and Northern Africa used as food now, as well as in
former times. They also form an article of commerce.
The inhabitants usually tear off their wings and wing
coverts and then bake them. Gryllus lineola, Fabr.,
seems to be the species which is eaten and prepared in

the manner above detailed in Barbary. The natives of ”

Senegal dry another species, of which the body is yellow,
spotted with black, and which Shaw and Denon have
figured in the account of their Voyage in Africa; they
then reduce them to powder which they use as flour.
Capt. Burton tells us that the black leather-like variety
of locust called by the Arabs “Satan’s ass,” is eaten by
the Africans, as are many other edibles upon which
strangers look with disgust.

There is some compensation in the circumstance that

if the locusts devour the food of man they are themselves
a source of food. In Morocco they are collected in sacks
by night, and first boiled in salt and water, and then
fried. Only the softer part of the body is eaten, much
as we eat prawns, which they resemble in taste. They
are considered to be wholesome food, and in perfection
as soon as the insects can fly.
_ The inhabitants of Madagascar are ill fed for half the
year; they prefer fried grasshoppers and silkworms,
esteeming the latter a great delicacy. The author of “A
Mission to Ava” also speaks of them as a Burmese
dainty.

“The most notable viand produced consisted of fried
locusts. These were brought in, hot and hot, in successive
saucers, and I was not sorry to have the opportunity of
tasting a dish so famous. They were by no means bad,
much like what we might suppose fried shrimps to be.
The inside is removed, and the cavity stuffed with a
little spiced meat.”

The locusts seem to be one of the greatest plagues of
the Philippines, and sometimes destroy the harvests of
entire provinces. It is the Gdipoda subfasciata, Haan ;
Acridium Manilense, Meyer ; but the species does not belong

“VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 369

to the genus Acridium in the modern sense. It occurs
also in Luzon and Timor, and is closely allied to our
European migratory locust (Gdipoda migratoria).

The natives endeavour to reduce them by devouring
the locusts themselves, for Mr. Jagor tells us, that when
a swarm, which was more than five hundred feet in
width, and about fifty feet in depth, arrived, whose
extremity was lost in the forest, old and young eagerly
endeavoured to catch as many of the delicate creatures
as they could, with cloths, nets, and flags, in order, as
Dampier relates, “to roast them in an earthen pan over
a fire until their legs and wings drop off, and their heads
and backs assume the colour of boiled crabs, after which
process,” he says, “they had a pleasant taste.” In
Burmah, at the present day, they are considered as deli-
cacies. In papers, published June, 1869, on Colonel
Fytches’ mission to the Mandalay Parliament, we are
told—* After the king had withdrawn, sweetmeats were
brought, and also roasted locusts, which were pressed
upon the guests as great delicacies.”

In Mexico a species of ant (Myrmecocystus melligerus)
has the translucid abdomen filled with a species of
syrupy fluid which is eagerly sucked by children, and
commonly employed in cases of earache. These ants
are sold by dozens simply fastened in square pieces of
paper, from which they cannot escape, if they are
suspended.

The larve of ants are considered a great dainty in
China, resembling flesh in taste. A certain species of
red ant which makes its nests on tree tops are also eaten
with ginger and salt, used as a condiment. It is very
pungent. Termites, or white ants, as they are called, are
also used as food, acecording to Dr. Macgowan.

Cameron, in his “ Across Africa,” mentions that dried
white ants are eaten by the natives with porridge as a
relish, on account of the scarcity of animal food.

“ The ants are caught in rather an ingenious manner.
A light framework of canes or twigs is built over a large
ant hill and covered with leaves cleverly fastened

BB

370 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

together by sticking the mid-rib of each into the
one above it. A very small entrance is left open at
the bottom, and under this is dug a round hole a foot in
diameter, and two feet deep. When the winged ants
come out of the hill ready to migrate, they all make for
this entrance and hustle each other into the hole, where
they lose their wings, and are unable to get out. In the
morning they are collected by the natives, who smoke
them over slow fires to preserve them.”

The small white bodies which ants are sometimes seen
to carry are commonly but erroneously called ant eggs.
They are in fact the larvee (small worms or maggots) and
the chrysalis, the young of the ants in various stages of
growth.

The Digger tribe of Indians of California and the
Plains feed upon ants, catching them by spreading a
damped skin or fresh peeled bark over their hills, which
immediately attracts the inhabitants to its surface.
When filled, the cover is carefully removed and the
adhering insects shaken into a tight sack, where they
are confined until dead, and are then thoroughly sun-
dried and laid away. lBushels are thus gathered
annually, and are not more offensive than snakes, lizards,
and crickets, which the tribe also eat. *

The Marquis de Compiegne, in his work on “ Equa-
torial Africa,” states that there is a small red ant called
ntchongou which the Pahouins eat boiled.

When roasted the termites are said to be palatable as
food, and as such to be highly esteemed by the natives
in Central Africa. A Bayeye chief who paid a cere-
monial visit to Dr. Livingstone’s camp, was offered some
bread and apricot jam. “Did you ever eat anything so
good?” inquired the doctor. “ Ah,” responded the chief,
“you should try roast white ants.”

Capt. Carmichael thus speaks of them in a published
work :—“ One evening, it was I think about the middle of
May, as we sat enjoying ourselves at dinner, we observed

* © Report of Com. of Agriculture, 1870,” p. 426. Washington.

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 371

a number of flies of an uncommon aspect, flitting past
the tent. We started up and endeavoured to catch one
of them, but without effect. Some Hottentot children,
who were standing on an opposite bank, remarking our
anxiety, came and offered us whole handfuls of them,
and directing us to the spot where they had caught them ;

our astonishment is not to be expressed when we beheld
millions of winged insects issuing into daylight from
fissures in the earth, and through the pores as it were of
the ground where no opening was perceptible. Near
these outlets the children had posted themselves, and
collecting the insects as they emerged, greedily devoured
them. Such of them as escaped the Hottentots were
snapped up as they flew along by the small birds and by
the Libellule and other predatory flies. The body of
these tiny insects is so small and the wings are so large
and unwieldy, that they could hardly support themselves
in the air, as they floated along at the humour of the
breeze. They were the males of the Zermes capensis,
commonly known as the white ant.”

I have discoursed with several gentlemen (says
Smeathman) upon the taste of the white ants, and on
comparing notes we have always agreed that they are
most delicious and delicate eating. One gentleman com-
pared them to sugared marrow, another to sugared cream
and a paste of sweet almonds.

In some parts of the East Indies the natives catch the
winged insects just before their period of emigration, in
the following manner. They make two holes, the one to
the windward, the other to the leeward; at the leeward
opening they place the mouth of a pot, the inside of
which has been previously rubbed with an aromatic herb,
called Bergera; on the windward side they make a fire
of stinking materials, which not only drives these insects
but frequently the hooded snakes also into the pots, on
which account they are obliged to be cautious in remov-
ing them. By this method they catch great quantities,
of which they make with flour a variety of pastry that

they can afford to sell very cheap to the poorer ranks of
RR

372 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

people. When this sort of food is used too abun-
dantly it produces cholera, which kills in two or three
hours.

It also seems that in some form or other these insects
are greedily eaten in other countries. Thus, when after
swarming, shoals of them fall into the rivers, the Africans
skim them off the surface with calabashes and bringing
them to their habitations parch them in iron pots over a
gentle fire, stirring them about as is usually done in
roasting coffee; in that state without sauce or any other
addition they consider them delicious food, putting them
by handfuls into their mouths, as we do comfits. “1
have,” says Smeathman, “eaten them dressed in this
way several times, and think them delicate, nourishing,
and wholesome; they are somewhat sweeter, though not
so fat and cloying, as the caterpillar or maggot of the
palm tree snout beetle (Curculio palmarum), which is
served up at all the luxuriant tables of the West Indian
epicures, particularly of the French, as the greatest
dainty of the Western world.” *

The large saubas (red ants) and white ants are an
occasional luxury to the Indians of the Rio Negro; and
when nothing else is to be had in the wet season, they
eat large earth-worms, which, when the lands in which
they live are flooded, ascend trees, and take up their
abode in the hollow leaves of a species of Tilandsia,
where they are often found accumulated by thousands.
Nor is it only hunger that makes them eat these worms,
for they sometimes boil them with their fish to give it
an extra relish. +

To sum up we may remark that all nations do not par-
ticipate with us in the neglect of insects as food. It is
not only savage nations we find indulging in these gastro-
nomic dainties, but the more civilised races; those which
have indeed been the cradle of refined civilisation have
not scrupled to indulge in various insects as food.

* “Natural History of Insects.”
T Wallace’s ‘ Travels on the Rio Negro.”

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 373

Honey.—There is another insect product which forms
a species of subsidiary food product, and that is honey.
It is very largely used by many people and therefore
deserves a few words of notice in this volume.

In 1869 we imported 15,000 ewts. besides a home pro-
duction of about 2,000 tons. As honey is not enumerated
now in the Board of Trade returns it is not possible to
ascertain what our imports at present are.

At the present day all the civilised countries of the
globe produce honey and give more or less attention to
apiculture, according as the climate and vegetation are
suited to the bees. The best honey is, however, the pro-
duct of the milder parts of the temperate zone.

The principal European countries for honey are
Russia, France, Austria, Germany, Spain and Portugal.
A good deal of wild honey is, however, obtained by the
native tribes in Australia, India, Africa and South
America.

In no other country is the consumption of honey so
large as in Russia, viz., some 13,000 tons. The reasons for
this are the following: The fast days in the course of
the year are numerous among the people attached to the
orthodox church. Tea is in general use and honey is
preferred to sweeten it, because as bullock’s blood is
employed in refining the beet-root sugar, it would be
considered an infringement of the fasting rules to use it.
But this is not the only reason, as a vast number of wax
tapers and candies are burned in the churclies, hence
the demand for beeswax renders apiculture a very profit-
able branch of industry.

The annual production of honey in France in 1873
was estimated at 186,224 ewt., but it is now said to have
reached 12,000 tons. The departments which possess the
greatest quantity of hives are Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine,
les Cotes du Nord, and La Manche, forming parts of the
ancient province of Brittany. Those of which the honey
is most esteemed and fetches the highest price are Aude,
Herault and Savoy.

Italy, Greece, and in fact all the countries on the

374 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Mediterranean, appear to have been famous lands for
honey.

Among the delectables with which Arsinoé nourishes
Adonis are “honey cakes” and other titbits made of
“sweet honey.” In the country of Theocritus this
custom is said still to prevail. When a couple are
married the attendants place honey in their mouths, by
which they would symbolize the hope that their love
may be as sweet to their souls as honey is to the palate.
Every Eastern traveller can tell how the Arab dips his
fresh flour-cake into the mingled cup of honey, and
butter, and needs no better sustenance in crossing the
desert. St. John lived on locusts and wild honey in the
desert.

According to the census returns the production of
honey in North America was in—

Ibs.
1850... anys sa sii ae ons 14,853,790
1860... ae ae a uae se 23,366,357
1870) eet wee es ne ae ae 14,702,815

About thirty-five million pounds of honey are sold
annually in the United States at the present time, and
before long it is expected that it will sell at nearly the
price of raw sugar and be able to be substituted for
glucose or starch sugar in cooking, in confectionery, and
in brewing. It is stated, I know not with what truth,
that honey, which is used instead of sugar in the
Cyclades, causes scrofula.

Like Galicia, Croatia and Slavonia are great honey
countries and send to market 1,680 tons annually. At
Segne there is a large honey refinery from which 28 tons
are sent out in the year.*

There are a few other insect saccharine products
eaten, but they are not of sufficient importance to
require detailed description. Such are Lerp, a sweet

* Those more especially interested in the subject of honey, I
may refer toa long article of mine in the “Journal of Applied
Science,’ vol. 2, p. 84.

VARIOUS INSECTS EATEN AS FOOD. 875

insect product of Australia formed on the Eucalypti,
relished by the natives; trehalose, a peculiar sugar to
the amount of nearly 29 per cent. contained in the small
cocoons of Larinus maculatus, eaten in Persia; mopane on
Bauhinia leaves, with the edible secretion of an insect
Psylla, and some products of gall insects.

376 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

CHAPTER XI.

ANIMAL FooD FURNISHED BY THE CRUSTACEANS

AND MOLLUSCA.

Lobsters — Chemical Composition of the Lobster—Trade in,
from Norway and Sweden — American Lobster Trade —
Canned Lobsters—Cape Lobsters—Lobster Fisheries on the
American Shores—Shrimps, varieties of—Prawns—Dried
Shrimps — Feasting on Live Shrimps — Crayfish — Crabs,
varieties of—Land Crabs—Mollusca—Edible Snails—Lim-
pets— Whelks—Periwinkles—Haliotids, or Ear-shells,

THE extensive order of Crustaceans at present fur-:
nishes but a small number of species which are usually
eaten, but there are no doubt many others that might
probably be utilised. The common crustaceans are very
generally used as food and greatly relished where they
can be cheaply obtained. The lobster is most esteemed,.
but the French prefer the crayfish. Crabs and lobsters
are in best condition in warm weather. Shrimps and
prawns are other food delicacies furnished by this order.

Some years ago it was stated in the [//ustrated News *
that the number of crabs and lobsters annually con-
sumed in the metropolis exceeded two millions and a
half. Assuming that the populous cities of Liverpool,
Manchester, Edinburgh, and Dublin together consume
about the same quantity, we have a total of five
millions of these large crustacea, to say nothing of the
millions of shrimps and prawns consumed.

In Brazil, India, and China, dried shrimps form an
extensive article of consumption. They are pounded
into a powder with salt and spices. From the port of

* December 6th, 1862.

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 877

Newchang, 2,000 ewt. of dried shrimps are sent to other
parts of China.

Of the crustaceans, the lobster is that which is princi-
pally in demand, although the more common crab is, of
the two, most digestible and nourishing. But the lobster
has always been held in estimation as a food delicacy,
and from being so sought for, leads to a very extensive
commerce.

Lobsters —About 3 million lobsters are annually taken
in Norway and Sweden, and of these over 1 million
are sent to England, sometimes 14 million have been
shipped. They are sold at from 3d. to 6d., according to
size. Those which are not 21 centimetres, or which have
cast a claw, are only worth one-half. They are kept in
reservoirs and sent off in sailing vessels which take
15,000 to 20,000 at a time.

The shell of the Norwegian lobster (Nephrops nor-
vegicus) is thin and of a bright red colour; that of the
Scotch lobster (Homarus gammarus, Astacus marinus, Fab.)
is thick, and when boiled of a dark colour and covered
with white specks. .

Besides our home supplies—of which we have no very
reliable returns—the bulk of our imports come from
Norway and Sweden, and it may be interesting to glance
at the statistics of the trade. Lobsters are brought to
Greenock in large numbers from the western islands,
chiefly from Skye, in boxes containing from four to five
dozen, and are there transferred for facility and economy
of carriage by rail, to tea chests, into each of which from
fifty to a hundred, according to size, are carefully
packed, and forwarded regularly and in large quan-
tities, in this way, to Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham,
and London, in each of which towns is located a branch
of a great firm—originally of Aberdeen—to whom are
continually consigned enormous quantities of fish from
all parts of the coast. Much might be done on the
coasts of the British islands in the matter of lobsters,
especially in Ireland. In a report on the Irish Fisheries,
it was stated that:—* Lobsters may be taken in any

378 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

quantity ; 20,000 or 30,000 a-week might be easily
captured on about twenty miles of the coast of Clifden,
Buffen Island, and Bunown, but the people have no
means of taking them. They only fish close to the
shore, and large lobsters cannot go into the pots used;
those of five or six pounds’, or eight or nine pounds’
weight, are only taken by clinging to the sides of the
pots; and if the fishermen had boats sufficient to go out
to the rocks seven or eight miles off, they, with proper
gear, would take the finest fish in the world, and in the
greatest quantities. They may be had in season every
day in the year that men could venture out to set the
pots, but they never do so in the winter.” The size and
age to which they sometimes attain was evidenced by
one caught a few years ago in Plymouth Sound in a
trawl net, which was reported in the Field. Its length
was, from the tip of the claws to end of tail, 3 ft. 2 in.;
weight, 15 Ibs. 24 oz. Several small oysters, mussels,
and barnacles were adhering to the shell, and it was
supposed to be one hundred years old, although what
grounds there were for the assumption were not stated.

M. Payen gives the following as the percentage com-
position of the edible parts of the lobster :—

Soft
Flesh. | Internal | Spawn.
Substance
Nitrogenous Matter ... .--| 197170 12°140 21-892
Fatty Matter ... ans mee 1:170 1144 8-234
Mineral Matter... sin are 1-823 1-749 1-998
Non-Nitrogenous and Loss ... 1-219 0°354 4:893
Water ... es vba «| 76°618 84:313 62-983
100: 100- -| 100°

There is no substance which conveys phosphorus so
readily into the human system, and which the system so

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 379

readily and quickly assimilates, as the flesh of oysters,
crabs, and lobsters. For this reason they should form
the diet of those engaged in business or literary pursuits,
where much wear and tear of the nerve powers takes
place from day to day. Care must, of course, be taken
that the organs of digestion are not disturbed by too
large a quantity of this kind of diet. According to
careful observations made at the Marine Laboratory,
Concarneau, France, it appears that the first year the
lobster sheds his shell six times, the second year six
times, the third year four times, the fourth year three
times. The following shows the rate of growth of the
lobster after each casting of its shell :—

Length in Weight
Inches. Oz. Drms.

8th Shedding ... ae ee 2 0 13
9th #3 ut ee sic + 0 2%
10th 5 aia eae ive 24 0 Bs
11th 3 ous ae Bag 3 0 53
12th iy an aia ste 34 0 9%
13th 39 sie ve ced 4 0 104
14th es ies aye aoe 44 1 43

After a time, lobsters and crabs cease to shed their
shells at all. From a lobster weighing from three to
three and a half pounds, six ounces of berries may be
obtained in the month of May; but in the month of
August not six ounces of eggs could probably he ob-
tained from a hundred lobsters. Mr. Scott, who boils
lobsters for Scott’s, at the top of the Haymarket, states
that he has collected in April and May for the cooks from
fourteen to eighteen pounds of lobster spawn. Mr. Buck-
land informs us that there are 6,720 eggs in an ounce of
lobster spawn; here, then, we have destroyed eggs which
might have represented, say in sixteen pounds of eggs,
no less than 1,720,320 lobsters.

380 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

The Norway lobster is the Nephrops norvegicus. This
crustacean is caught in the fiords from the southern
extremity up to the Loffoden Islands, but it has been
noticed for some years that there is a tendency in the
lobster to keep more towards the north, where they are
found of Jarger size. They are often taken by means of
a common cask, the bottom of which is replaced by
boughs, and a hole is left for the lobster to enter,
attracted by the bait of the fresh herring suspended, but
it cannot get out again. Osier pots are also used, but
of a more oblong shape than those employed with us.
The lobster fishery is prohibited between the 15th of
July and the 15th of September, and they are not
allowed to be taken under nine inches long. The trade
is pretty much centralised at Christiansund. The lob-
sters are there placed in large reservoirs made in the
centre of the fiord, where they are kept alive until
dispatched to Belgium or England. A part are sent off
in wooden boxes, and others in quick-sailing vessels,
with holds having reservoirs capable of containing many
thousand lobsters, the sea water passing freely through
holes pierced in the ship’s side.

The commerce in lobsters in Belgium is not in a very
good state. In 1871, several cargoes were imported
from Brittany; these lobsters are larger than those of
Norway, but the flesh is not so good, and yet they
sell at a somewhat higher price.

The whole of the fishery in Norway is monopolised by
English speculators, so that it is difficult to buy a lobster,
excepting of a diminutive size, without breach of con-
tract, or paying comparatively an exorbitant price. The
number exported annually ranged in the early part of
the century from 600,000 to 800,000; from 1825 to 1829
it was higher, reaching an average of 1,280,000; in ~
1848 607,282 were sent away. The annual export from
1853 to 1859 was about 800,000. In the ten years end-
ing with 1870 the average number shipped was 1,500,000.
The shipments were in 1878, 1,081,000; 1879, 1,019,000 ;
in 1880, 991,000.

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 381

From Sweden lobsters are almost exclusively apee®
from the port of Stromstad, on the western coast. The
following shows the shipments for some few years :—

1853... «60,200 1857... 58.260
1854... 72,440 1858... ... 64,380
1855 ... ... 39,540 1859... .. 98,260
1856... 49,246

In 1871 56,509 were exported, of which 49,500 were
sent to England.

Lobster fishing has been followed at Marshfield and J
Plymouth, Massachusetts, for thirty years and more.
From 50,000 to 100,000 lobsters are. taken annually, and
sold to the smacks for the Boston market, and to pedlars
for inland sale.

On the North American coasts a large trade is done in
putting up lobsters in tins. For some years past the /
packing houses of Portland, Maine, have shipped lobsters
in tins to England in ever-increasing. quantities. The
taste thus acquired has created a demand for the
article in a fresh and more palatable state. To supply
this demand the Portland firm of Marston and Sons,
extensive dealers, have conceived the idea of shipping
live lobsters by means of the British steamers which
ply between Liverpool and that port. Lately a trial
was made of a first consignment of this novel mer-
chandise across the Atlantic from Portland. A tank
was built on the main deck of the steamer “ Sardinian,”
twenty feet long, eight feet wide, and three feet high,
with a cover working on hinges. Through this tank a
stream of salt water, pumped from the ocean by a
donkey engine, and supplied by six faucets, constantly
flowed. 200 live lobsters were placed in it, but only
25 arrived at Liverpool alive. This was merely an ex-
periment, and future trials are expected to be more
successful. Lobsters can be purchased at Portland for
fourpence each.

Lobsters prepared in tin cases are exported from Nova
Scotia to the United States and West Indies. There is

382 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

an extensive establishment in Sambro Settlement,
Halifax. The proprietors employ coasters to visit the
tishing stations along the shore. These collect lobsters
in immense quantities to supply their extensive fishing
establishment, which puts up and exports 150,000 tins
annually. Lobsters are found in various parts of the
Annapolis basin. In Nova Scotia, in 1869, 52,400 cans
or tins of lobsters, of one pound each, were recorded as
being put up. In 1870 the quantity was more than ten
times as great, viz., 553,000 cans, valued at 74d. per can,
or 82,950 dollars. In 1871 the quantity preserved in
the province had increased to 905,500 tins, and in 1872
the trade had actually grown so wonderfully that no less
than 2,422,508 tins, valued at 1s. each, were accounted
for in the returns. Even this enormous yield became
vastly increased in 1878, when 3,462,298 tins, of the
gross value of 865,574 dollars, were preserved.

At Quebec the first record of the new business was in
1872, when 88,320 tins, of one pound each, were preserved,
the value of which, estimated at 74d. per tin, was 13,248
dollars. Here we find the industry falling off in the
following year to 15,000 tins, worth 2,250 dollars. In
the North American provinces generally, in 1873,
4,864,998 tins of lobsters were actually put up and sent
to the markets of the world; and besides this, no account
is taken of the quantity sold alive, or in a fresh state
untinned. The exports in recent years have been as
follows from the Dominion of Canada :—

Lbs. Lbs.
1873... w» 1,564,793 1879 ... .» 10,980,874
1876... 4,575,285 1880... ... 9,211,527

The American standard size at which lobsters may be
taken varies in different States from 10 inches to 114
inches clear in the body. The minimum size allowed in
the British American provinces of 9 inches is considered
too small. The lobsters caught annually in the Do-
minion are valued at £400,000.

The quantity taken in the last two years were :—

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 383

1882. 1883.
Preserved in pound cans... 16,803,736 ...... 13,364,020
Lobsters in weight tons 1.812 scssve 964
» alive thousands 258,000 ...... 1,195,120

chiefly in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince
Edward Island. New Brunswick preserved in tins in
1883, 4,042,954 cans, and 925 tons of live lobsters were
shipped in the year, and Prince Edward Island 3,844,573
cans at 8d. per can. The average quantity canned in
Nova Scotia is 5,000,000 cans. An extensive trade has
sprung up in shipping live lobsters to the United States,
about 1,000,000, a large number are also consumed
locally. In Nova Scotia there was a short catch in 1883,
although 17,000,000 lobsters were trapped, about four
to five lobsters were required for one pound can;
5,198,720 cans, equal to 108,307 cases of forty-eight
cans, were put up in 1882, and 4,870,339 cans in 1883.
The prices in 1883 were 53 dollars a case, against 44
dollars in 1882. About £2,000 worth of lobsters were
sold to American smacks.

In Newfoundland the average annual value of the
lobsters exported is about £21,700.

From 20,000 to 30,000 lobsters are collected annually
on the rocks of Heligoland ; the close season being from
the 13th June to the 13th of September. These are
stored in lobster boxes containing often as many as 200
each, the lobsters being either for local use or sent to the
Continent, where Heligoland lobsters are greatly prized.

Lobsters are taken in wicker baskets called lobster
pots. These are about three feet long and two feet wide,
semi-cylindrical in form, that is, the bottom is flat and the
sides and top are in the form of an arch. At each end
is an opening for the ingress of the lobster ; around this
opening are placed short, flexible pieces of wood, project-
ing into the basket, so arranged that they will easily
separate and allow the lobster to enter ; but their points
close together after him and prevent his egress. They
have a door upon the top, through which the lobster is
taken out. A long line is attached to these pots; a

384 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

heavy stone, sufficient to sink it, is placed inside. They
are baited with the heads or offal of fresh fish, and sunk
to the bottom at about low water mark; the other end
of the line is made fast to a block of light wood, called a
buoy. The fishermen go out with their wherries freighted
with these pots, and drop them at short intervals along
the shore. During the season of lobster fishing, which
lasts from March to July in America, hundreds of these
buoys may be seen bobbing up and down like so many
seals’ heads. The fishermen visit them every morning,
draw them up alongside of their boats, take out the
lobsters, replenish the bait, and drop them again into
the water. The lobsters, when first taken, are very
fierce, and seize with their strong pincers upon whatever
may be within their reach. When thrown together in
the boat they will grapple and tear off each other’s feelers
and legs. Without much care in handling them the
fingers of the fishermen get many a hard bite. To pre-
vent them from injuring each other, the fishermen pro-
vide sharp-pointed wooden pegs, which they insert -into
the joint or hinge of their pincers; this prevents them
from closing. When they have visited all their pots
they row to the landing-place. If they now wish to
preserve them for several days, they put them into a
long box or kennel, made of plank, and bored full of
holes, which is moored in the water at a little distance
from the shore. If they wish to prepare them imme-
diately for market, they are taken ashore in hand-
barrows and carried to a sort of shed, in which is
fixed a large cauldron in which they are boiled. In
some parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence lobsters are
so plentiful that, notwithstanding their increased com-
mercial value since the foundation of this new industry,

ood, marketable lobsters are used to manure the fields.

“The heavy gales of August, 1873,” writes the pro-
prietor of a large establishment at Shippegan, “drove
more lobsters ashore within five miles of my packing-
houses, than I could make use of during the whole sum-
mer. They formed a row from one to five feet deep, and

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 385

I should estimate them at an average of one thousand to
every two rods of shore.”

And yet notwithstanding the wonderful abundance of
this crustacean, there are signs that the yields are falling
off, in all probability i in consequence of the immense
drain upon the supplies. The whole of the edible part
of the lobster is not utilised by the curers, who say that
the trouble of picking out the flesh from the claws is
too great, and that lobsters are too cheap to make it
worth while to go to the expense of this slight additional
labour. These wasteful habits will, we fear, bring their
own inevitable consequences in their train, unless some
check be placed upon the destructiveness of those
engaged in the trade.

Lobsters large or small, breeding or not, are, or were,
at one time treated alike, and the immense destruction
which the foregoing figures indicate, naturally had its
effect upon the supply. If the breeding stock and the
growing supply of any kind of produce be systematically
killed down, the result will be a gradually decreasing
and ultimately exhausted field, and this was the
threatened fate of the lobster treasure. Fortunately,
the Government of the Dominion of Canada interfered.
The Inspector of Fisheries at New Brunswick in a recent
report on the fisheries of that province, made the follow-
ing remarks :—“ In view of this rapidly increasing busi-
ness done in preserved lobsters, and the large number of
those shell-fish which are now yearly caught in both
provinces, I respectfully recommend that the lesson to
be learnt from our oyster-beds be pondered in time, and
means taken to prevent a like result in the case of the
lobster. Heretofore this shell-fish has been plentiful on
some of our coasts. There are many other countries
probably where the business of preserving lobsters in
tins could be protitably carried on, and whenever this is
the case, I trust the above figures and facts will lead in
the first place to the foundation of such an industry, and
in the second place to the adoption of proper precautions
to prevent the exhaustion of the beds.”

cc

386 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

In a curious old bill rendered in the reign of
Charles II. to Mr. Walter Tucker, Mayor of Lyme,
Dorset, when entertaining the Judges on their assize
visit, occur the following items :—Thirty lobsters, £1 10s.,
six crabs, 6s.; 100 scallops, 5s.; 400 oysters, 4s. That
the judges were partial to shell-fish seems evident, and
the comparison of prices then and now is remarkable.

The Cape lobster (Palinurus Lalandii, Lam.) is used as
food by the Cape colonists. This cray fish, peculiar to
the: west coast and common in Table Bay, is easily
caught in vast numbers all the year round, and attains
a length of thirteen inches and a breadth of nearly five
inches. The flesh of the half-grown individual is tender
and delicate, while that of the adult is coarse and
difficult of digestion. To the poorer classes this cray-
fish is a regular God-send, and it is dried occasionally
for preservation.

“ Crayfish and lobsters are very abundant on the west

coast of South America. At Juan Fernandez they are
found in such quantities that the fishermen have no
greater trouble to take them than to strew a little meat
or other bait upon the shore, and when they come to
devour it, as they do in immense numbers, to turn
them on their backs with a stick. By this simple
method many thousands are taken annually, and the
tails, which are in high estimation, are dried and sent
to Chili.

According to an article in Scribner's Monthly, the
coast of Maine, with its deep indentations and its
numberless shoals and shallows, is, perhaps, the finest
lobster fishery in the world. In spring the lobster
migrates from the deeper, and consequently warmer
waters, and takes up his summer residence amongst the
shallows inshore. The period of this migration marks the
commencement of the principal lobster-harvest. Lobsters
may be caught at any season, but a State law forbids
their being “canned” at other times than between the
Ist of March and the Ist of August. Lobsters of from
25 to 43 lbs. in weight are found exceptionally, but

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 3887

they are likely to be still rarer in the future, since the
average size is being diminished by a rapacity similar
to that which has ruined several of our English fisheries.
Placed within a floating “lobster car,” the finer specimens
are selected for consumption in Boston, New York,
and other centres of population, and the smaller ones are
consigned to the smacks of the various lobster factories.
In the factory—not altogether a savoury place—they
are boiled wholesale in large coppers, and are then taken
out with “scoop-nets” and thrown over the shoulders
of the operators. A rapid dissection follows, and the
meat is forced out by various appliances. The “cracker,”
by two dexterous blows with a cleaver, breaks the
claws, and their contents are picked out with forks
by a troop of young-lady “helps.” Other female
functionaries place an assortment of meat in each tin
and complete the weighing operations. The cover is
put in place, and the tin comes under the hands of the
solderer, a workman who commands a high price for his
exertions. The solderer closes the “can,’ with the
exception of a minute hole, through which the enclosed
air is expelled during a subsequent boiling in a “bath-
caldron.” The tins are then taken out, completely sealed,
and are subjected to a second boiling lasting several
hours. The remaining processes are connected with
ornamentation and the affixing of labels. Nine-tenths
of the lobsters “ packed ” in this way are sold in foreign /
markets.

As much as 380,000 tons of lobsters are said to be
caught every season in the Lower Provinces, and more
than 14,000,000 1lb. tins of lobster are sent annually
into the markets of the world from British America
alone, besides those packed in the United States. In
1879 there were preserved in tins in Prince Edward
Island, 2,272,825 1b. tins of lobsters. The Bay of
Chaleur and the Madelaine Islands are the great seats
of the lobster fishery. This species is Homarus Ameri-
canus.

Of lobsters and crayfish 1,367,045 in number, and of

cc2

388 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

shrimps and prawns 1,537,107 kilos (of 2 lbs.) were
caught in France in 1876. Of the larger crustaceans the
supply to France in 1878 was 1,466,249, and of shrimps
and prawns 1,369,741 kilos. in weight. The number of
crustaceans brought into the French markets by their
own fishermen in 1879, was 1,790,463.

From an establishment at Roscoff, Paris receives
annually not less than 30,000 lobsters, and Russia,
Belgium, and Germany also make large demands upon
it, 1,500 being often sent off at a time. They are fed in
these enclosures or tanks, with sharks, conger eels, and
other waste fish, as they are very voracious.

Mr. Richard Scovell has, at Hamble near Southampton,
a large reservoir in which 50,000 lobsters can be kept
alive for at least six weeks. Vessels are employed in
visiting the fishing grounds and bringing in from 5,000
to 10,000 lobsters each.
~ The largest crustacean is the spiny lobster (Palinurus
vulgaris) which often weighs as much as twelve or fifteen
pounds. It was in great esteem amongst the ancients,
‘who denominated it Locusta.

Crayfish.—In Victoria there are no true lobsters and
no crabs fit for the table, except a spiny crayfish, of
about the same size and shape as the English species,
which is supplied abundantly to the market. It is
nearly, or quite identical, with the A. annuticornis. The
gigautic Murray river crayfish (Astacoides serratus) is sent
down alive in great numbers to the markets for the
table; the smaller-river crayfish (Astacoides quinque-
carinatus) is also often eaten in the country.

In France the government has granted an appropriation
by which more than 300 rivers and brooks can be
stocked with German crayfish. Even these are not
sufticient for the great demand, and large numbers are
still imported from Germany. From Styria fattened
crayfish have been sent to Paris by Baron de
Washington. ;

Our river crayfish (Potamobius astacus) is largely
caught, and when fresh boiled isa dish not to be despised.

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 389

It is largely imported into London for the purpose of
garnishing dishes.*

The small river crayfish “ecrevisses” are in great
demand in France, for making the celebrated bisque
soup, and for serving up as a garnish to other dishes.
From Berlin they are sent weekly to the Paris market
to the value of £160 during the season of summer.

In the San Francisco market crayfish are sold at 6d.
to 74d. the pound.

The large crayfish of Tasmania (Palinurus Edwardsit)
forms an article of export to New South Wales. This
species attains a length of from 1 foot to 18 inches,
and finds a ready sale at from Is. 6d. to 2s. 6d. each.
The fresh-water species (Astacopsis Franklinit) exceeds
that of its representative on the main land.

There is brought in annually to the Vienna markets
from Upper Austria about 1234 million pounds of cray-
fish (Astacus fluviatilis). It is considered a great table
delicacy in Europe and sells at high prices.

The river crayfish in the lakes on the borders of the
Danube, attain extraordinary dimensions, equalling in
size small lobsters. Those of the ponds and rivers,
though not so large, are equally savoury. They are
caught in great quantities and largely consumed,
especially in the fast days of spring.

Shrimps and Prawns.—Although at first sight shrimps
might be thought to be of small value, yet for food pur-
poses the shrimping industry is of very great importance
in many countries.

In the great Thames estuary, between the North Fore-
land on thé south and Harwich on the north, are
thousands of acres of sand plateaus, favourable to
shrimps. From this great shrimp farm are netted up
hourly, daily, from April to October, thousands and ten
thousands of shrimps; yet in spite of the number caught
there does not appear, except at times, to be any falling
off of these “sea flies,” as they are sometimes called.

* Cassell’s ‘‘ Natural History.”

~~.

390 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

The principal shrimping grounds near Margate are the
“ Queen’s Channel,” the “Gore,” and the grounds below
the Nore Light.

The art of shrimping was first discovered at Margate
by Mr. J. Shrubsall, fish merchant, of that town. When
he first began, half a century ago, he could take from
30 to 100 gallons at one haul. In the neighbourhood of
Pegwell Bay and Ramsgate most of the shrimps are
caught by “ pushing ”—ie., by a hand-net worked by a
man ‘wading. Morecambe Bay may be said to be placed
next in importance as regards shrimps to the Thames
estuary. We learn from the report of the Commissioners
for Sea Fisheries that the Morecambe Bay shrimp
fisheries alone are worth about £4,000 a year. Shrimps
from this part of Lancashire are sent mostly to the vast
manufacturing populations of the iron districts and the
midland counties.

A very large number of shrimps are used in London
for food. Sometimes the red shrimps are sold mixed
with the brown, but generally they are sent to market
separately. The most abundant of the two kinds is the
bunting, the “chevrette” of the French. It is of a
grayish brown colour, dotted all over with brown spots,
and does not become red by heat. It is also called the
“ grey shrimp” and the “sand shrimp.” Connoisseurs in
shrimps consider the red or beaked shrimp much better
than the brown or flat-nosed species.

The costermongers of London sell annually about
770,000 pints of shrimps at 2d. per pint, which is rather
below the market price. The value of this quantity will
be £6,400 a year. To this we must add the enormous
quantities sold in shops, and those consumed in Birming-
ham, Manchester, and Liverpool; in fact, all over Eng-
land. Shrimps are boiled before being carried to market,
and there is an art even in the apparently simple process
of boiling shrimps. They are placed in nets, and plunged
alive in water that is fiercely on the boil. The putting
in of the shrimps lowers the temperature of the water
for amoment. The experienced shrimp boiler, therefore

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 391
heats the poker and stirs up the water in which the
shrimps are placed, in order that the temperature of the
water shall be kept up to the boiling point while the
shrimps are being cooked. Shrimps are in season during
the whole year, though the chief demand is in spring.
A preparation of potted shrimps is sold.

In North America shrimps are pickled and spiced.
By the Chinese in California they are sold plain, peeled,
and also strung on matting. The meat after being dried
is pulverised and put through a fanning mill. Shrimps
of a very large size, crabs, and other crustacea are abun-
dant on the coasts of Peru.

A species of Palemon is brought dried in sacks from
the Pacific coast to Mexico to be eaten in Lent. They
are pounded, and the powder is mixed with rice and
chillies to flavour the little cakes or croquettes, which
are fried in oil. The flavour is something like old dried
codfish.

The large dried prawns (“Camarones ”) of Brazil, so
delicious when eaten fresh, may please the lovers of
highly-spiced food. The fish of the Amazon, salted,
dried, and reduced to powder, may be useful to those
who voyage on that river, and the numerous Indians
who coast it, but would not suffice for the basis of
nourishment of the Europeans or North Americans.

Enormous quantities of shrimps are obtained on the
coasts of Belgium and Holland; in the latter country
they were formerly used to manure land. They are often
salted to be sent to tropical countries. In 1867 there
were exported from Holland to England 350,000 kilos.,
and to Belgium 104,000 kilos.; in 1882 we received
1,178,000 kilos. from Holland. There are now 2 000 to
3,000 men employed in Holland and Belgium catching
shrimps.

Shrimps are now three times as valuable as they were,
they sell at 3d. to 6d. a quart.

The Boston fishermen believe there are three kinds of
shrimps, the sea shrimps (Pandanus annulicornis), which
come in June; the land shrimps (Crangon vulgaris), which

392 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

are always there; and the prawns (Palemon serratus).
The common brown shrimps or buntings (C. vulgaris),
are caught from the Ist September to 1st of April, the red
shrimps from Ist of April to 30th of September. The
brown shrimps are taken in the mud, the red shrimps
are not. The Leigh fishermen catch shrimps all the year
round from Gravesend to Margate.

Shrimp canning has recently been added to the indus-
tries of New Orleans. One establishment there employs
150 boys and girls and from twenty to thirty skilled
workmen. Already the output is 10,000 cans a day, and
it is expected that the product will soon be doubled.
The shrimps are cooked and canned by a new process.
It is intended to undertake also the canning of oysters,
which are abundant along the Gulf coast.

Tunis, the ancient Carthage, was always celebrated for
prawns, and the Roman emperors used to send for them
for their banquets. They are of great size, six to seven
inches long. Dried shrimps are eaten in Persia.

The prawn is caught in great abundance in Norway,
especially in the east. The Svelvig prawn (Pandanus
borealis), which is distinguished by its red colour, and is
two or three times as large as the ordinary prawn, is
caught exclusively at Svelvig, and sold at Drammen
where it is much sought after.

At Mergui, Burmah, there are over 550 men employed
in fishing for shrimps and prawns, by boats with sub-
merged nets. The prawns when brought in are spread
on mats and exposed to the sun for several days until
quite hard and dry; they are then put into wooden
mortars and pounded with wooden mallets, which knock
off all the skin or husky shell. They are then sold for
£8 or £10 per hundred viss (the viss is 3 lbs. 2 ozs ),
and the husk is sold as a manure at £3 per 100 baskets.

The Rev. M. Stewart, a chaplain in the United States
navy, in his work “ A Visit to the South Seas,” deserib-
ing a dinner given by the native monarch of Owhyhee,
says :—“ We greatly relished a repast so well prepared
and so neatly served. After the meats were removed,

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 393

Madame Boke (the governor’s wife) drew the casters and
salad bowl near her, as I at first supposed, to give us a
specimen of her tact in salad-dressing ; but on seeing a
servant approach with a parcel handsomely done up
in green leaves, dripping with water, and observing a
smile of archness playing on the features of her ladyship
as she received it from him, I began to suspect it was
only in preparation for some bonne bouche, peculiarly epi-
curean in its character. Such it proved to be, for on
carefully untying it, while her eye brightened more and
more with pleasantry, she suddenly scattered the con-
tents, a quantity of live shrimps, as pure and transparent
as could be, and as sprightly as crickets, over the cresses,
and dashing the cruet of vinegar upon the whole, caught
up a half dozen of the delicate creatures in the leaves of
the salad and tossed them with a laugh into her mouth,
by way of encouragement to us to join in the course.
The captain is too courteous a gentleman to stop short of
any civility due to the lady of the house, and consider-
ing this a kind of challenge, went through the. movement
of taking a similar quantity in his fingers, and in raising
it to his mouth, whether with the intention of following
the example farther on or not, I cannot say; but ruse
or not, I saw one at least of the nimble fry hop fairly
down his throat.”

From the small port of St. Gilles-sur-Vie, in the depart-
of Vendée, there are sent annually to Paris during the
season (which lasts from April to October) 26,000 lbs.
of shrimps worth ls. 3d. per pound. The species are
Palemon serratus and P. squilla, called locally “ crevettes ”
and “ chevrettes.” The whole quantity taken in France in
1879 was stated at 1,647,588 kilogrammes (3,600,000 lbs.)

The small pea crab (Pinnotheres pisum), which lives
within the shell of the common American oyster, is much
valued by oyster-eaters in the United States. In open-
ing a large quantity of oysters these little crabs are col-
lected apart, and serve to gratify the palate of gourmands.
They are only seven-twentieths of an inch long, by two-
fifths wide.

394 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

In Japan, among the crustaceans used for food, figure
first the crabs, which are called kagni. They are com-
mon and belong to different species, some of which attain
a large size. The lobster is also caught, but does not
attain so large a size as in Kurope, indeed it may pro-
bably be another species. There are a great quantity of
shrimps and prawns of various kinds, some of which
a‘tain a large size.

Crabs are caught like lobsters in great quantities on the
coast of Norway, in traps or casks prepared for the pur-
pose. Although large and fine they are little esteemed,
being never eaten on the coasts, and fetch but low prices
in the inland towns. They are chiefly chopped up for
bait. Lately the Norwegians have commenced to pre-
serve the crab in hermetically sealed tins. Specimens
of this new product were shown at the Paris Exhibition
in 1878, and there is ground for the hope that, thanks to
this preparation, the crab will in time find a foreign
market. Two to three million crabs are sent yearly
from Finland to Russia and Sweden.

In the London market crabs boiled sell at from 1s. 6d.
to 4s. each, according to size. In the San Francisco
market they fetch about 1s. each; and at Victoria,
British Columbia, they retail at 2s. to 3s. the dozen.
The excellence of the crab is mainly due to the enormous
development of the liver, which occupies the two anterior
sides of the carapace, and is deemed by most the “ tit-
bit.”

The chief time for the sale of the great crab (Cancer
pagurus, Lin.) is May to August. The demand falls off
in October and is not resumed till March, as in the
winter they are watery. Crabs are brought to market
both in a boiled and in a raw state. The male is of
greater value than the female, and has larger claws.
Before boiling, a good crab is known by the roughness
of its shell, particularly on the claws. When boiled,
its quality is tested by holding the claws tight and
shaking: the body, which will rattle, or seem as if water
were in the inside, if it be not in perfection.

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 395

The spiny spider crab (Maia squinado) frequents nearly
all parts of our coasts and is by far the largest of the
family. It is eaten by the poorer classes, though it is
but indifferent food.

The common or shore crab (Carcinus menas) is very
abundant on the coasts of France. Although its flesh is
not delicate, large quantities are consumed, and during
the months of June and July a great many are sent both
to the Paris markets and those of the large towns in the
interior.

(Cancer fluviatilis, Belon.), is eaten in Italy, in seasons
of abstinence, and wonderful properties are ascribed to
its flesh for the cure of throat affections.

In Central and Southern Italy a freshwater crab
(Telphusa fluviatihs) is pretty common, and sought for ;
near Florence they are kept for some time in the dark,
isolated in earthen jars, so that they may shed their
carapace, and becoming soft are more easily eaten.

In Chili, under the name of “Centollas,’ Herbstia
condyliata is eaten by the natives. The edible or blue
crab of New Jersey, America, is Callinectes hastatus,
Ordway.

Land Crabs.—A tropical food dainty, which we never
see in this country, is the land crab (Gecareina ruricola).
These literally swarm in the Bahamas and afford food
for the inhabitants the greatest part of the year; even
the hogs are fed with them. It is the grey or white
kind of crab, common to Cuba and the Bahamas. In
the autumn they are very fat, and equal in flavour to
the black species of Jamaica. They are found in myriads
in all parts and thought a great delicacy.

The Cardisoma carnier, Latr., of the mangrove swamps
is regarded as a luxurious article of food by the West
Indians. They are caught in box rat traps, baited with a
piece of the Anona fruit, of which they are very fond.
After their capture they are usually kept some time and
fattened with broken victuals.

The robber crab (Birgus latro) common to the Islands
of the Pacific and the East, is considered a table delicacy ;

396 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

moreover under the tail of the larger ones there is a great
mass of fat, which when melted, sometimes yields as
much as a quart of limpid oil.

The island of Taboga, near Panama, has always been
celebrated for its land crabs. Towards the end of Lent,
but more particularly after the first heavy showers of
the rainy season, they leave their holes in the mountains
and descend in great numbers to the seaside, marching
during the night, being steadily bent on reaching the
sandy beaches of the island. The females are loaded
with ova, and the males are as ill-tempered as a Londoner
who has to take his family to the seaside whether he
will or not. Men, women and children, start out after
dark with lanterns, and hunt the crabs in their descent.
Large kettles are left at home ready with boiling water
into which the bag full of doomed land crabs is emptied
when the hunt is over.

This wonderful animal migration is looked on asa
sort of Godsend to make up for the rigour of Lent.

It is found in this locality only on the group of islands
of which Taboga is the largest.

The land crabs are considered a great luxury both
in Panama and in Jamaica. It is reported of a governor
of the latter island, that in his opinion the two best
things in Jamaica were the land crabs and the Sambo
girls. In Jamaica and some other West India islands
millions on millions, at certain periods, may be seen pro-
gressing from the hills to the sea, and from the sea back
to the hills, uniting at certain periods in vast numbers,
and moving in the most direct course to the sea, march-
ing in squadrons and lines, just like bands of soldiers
proceeding to a battle point of concentration, but halting
twice a day for feeding and repose.

When the black or violet mountain crab is fat and in
a perfect state, it surpasses everything of the sort in
flavour and delicacy ; and frequently joins a little of the
bitter with its native richness, which renders it not only
the more agreeable in general, but makes it sit extremely
easy upon the stomach. They are frequently boiled and

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 397

served up whole, but are commonly stewed when served
up at the more sumptuous tables.

Mo.Liusca.

We pass now to the Mollusca, a large number of which
afford food for man and other animals. Upwards of
15,000 species have been described, but the number
which deserves notice here is but limited. —

Snails. —Many land and marine mollusca are eaten as
food. Among the land ones various snails are con-
sidered dainty morsels. The species principally eaten in
Europe is the apple snail (Heli# pomatia, Lin.) but several
other kinds are also used such as the garden snail (Z.
aspersa, Lin.), the wood snail (H. nemoralis, Lin.), the
banded snail (HZ. pisana, Lin.), H. aperta, H. rhodostoma,
A. vermiculata and H. lactea.

Besides the ancient Romans the noble Danes ate snails
in the eighteenth century. ;
The taste for eating snails prevails in Austria,
France, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy, and has even ex-
tended to the United States. At Cape Coast and beyond .
Ashantee, as well as on several parts of the West Coast,
the African Achatina are much esteemed as food ; they
are, with the species of Bulimus, the largest of land
shells, many being eight inches long. Three or four
hundred of these dried molluses strung together will sell

for a dollar.

Not very attractive to the stranger is the favourite
dish of many a European nation—roasted or pickled
snails. The slimy, slippery form of these animals makes
them to most persons peculiarly repulsive, but their
extraordinary nutritive power and excellent taste has
long since served to defeat all prejudice. While the
Ashantees, and other African natives of low grade,
smoke them and eat them as daily food all the year
round, more civilised races empley them only as relish,
or for special occasions.

Tue large land snails, Achatina and Bulimus of Africa

398 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

and America, are highly relished. The Romans already
valued the cochleana and fattened them until they reached
truly gigantic dimensions. Horace informs us they
were served up broiled upon silver gridirons to give a
relish to wine

Many are familiar with the passage in Pliny (Hist.
lib. ix., c. 56), who, on the authority of Varro, relates
the incredible size to which the art of fattening had
brought the snails. Even assuming the snails were
African <Achatina or Bulimi, there must, one should
think, be some mistake in the text, which says, “ Cujus
artis gloria in eam magnitudinem perducta sit, ut oc-
toginta quadrantes caperent singularem calices.” Pen-
nant, referring to this and to Varro (De Re Rustica) says,
“If we should credit Varro, they grew so large that the
shells of some would hold ten quarts!”

But this is a misapprehension, the quadrans referred
to being a small copper coin ? of an inch in diameter
about the size of a sixpence and 5); of an inch thick.

Shortly before the outbreak of the civil war with
Pompey, Fluvius Hirpinus was the first in the Tarquinian
district to establish snail ponds. He arranged them in
separate divisions; one for the white snails from Reatine,
one for the Ilyrian snails, distinguished by their great
size, one for the African snails, which are very fruitful,
and another for the Solitanian snails, which are the
finest of all. He even invented a special kind of food
for them, prepared of thick must, flour, and other ingre-
dients, and by means of this artificial diet, they grew to
an enormous size. The ancients knew how to prepare
even sea urchins and star fish as dainty dishes.

The Capucins of Lorraine also carried on this industry
of fattening snails.

The large Roman or edible snail is renowned both as
a delicacy and on account of its reputed virtues as a
remedy in cases of consumption, which it is said has in
several instances been entirely cured by a regimen of
the mucilage from these snails. On the Continent the
Roman snail is considered a great delicacy; but the

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 399

garden and yellow banded snails are the kinds more
commonly eaten. A snail feast is held annually in the
South of France, on Ash Wednesday, when large num-
bers of them are consumed. An analogous custom is
said to prevail in our own country amongst the opera-
tives of Lancashire and at Newcastle.*

In our day also they are prescribed as eminently
useful to sufferers in consumption, and all Southern
Europe affects them during the times of animal fasting.
In Switzerland and Italy the traveller finds large estab-
lishments where they are carefully raised, and. either
disposed of at home or potted and sent by millions to
foreign counties. Helix hortensis makes a capital broth
for weak persons, and H. pomatia may be found in
many countries. In Venice all snails are eaten, at least
by the poor, in France they are consumed in incredible
numbers, and in Germany and America they are also
eaten. In summer great quantities of snails are con-
sumed in Roumania.

Snail eating has been prevalent in Italy for many
centuries. In Pliny’s time Barbary snails stood first in
repute, those of Sicily ranking next; and it was the
custom to fatten the creatures for the table by dieting
them upon meal and new wine.

In modern Rome fresh gathered snails are hawked by
women from door to door for the benefit of housewives,
who boil them in their shells, and stew or fry them in
oil. It is a common sight to see in an Italian city the
people gathered around a number of baskets filled with
snails, waiting to be thrown into a large iron pot standing
over a fire made between four stones, and boiled with
herbs and tomatoes for retailing to the expectant crowd.

Chambers’s Journal informs us that an Englishman at
dinner with a Sicilian gentleman, was invited to partake
of some snails treated in this way, and for politeness
sake, foreed himself to swallow two of them, although
he found it impossible to feign the delight with which

* B. B. Woodward, in “Science for All,” p. 246,

400 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

the host and his daughter sucked the mollusks out of
their shells.

A century ago, some 4,000,000 snails were annually
exported from Ulm in “kegs” of 10,000, fetching from
25 to 40 florins a keg. In Tyrol youngsters of both
sexes are employed during the summer months collecting
snails as stock for the snail gardens—small plots of land
cleared of trees, and covered with heaps of moss and
pine twigs, and separated from each other by moats,
having gratings at their outlets, to prevent any truants
that may get into the water from being carried beyond
bounds. The prisoners are supplied daily with fresh
grass and cabbage-leaves, until their appetites fail, and
they retire into the moss heaps for their winter’s sleep,
the last one they will enjoy; for when spring comes,
they are routed out of their beds, packed into straw-
lined boxes and sent to market. In a favourable season,
one of these gardens will turn out 40,000 snails. The
consumption of them in the South Tyrol is great; the
Italians and Tyrolese are not the only people who appre-
ciate the merits of these clean-feeding mollusks ; in Paris,
Burgundian snails are worth one halfpenny apiece, and
£500 worth of snails are disposed of in the markets in
the course of a year. Indeed a special portion of the
market has been allotted for the sale of snails.

In the canton of Appenzel, Switzerland, they raise
and fatten snails, of which large consignments are made
to Vienna to be consumed in Lent. The provinces of
Burgundy and Provence are also places of its culti-
vation. Throngs of women and children scour the
country, collecting the snails in immense numbers,
and depositing them in little tracts of land, enclosed
with simply a trail of sawdust. This last the snail
hates; he cannot cross it, and avoids its vicinity
as a matter of preference. Therefore, for his confine-
ment it is as good asa stone wall. After incarceration
for two or three days, he is permitted to starve, and
then the plot is laid out in patches of turf intersected
by paths of sand. Above, boards are hung to serve as

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 401

shelter for the snails, which instinctively gather in large
groups. The food provided consists of aromatic plants,
such as mint, or lettuce and fragments of vegetables.
This is given to them three times a day in enormous
quantities. At the end of eight days, the snails become
quite obese, and besides have attained a very succulent
flavour. Then comes another period of starvation for
several days, after which transmission to market fol-
lows.

Gourmands, it is said, prefer the snail when taken wild,
so long as the capture is made at a particular period.
After the eggs are laid in May, the mollusks conceal
themselves under stones to avoid the autumn frosts.
There they become perfectly free from excretions, and,
drawing themselves into their shells, close up for the
winter. It is when they are collected in this state that
their flavour is said to be best.

Rossmassler (“ Reise-Erinerungen aus Spanier ”’) men-
tions having seen fourteen different species of Helicide
brought to the markets in Mexico and Valencia and
sold to be eaten. He adds that snails are not food
for the poor alone in Spain, for many kinds are too
costly for them. One species, called Serranos, is sold for
a penny each of our English money; but they are not
half that price bought by the dozen. They cook them
by stewing, shells and all, in a richly-spiced sauce, and
then they put the shell to the mouth, and draw out the
animal by sipping or sucking it. H. dactea is brought in
great numbers to the markets in Andalusia, as well as
H. aspersa, but the former is the best tasted and most
delicate.

A large snail, probably Plectrocheilus undulatus, is found
in immense quantities in the forests about the Gold
Coast and other parts of West Africa, and contributes
greatly to the food of the natives.

Something like 90,000 Ibs. of snails are sent up daily
to the Paris markets from the gardens of Poitou; Bur-
gundy, Champagne, and Provence, where they are
specially reared for this purpose, the natural delicate

DD

402 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

flavour of their flesh being improved by feeding them
on beds of aromatic herbs. It is not only as a delicacy
that snails are so generally appreciated in France. They
also take high rank as a most nutritive food, and from
the time of the Romans downward have been regarded
as an excellent medicine in consumption and weakness
of the chest. According to Payen they contain 70 per
cent. of water, 16 per cent. of nitrogen, 1 per cent. of fat,
2 per cent. of salts, and 5 per cent. of undetermined
matter.

M. Charles Mene gives the following analysis of the
edible snail, which is even more favourable :—

Water ee coy ae ats ane = 72°747
Nitrogenous matter a sive os oer 17,652
Fatty substance ... a se te a 1,125
Non-nitrogenous ... ase ac asa ane 6,300
Salts aes er an ax 2°176

Nitrogen 2°823. ,

Doctor Ebrard,* who has made it the object of his
peculiar attention, declares that the weight of meat
represented by the snails sold amounts to that found on
cutting up a whole flock of calves and young heifers.
The doctor in his report enters largely into the mode of
preparation for the table. He is aware that he is tread-
ing on tender ground,—very tender ground indeed,—
and wishes, while the gourmand is enjoying the nutrition
which the snail affords, to make him forget, as much as
possible, whence that nutrition proceeds. He recommends
that they should be boiled in the shell, baked in the
oven, and then chopped up with parsley and butter.
But, alas! the first thing provided by the municipality
of Paris alarms us, and makes us pause before we pre-
cipitate ourselves upon this new gastronomic delight.
It is a superintending officer whose business it is to see
that the creatures are in a fit state to be served as food,
and to ascertain whether their digestive tubes are in

* “Tes Escargots, au point de vue de l’Alimentation,” etc.

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 403

proper order, because if they have been feeding in places
where hemlock and belladonna grow, the most horrible
convulsions, delirium, and death will follow on indul-
gence in a feast of snails. Some people are delighted to
behold this new element of food introduced into the
market, for snails have been the object of the most
especial grudge ever since they destroyed the vines, and
forced the people who devoured them to do so without
the sour sauce which renders them so delicious; and
already have the exhortations of the municipality met
with some success, as the report sent in concerning the
ratio of their consumption shows that ever since their
registration at the Halle this has gone on steadily in-
creasing.

In preparing snails for the table in France they are
first well washed and then thrown shell and all into
boiling water, where they are allowed to remain till well
cooked. The liquor is then strained off, the contents of
the shells extracted with a suitable instrument, and
chopped up into a fine hash with sardines and bread
crumbs. The shells are then crammed with this force-
meat, boiled lightly in butter, garnished with parsley,
and served up with a sauce prepared from the broth
obtained in the boiling stages of the process. It is not
generally known that the French first acquired their
appreciation of these mollusks from the Germans, who
introduced the custom of eating them into the Eastern
provinces, whence it spread rapidly through the whole
country. In Germany it has fallen into complete disuse,
except in some few parts of Bohemia.

Snails, as we have seen, were highly esteemed by the
Romans, our masters in gastronomy, and are now raised
in many of the departments of France with success.
In the sixteenth century the Capuchins of Fribourg
recovered the art of breeding and fattening snails, an
art which is not lost in our day, for in Franche-Comte,
Lorraine, and Burgundy they raise excellent snails,
which find a sure demand in the Paris market.

There are now fifty restaurants and more than twelve

DD2 2

\

4()4 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

hundred private tables in Paris where snails are accepted
as a delicacy by from eight thousand to ten thousand
consumers. The monthly consumption of this mollusk
is estimated at half a million. The market price of the
great vineyard snails is from two frances fifty cents to
three franes fifty cents per hundred, while those of the
hedges, woods, and forests, bring only from two francs to
two franes fifty cents. The proprietor of one snailery
in the vicinity of Dijon is said to net over 7,000 francs
annually.

That our ancestors in Britain ate snails and considered
them delicacies is certain. In Ben Jonson’s “Every
Man in his own Humour” old Henswell, when excusing
himself for having taught extraordinary and luxurious
habits to his son, says—

“ Neither have I

Drest snails and mushrooms curiously before him,
Perfumed my sauces, taught him how to make them.”

Robert May, who had been cook to Sir Kenelm Digby,
and published his “ Accomplished Cook,” the best of the
old English cookery books, the fruit of fifty years’
experience in the best and most hospitable English
families, in 1660, gives no less than nine different,
recipes for cooking snails; one to dress snails, three to
stew snails, two to fry snails, one to hash snails, one to
dress snails in pottage—“ very nourishing and excellent
food against consumption,”—and one to bake snails.
Here is the last recipe, and really it reads very well :-—

“To bake Snails—Being boiled and scoured, season
them with nutmeg, pepper and salt, put them in a pie
with some marrow, large mace,a raw chicken cut in
pieces, some little bits of lard and bacon, the bones cut
out, sweet herbs chopped, sliced lemon or orange, and
butter; being full, close it up and bake it, and liquor
with butter and white wine.”

Lister, in his “Tres Tractatus Historie Animalium
Anglize,” published in 1678, says, “Snails are boiled in
river water, and when seasoned with oil, salt and pepper,
make a dainty dish.”

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 405

Indeed snails were a favourite dish in the London
restaurants when the last century was well advanced.
In the reign of George the Second “a ragout of fatted
snails” and “chickens not two hours from the shell”
were considered the chef d’euvres at Pontacte’s famous
guinea ordinary. Hogarth let no folly of his era escape
him. In his remarkable picture, “Taste in High Life,”
painted in 1742, the monkey, who represents the fashion-
able dandy of the time, reads a bill of fare on which we
can read “a fricasey of snails,” and from my own expe-
rience in snail eating, I must say that the Helix pomatia
as an edible snail has no advantage save in its superior
size, H. nemoralis and H. aspersa, the common brown and
grey garden snails are equally as tender and well-
flavoured. ;

“The late Grant Thorburn, of New York, with whom
I was once intimate, and who is better known as Galt’s
‘ Lawrie Todd,’ bears witness in his autobiography to the
great benefit derived from snails by a weak sickly child.
Thorburn’s mother died when he was barely three years
old, leaving the unfortunate infant to the neglect and
rough usage of a Scottish cottager. When ten years
old he could not walk, and was even then no larger than
an ordinary child of five years. That he might get
strength he was sent to one of the hills in Midlothian,
nine miles south of Edinburgh. ‘This hill, he says,
‘abounded with a small snail that carried a beautiful
shell on its back, striped, and painted. My employment
in the afternoon was to collect half a pint of these snails.
In the morning they were boiled in new milk ; the milk
when nearly cold was given me with oatmeal for break-
fast. It was very palatable. I soon regained my health
and spirits, but not my growth. I believe that the
means used to restore my health gave me an entirely
new constitution ; for from my twelfth year I have been
free from any of the hereditary complaints with which
my father, mother, sister, and brother were afflicted.” *

* Sir W. Pinkerton in The Field.

406 ANIMAL FUOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

In Algeria large heaps of snails are sold by the
bushel and the hundred, in the markets, as an article
of food. They are also carried about for sale in the
streets of Cairo, and are occasionally eaten in Syria.
The Greeks feed principally upon them during Lent.

The snail (Helix pomatia) is used as food by some of
the European residents in Chili. Within thirty years
past it has become so acclimatised and is so prolific that
in some vineyards it causes such damage that means are
taken to destroy it utterly.

For various.recipes and modes of cooking and serving
up snails, I may refer the reader to Dr. Ebrard’s work
on “Les Escargots,” or to the popular work of Mr. 8.
Lovell, ‘On the Edible Mollusks of Great Britain and
Ireland” (London: Reeve and Co., 1867).

Marine Mollusks—The marine edible mollusks have
been popularly treated of in the pleasantly written work
just named, published some fourteen years ago, at least
as far as relates to the British species; and a former
work of mine, on “The Curiosities of Food,” has been
largely drawn on by the author. However, there is much
still to be said on this subject, especially the more
extensive use made of mollusks for food in foreign
countries. We may range them under the two heads of
univalves and bivalves, and will take the former first,
although they are the least important.

Among the marine Univalves, the animals of which are
eaten as food, we find whelks, limpets, periwinkles, and
the ormer, or ear-shell (Haliotis sp.)

Limpets (Patella vulgata), and species of Acmea, are
rather leathery and not of an agreeable appearance, but
it is said they can be rendered palatable by boiling, then
salting, adding spices, and after removing the salt,
placing them in olive oil, and thus we are agreeably
surprised to find a delicious hors deuvre which has lost
much of its toughness.

Although used by the ancients as an article of food,
the limpet is seldom brought to market in this country.
Among the villages along the coasts of Scotland this

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 407

. Shell-fish is frequently used, and its juice obtained by
boiling, mixed with oatmeal, is held in high estimation.
It is considered in season about the end of May. At
Naples they are made into soup.

Periwinkles and whelks and all the species of sea
snails are comparatively tough and indigestible.

Whelks (Buccinum undatum, Lin., and Fusus antiquus),
though not much used by the higher classes, are of the
greatest public importance; first as a favourite food
dainty for the poor people, and pecqney as bait for the
deep-sea lines of the fishermen.

On many a street-vendor’s stall in London, Liverpool,
ete, saucers of whelks in vinegar may be seen. A
quarter of a century ago Mr. Poole stated that 24,300
bushels of whelks (about 600 tons), worth £2,500, were
sold yearly in Billingsgate. The quantity now must be
larger. The whelks are sent in bags and sold by the
“wash,” or three-quarters of a bushel, for 4s. About
£8,000 a year is paid to the fishermen in the estuary of
the Thames for whelks for bait for the cod fisheries.

The common periwinkle (Litorina htorea, Lin.), is in
this country more extensively used as food than any
other of the testaceous univalves. They are in general
eaten after being simply boiled, and are consumed in
large quantities by the poor inhabitants on the coasts
and in London. About 3,000 tons, valued at £15,000
or £16,000, are consumed in the metropolis. Large
quantities are received from Scotland and Ireland.

Strombus Lichuanus is eaten by the fishermen in India.

Hyria corrugata, Sow., H. avicularis, Lam., and Cas-
talia ambigua are eaten in different quarters. Neritina
sebra is often seen in the markets of Para, being eaten by
the negroes. Modiola lithophaga, vulgarly called the
“ Deltao deall4,” is introduced at most tables at Nice,
and esteemed. The ovaries of the Brunnion, a snail
without a shell, are also eaten in Nice. The Pyrula
melongena, and P. patula, inhabiting respectively the
Atlantic and Pacific shores of tropical America, are eaten
by the natives. The Cymbas are also eaten for food under

408 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

the name of Yet in Western Africa. The high winds
sometimes drive shoals of them on shore.

Several other univalves will be subsequently noticed
incidentally.

Haliotids.—The mollusks of the very beautiful group
of sea ear-shells or ormers (Haliotide) are often cooked.
The shells; which present a very brilliant nacre, golden,
green, orange, pink, etc, according to the species, form
a regular article of trade for ornaments, when polished,
and for inlaid work. In Jersey, the common British
species is sold at 6d. per dozen. It has been praised by
old authors as a most delicate morsel. One writer speaks
of the ormer as a lump of white pulp, very sweet and
luscious. In that island they are boiled slowly for two
or three hours, when they may be scalloped as
an oyster, or browned in a pan with butter. If
they are to be fried, they require to be well beaten
first to make them tender. They are also pickled in
vinegar.

The Indians of California, the Chinese, and others are
very fond of H. gigantea.

As an article of food the Haliotids are by no means
to be despised. We have eaten H. tuberculata, Lin., and
when served by a good cook it is tender and sapid. The
large fleshy foot, if not properly managed, is apt to be
tough. :

The mutton fish as it is termed (Halitis iris), is prized
by the inhabitants of New Zealand, although tough
eating. The Chinese, settled in Victoria and Tasmania,
capture them largely.

The habitat of these fish is on stones below the
surface of the water, to which they adhere, with a
tenacity truly wonderful, by what is called the foot.
Armed with a long, iron-pointed spear, the fisher thrusts
it through the shell, whereupon the mollusk relaxes its
hold, and is brought to the surface. The mode of pre-
paring these fish for exportation is to parboil them,
when the mollusk comes away freely from the shell.
They are then dried, and in that state have the appear-

FOOD FROM THE CRUSTACEANS AND MOLLUSCA. 409

ance and consistence of leather. The estimation in
which such pabulum is held by the disciples of Con-
fucius, I regard as being solely due to a taste acquired
by long cultivation. This opinion is founded upon the
fact of having partaken of one of these mollusks after its
having been cooked according to true Celestial fashion.

The economical value of the Hatotis tuberculata and
its foréign congeners is very great. They are collected
by the fishermen, who go out in boats at spring tides,
and after collecting them from the rocks take their haul
to market. Before, however, being fit for food, they
have to be repeatedly washed in water; that which has
been used for this purpose being almost as black as ink
when thrownaway. After this washing they are beaten
with wooden mallets for some time, and are then ready
for cooking. When cooked (usually fried) they are ex-
cellent food, eating somewhat like veal cutlets; they are
also like veal in another respect, namely, their solidity.
Three of them form a very good meal.

The species of haliotids eaten as food on the Cali-
fornian coast are H. corrugata, H. rufescens, called abalone,
HI. cracherodti, the white abalone; H. splendens and 4H.
Kamschatkiana in Alaska. _

The various places whence this article are brought to
Hakodati, Japan, for shipment are—the west coast of
Yesso, Shendai, Tsugani,and Nambu. The fishing season
commences in March, and after being dried, this com-
modity is brought to Hakodati until November, after
which there is a great scarcity. The prices paid in 1864
varied from 17 to 18 dollars the picul (133 lbs.), but in
1865 rose to 22 dollars, owing to the high prices the ex-
ports were smaller.

Hokadikaimi, a species of oyster, comes from Nambu,
and varies in price from 8 to 10 dollars the picul.
From Japan there was exhibited at the Paris Exhibi-
tion in 1878, oysters preserved in shotsion, a kind of
spirit made from rice.

Trico (dried shrimps), also an article of food for the
Chinese, is brought from the west coast of the island of

410 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Yesso. The fishing season is the same as that of
Awabi, and the prices paid are from 21 to 23 dollars per
icul.

Prices at Kanagawa in August, 1864, were for cuttle
fish, 134 dollars; shrimps, 138 dollars; sharks’ fins, 16
dollars per picul.

The flesh of the ear-shell (Hakotis sp.), called Awabi,
is cut into slices or strings, which are extended on a
board and dried. As this mollusk was the common food
of their necessitous ancestors, when the Japanese enter-
tain company at dinner, they always provide a dish of
it. Kaempfer states that it has hence become a custom
among all classes, when they forward one another
presents of any kind, to send along with it a string or
piece of this dried flesh, as a good omen, and as a
reminder of the indigence of their forefathers; Awabi
having been in days of yore the first sustenance and
support of the Japanese, as acorns were formerly the
primitive diet of the inhabitants of Europe.

Amongst the mollusca none are more eagerly caught
and none have such a deserved reputation in South
Africa as the sea-ear, Haliotis Mide, Linn., and a species of |
Stomatia called by the Dutch Paarl-moer. In Cape Town
these oceanic productions, which, by the bye, require a
great deal of preparation, seasoning and ingredients,
before they reach the dinner table, are pronounced to be
the most exquisite dainty—the very pitch of delicacy.
The ordinary Mytilus edulis, Linn., and Donax denticulata,
Linn., called “ white mussels,” are also eaten. The latter
are innocuous at some seasons, but venomous at others.
Several large species of limpets (Patella) and a kind of
Nerita are also made use of as a palatable and nutritious

dish.

411

CHAPTER XII.

ANIMAL Foop FURNISHED BY THE MOLLUSCA
AND RADIATA.

Oysters—Classification and varieties of—Statistics of French
Production—Magnitude of American Oyster Trade—Green
Oysters—Shipments of Oysters in Barrels and Cans—Statis-
tics of American Production—Canadian Oysters—Scallops—
Razor-fish—Clams, varieties of—Clam Bake Feasts in the
United States—Other Species of Mollusks, Tapes, Venus,
Pholas, &c.—Mussels—French Trade in—British Consump-
tion—Zoophytes, Actinia—Modes of Cooking—Curious Fish
Dinner—Cephalopods, Sepia, Octopi, Squids, Sea-Urchins—
Trepang or Beche-de-Mer—Varieties of —Large Consumption
of in China—Indian Exports—Leeches and Worms Eaten.

Bivalwes.—Among the bivalves there is a much larger
variety which are esteemed food delicacies in various
quarters than of the univalves; thus we have cockles,
oysters, scallops, clams, mussels, &c.

The poor Malays and Chinese use most kinds of shell-
fish as food, and they search the shores and coasts of the
islands and peninsula most diligently for species of
Spondylus and Chama, &c.

Cockles (Cardium edule) are deservedly esteemed a
delicious and wholesome food in this country, although
in France they are little regarded. They are in season
during March, April and May, after which they become
milky and insipid. They are considered by the people
very nutritious, especially when boiled with milk.

“The natives of the seignory of Gower cook cockles
in various ways; sometimes they fry them with ham.
They also make excellent pies of cockles with chopped
chives, a layer of bacon being placed at the bottom of

412 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

the dish; or they fry the cockles with oatmeal and
chives, or oatmeal alone; they also make of them an
excellent and nutritious soup.” *

Since oysters have become so scarce and dear, cockles
have assumed a much greater importance than heretofore,
and they not unfrequently do duty for oysters both in
patties and sauce. A quart of cockles costing 2d. will
contain about 84 cockles, weighing one pound fourteen
ounces. The meat of them will weigh six ounces, there-
fore the price of cockle meat is about 54d. per pound.

There are at least 100 carts (with six or seven people
to a cart) employed collecting cockles in Morecambe
Bay. The cockles are sold at 5s. or 6s.a box. There
are about 70 quarts in a box of cockles. They are
retailed there at about 1d. a quart, there being 25 to 30
cockles in a quart. The total quantity of cockles sent
away by railway from Furness and some other stations
in 1877 was 2,254 tons, more than one-half from Cark
station. Cockles are worth about £5 aton. Hence the
above quantity may be valued at £11,000. This does
not include local consumption. Thirty-three per cent.
may probably be added to this estimate for local con-
sumption, which would make the entire value about
£14,000 a year from about fifty miles of coast, and the
produce of the south side of the bay is 3,000 tons now.
A sack of cockles weighing 14 cwt. is worth about 2s.
There is a great cockle fishery in the bays near Car-
marthen. There are 500 or 600 families dependent on
it, and at only 10s. per week per family it must be worth
at least £15,000 a year.

The Italian markets are well supplied all the year
round with cockles, especially the following species: C.
rusticum, C. tuberculatum, C. edule, Linn., and C. codiense,
Ren. They are preferred in the winter; in some
localities they become large and well flavoured.

Oysters.—One of the most appreciated of the mollusks
has always been the common oyster. From very ancient

* The Edible Mollusks,” p. 36.

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA, 413

times the oyster has been esteemed a luxurious food
delicacy, and those of Lake Lucerne were renowned
among the Romans.

Oysters are met with more or less plentifully in most
seas, but according to Dr. Senoner, those which have the
most pleasant flavour are only found in seas where the
proportion of salt is about 37 per cent.

Almost all the species are edible, and they are
numerous. The oyster of Great Britain, however, has
always been held to be superior to those of other Euro-
pean countries.

Among the various “unclean” animals enumerated in
the Levitical law those creatures of the water “that have
neither fins nor scales,” are specifically mentioned, and
it may be argued that oysters do not come within this
category, but do we not speak of green-finned oysters,
and are not the shells virtually “scales”? On the other
hand snails are specifically forbidden, and it is claimed
that oysters are really snails, but then snails might be
said to be covered by the prohibition of “creeping
things,” and those that “go upon the belly,” so that the
mention of snails ought not to be taken as including
more than those particular creatures. Altogether the
problem is as delicate as it is curious and interesting.
It ought to be met fairly and settled authoritatively.

‘Oysters in England may be generally divided into
“ Natives,” “Commons,” and “Deep Sea” oysters.
These again are sub-divided into many kinds; which
it is not necessary here to describe or enumerate. The
great deep sea oyster banks are situated on patches
in the North Sea, especially off the Dutch coast, where
they catch enormous quantities and the quality is very
good. They fetch from 5s. to 7s. 6d. a box and there
are sixty to seventy oysters in a box. They are of two
kinds: Ist, handsome white-shelled oysters; and 2nd,
heavy brown-shelled specimens, with black ink-like spots
on the shells. They are sold retail at one penny each.

It is commonly supposed that these delicious esculents
are rich in iodine, and Dr. Champouillon, of Paris, in a

414 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

report on oysters in 1876, especially praised the Portu-
guese oysters, which are obtained from about thirty miles
of coast extending from Lisbon to Cacillias Point.

Dr. Fonssagrives, the learned author of “A Treatise
on Healthy Food,” and Marine Surgeon-in-Chief at
Brest, thus speaks of the oyster, and his remarks
within certain limits may probably be applied to other
mollusca:—

“May we not suppose that these mollusks, living in
localities rich in iodine, collect this product and commu-
nicate it to those organisms which feed upon them, as in
the savoury products of Ostend and Concale. I am in
the practice myself of recommending oysters for weak
and lymphatic children with soft flesh, and making them
drink a sufficient quantity of the liquid given forth when
the oyster is opened, and I have found this exercise a
very favourable action.”

But there are other mollusca which may be said to
possess beneficial alimentary properties besides the
oyster.

The oyster is almost the only animal substance which
we eat habitually, and by preference, in the raw or un-
cooked state; and it is interesting to know that there is
a sound physiological reason at the bottom of this pre-
ference. Dr. Roberts, from whom we quote,* explains
this. The fawn-coloured mass which constitutes the
dainty of the oyster is its liver, and this is little else
than a heap of glycogen. Associated with the glycogen,
but withheld from actual contact with it during life, is
its appropriate digestive ferment—the hepatic diastase.
The mere crushing of the dainty between the teeth
brings these two bodies together, and the glycogen
is at once digested without other help by its own
diastase.

The oyster in the uncooked state or merely warmed,
is in fact self-digestive. But the advantage of this pro-
vision is wholly lost by cooking; for the heat employed

* Lumleian Lectures before the Royal College of Physicians.

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 415

immediately destroys the associated ferment, and a
cooked oyster has to be digested like any other food by
the eater’s own digestive powers.

The coasts of Brittany were formerly rich in natural
beds of oysters; they were not worth more than 14d.
per hundred, and a man on payment of a penny might
enter an oyster boat and eat as many as he chose. But
the abuse of the dredging and the fishing, and the in-
creased demand ruined the natural beds, and it has only
been by artificial means and care that any recovery has
taken place. As an oyster produces from one to two
millions of young, by proper care and attention this pro-
pagation and increase is easily carried on.

The average annual consumption of oysters in Paris
in the four years ending 1861 was 54,000,000, and the
average price 3s. 6d. per 100.

In 1876 the parks at the Isle of Oleron yielded to com-
merce 70 millions of oysters and Marennes 80 millions.

We have some recent official data to guide us as to the
consumption of oysters in France.

The fishing boats brought in from dredging as fol-
lows :—

T7G ws’ ee ee ee Ke Ge «aS
676 cn see aie aes (eS OT BG
Pb ae ac sm oe ae we SEG
1879 ce sme es wees mS ABO, 9BS
1880.0 senses ss SGD. DE

Those taken from the artificial parks or preserved
oyster-beds have to be added, which were in—

1874-5 ae ore vee eos vie 227,640,212
1875-6 ze age ane aaa ao 335.774,070
1878 ety aes ave vis we 471,487,628

The total number of oysters sold in France in 1876
were therefore 640,884,674, of the declared value of
£888,486. The number sold in 1880 was 563,943,358,
valued at £674,280, and in 1883 but 157,500,000 were
brought in by the dredgers. The consumption of oysters

416 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

in Paris in 1883 was reckoned at 5,270 tons, and it is
worthy of note that the price of them is nearly 50 per
cent. dearer than it was ten years ago.

The oyster will breed best in salt water, but it will
become fatter and of better flavour in moderately brackish
water. The “natives” of the Thames—those that are
fattened in the mouth of the Thames, the Crouch; the
Roach, and other rivers on the Kent, Essex and Suf-
folk coasts—are most prized for the reason that they
find there the conditions best suited to their growth.
The Roach oysters are green-bearded. These have for
years been sent to Ostend, and from thence to Paris,
Berlin, etc., as Ostend oysters.

It is somewhat curious to notice that while over one
million bushels of oysters, valued at 311,515 dollars, were
received in the districts of the United States in 1870,
the value had gradually declined year by year to 31,600
bushels, valued at 24,845 dollars in 1878. This must
arise evidently from the home production in the river
beds and parks being now amply sufficient for the home
demand.

There is now a large export trade in oysters from the
United States across the Atlantic; commencing with
42,839 barrels in 1876 it has increased to 90,663 barrels,
valued at 453,306 dollars. They are shipped in barrels
by the steamers, and generally arrive in good condition,
being packed with seaweed and corn meal. The great
bulk come to England, and those for the Continent go
almost exclusively to Amsterdam. Dried oysters are
imported into the States to the value of 13,447 dollars.
The imports of other mollusks or shell-fish into America
range in value from 300,000 to 600,000 dollars.

The American species of oyster are Ostrea virginica,
Gmelin, O. borealis, Linn., and O. lurida, Cpr., of the
west coast.

Some idea of the magnitude of the American oyster
business may be gained from the reports of the Oyster
Commission in 1868. They stated the aggregate col-
lected in Chesapeake Bay at about twenty-five million

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 417.

bushels, exclusive of those taken from private beds, cul-
tivated by residents for their own use.

In the City of Baltimore seventy houses were engaged
in the oyster business, mostly canning for exportation,
while at various points in the bay are establishments
that employ from fifty to 400 hands each during the
season, in opening and canning. By the official reports
there were 15,000 persons engaged in the business of
oyster fishing, and a fleet of 1,700 vessels, of fifty tons
burthen, and over 3,000 smaller craft, duly licensed to
the trade. There wasalso a population of 20,000 persons
on the islands and mainland with whom oysters form an
article of general consumption throughout the season.
It was estimated that thousands of bushels of this bivalve
were taken annually on the coast from Massachusetts to
Virginia.

The Americans hold oysters in esteem, and they have
a very great variety of choice ones, such as the small
Blue Points, the Rockaways, the Morris Cove from New
Jersey, the Saddle Rocks (a particularly fat variety), the
Norwalls from Connecticut, and others. Many of these
now arrive in London. Besides the quantities of fresh
oysters eaten in the United States, a large trade is done
in canning or tinning them. They are pickled, spiced,
and hermetically sealed for export.

The Chinese boil them and then dry them in the sun.

The green colour of oysters has been noticed in several
localities, at Marennes, the Isle of Oleron, Cornseulles, &c.,
and the cause of this has long occupied the attention both
of breeders and scientific men. In Lovell’s “Edible
Mollusks,” it is stated to arise from a submarine kind of
moss. Gaillon (“Journal de Physique,” Sept. 1820, tome
XCL) attributes it to an animalcule, which he named
Vibrio ostreaius, Later investigations assign it to a
variety of the diatom, Navicula fusiforma.*

*See a paper by Mr. G. Puysegur on this subject, with an
illustration, in the “Revue Maritime et Coloniale,” Paris, vol.
lxiv,, p. 248. :

EER

418 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

The “green ” oyster, so much prized in France, will
not sell in the American markets. The “greening” of
oysters is extensively carried on at Marennes, on the
banks of the river Seudre; and this particular branch of
oyster industry extends for leagues along the river, and
is also sanctioned by free grants from the State. The
peculiar colour and taste are believed by the French to
be imparted by the:vegetable substances which grow in
the beds where the oysters are cultivated.

A resident of London claims that that city spends over
£5,000,000 sterling a year in oysters, and that more than
twice the number of these bivalves would be used if they
could be obtained at as reasonable prices as in America.
The genuine Whitstable oyster fetches about 3s. a
dozen. Oyster culture in England is yet in its infancy.
The most popular size for eating are those with a shell
about as large as a crown piece. They are packed in
barrels very closely and kept right side up during the
voyage. Quite a trade is now springing up in carrying
“seed” oysters from America to Europe.

Car loads of oysters are shipped to California from
New York every few days. The “native” oyster of
the western coast is obtained in the Gulf of California,
and is small and of coppery taste. A moderate supply
is being obtained on the Oregon or Washington territory
coast. These are better than the more southern.

About 40,000 barrels were shipped from the Columbia
river in 1882, valued at 3 dollars per barrel.

‘The seaboards of Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas
abound in oysters. In some places they have grown up
into reefs extending for twenty miles along the coast.
Much of this oyster wealth may yet become available
for Northern markets. Various river mouths and
estuaries along the Connecticut and New York shores
would be most excellent oyster grounds, if some means:
could be provided to keep the deposits of mud from
covering and smothering the young oysters. The time
may be near when enterprising men will seek to clear
off these ruinous deposits as they now drain marshes and

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA, 419

fill up swamps and pools. The recent law of Connecticut
creating a State Commission to sell the deep water
ground of the Sound, has served to inspire great activity
in securing farms in the sea. Many thousands of dollars
have already been realized for grounds appropriated.

The production of oysters has more than doubled in
quantity in and about New York Harbour, Staten Island,
and Perth Amboy during the past five years. It is
believed if the mud could be kept out of New York
Harbour it would make one of the finest oyster beds in
the world. The natural oyster beds on the east side of
Staten Island are the places whence much of the “seed”
for all the various famous kinds of oysters about New
York is obtained.

In Fulton market on the East River, New York, there
are several kinds of rude restaurants, which are interest-
ing to visit about noon, when merchants and workmen
come from all quarters for their dinners. They are
popular establishments in every sense of the word, and
oysters, cooked in various ways, constitute almost the
entire repast. Americans have a special predilection for
roasted oysters. The mollusks used for this purpose are
of large size, and generally come from New Jersey on
the East River. They are placed upon a gridiron, the
deeper valve below, and when sufficiently cooked in
their own juice they are withdrawn from the fire and
served to the customers. Large oysters prepared in
this way are excellent, especially when seasoned with
a little pepper and a few drops of lemon juice.

The river Quinnipiac, which is the eastern boundary
of the city of New Haven, had long since been a famous
place for oysters. These bivalves were also abundant
along the shores east and west of New Haven. The
Indians had depended much upon them for food. The
new settlers did the same also. The banks along the
shore are lined several feet deep with shells left by many
generations of oyster-eaters.

For nearly two hundred years the dependence of the
people seeking the shore of Long Island Sound with its

EE2

420 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

bays and estuaries for oysters, was upon the natural
supplies. These seemed inexhaustible, as the habits of
use then were. The Indians who came from the interior
at certain seasons and remained for weeks, living mainly
upon shell and other fish, carried none away with them.
The whites only visited the shores for an occasional
“salting.”

One of the results of an increasing love of oysters
was the growth of a class who sought a livelihood by
selling as well as catching these shell-fish. Hence a
business began to be developed. But there were no
private grounds. The various natural beds were open
to all persons in the State who wished to take oysters
therefrom. The only restriction put upon the people
was the reserving of several months as “close” months
each year, during which no oysters could be caught.
These were the summer months, when the bivalves were
known to be giving off their spawn.

The “law was off,” as the expression was, about
November Ist. In anticipation of that time great pre-
parations were made in the towns along the shore, and
even for twenty miles back from the seaside. Boats and
rakes and baskets and bags were put in order. The
day before large numbers of waggons came toward the
shore from the back country, bringing hundreds of men
with their utensils. The more thickly covered beds
were quickly cleared of their bivalves. The boats were
full, the waggons were full, and many had secured what
they called their “winter's stock” before the day was
done. Those living on the shore usually secured the
cream of the year’s crop. They knew just where to go,
they were better practised in handling boats, rakes, &e. ;
they formed combinations to help one another.

That first day was the great day. It presented an
exciting scene. Often crowds of spectators came to look
on, as at a fair or Fourth of July parade. The oysters
were very poor then compared with those now ob-
tained. Such indiscriminating raking caught them
before they were half grown. Nor were there many to

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 491

be procured after that first day. In a week or two later
a bushel of oysters could not be bought for less than
four dollars.

The Quinnipiac River, New Haven Harbour, and the
waters adjacent have for some years been all assigned to
private parties. The first use made of such grounds was
to lay down oysters brought from other waters, especially
Southern bays. A very large trade grew up in Virginia
and Maryland oysters brought to Fair Haven, to be
opened and sold in the New England and other
Northern States. In some late years as many as one
million bushels have been brought annually to this place
from the South. Such oysters are greatly improved by
even a few weeks’ feeding in the waters of the bays and
river mouths.

A large business is done with opened oysters as well
as with those in the shell. Some Providence firms
employ forty openers at a time. These are paid for
their work at the rate of twelve cents a gallon of solid
meats. They can earn good wages at it, one man being
known to open nineteen gallons in four hours. The’
city, though containing over one hundred thousand
people, does not use one hundredth part of the oysters
raised and handled there. They are sent out through
all the New England States and as far West as Toledo, O.

The first arrivals made large returns. The eager
retailers would pay almost any price to secure the
earliest supplies. From the first oysters have been sold
by Staten Island dealers “by the count;” that is, so
much a hundred or thousand. The enormous tide of
travel through New York city creates a constant demand
for this food whatever may be the price. Some will
have oysters if they have to pay, like the American in
Copenhagen, one shilling a piece for them. Hotels
and first-class saloons always expect to have them on
hand however costly they may be.

The opened bivalves were at first put up in small
wooden kegs, holding from one to two gallons each.
The most common receptacle now is a strongly made’

422 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

tub, with a lid securely fastened. Each, containing
a number of gallons, is furnished with handles, with
which it can be easily lifted. In warm weather ice is
put in with the oysters. Tin cans are used to a consider-
able extent. These are filled and soldered, then packed
in wooden boxes with ice between. Thus, as with the
tubs, oysters are carried long distances in good condition
even in summer.

All shell-fish are improved by an infusion of fresh .
water. This explains the superiority of the shell-fish of
the northern coast of Long Island Sound to those on the
southern coast of the same water. Many fresh-water
streams flow in from the north. One reason of the fine
flavour of Fair Haven oysters is the flow of fresh water
from the Quinnipiac, Mill, and West Rivers.

Cultivation has greatly increased the supply of good
oysters. In New Haven, ten years ago, it was difficult
to secure ten bushels at short notice. Now five hundred
bushels can be obtained in a few hours.

One peculiarity is found in Staten Island oysters,
making them superior to most others for several pur-
poses. Their shells are unusually hard and firm, and
preserve their meats better than other kinds. Therefore
they can be shipped farther in good condition than
almost any other. They are in considerable demand for
the foreign and other distant markets, being sent in
large quantities north, south, and west. One firm for-
warded three thousand barrels to California a year ago.
They have been sent as far east as Constantinople.

Some patrons are so attached to these oysters they
continue to send for single gallons of them, even when
they go to reside in distant country places.

The demand for them increases in every direction from
year to year. They are sold in three grades. The
“box” is the finest grade, commanding the highest price.
They must be good size, good colour, good shape, hard
shells, and even size. The next are “barrel” oysters,
running a little smaller and a little less even. The third
are “culls,” The second grade are also called “counts.”

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 423

The “culls” sell from thirty to forty-five cents a hundred,
when the “box” grade cost from sixty to ninety cents
per hundred.

Those that are sold out of the shell are opened on the
boats at New York. A single firm onthe North River
sometimes opens one hundred and fifty thousand counts
in a single day. Men who open oysters there are able
to earn about three dollars a day.

Ernest Ingersoll’s census report on the oyster business
shows that the total wholesale value of the oysters
annually sold in Boston is 705,000 dollars; the annual
value of the oysters produced in Narragansett Bay is
680,000 dollars; the value of those sold in New Haven
Harbour is 480,000 dollars; in the East River and
Peconic Bay, 708,000 dollars; on the south shore of Long
Island, 400,000 dollars; in New York Bay, excluding
New York city, 375,000 dollars; in New York city,
2,758,000 dollars; on the ocean shore of New Jersey,
370,000 dollars; in Delaware Bay, 2,425,000 dollars; in
Philadelphia 2,750,000 dollars; and in Virginia nearly
2,000,000 dollars; and about 125,000 dollars will cover
the value for the remainder of the Southern coast line,
not including the Gulf line, where the value slightly
exceeds 300,000 dollars. The total of these figures is
nearly 14,000,000 dollars, or £2,800,000. Some set the
value of the American oyster fishery at £5,000,000.

Oysters salted are brought into Mexico from the
Pacific coast. Before they are eaten they are soaked in
water, or in oil, for a night, and they retain some of
their flavour, but naturally are nothing like fresh oysters.

Large quantities of oysters are sent to San Francisco
by rail from New York, and are kept for a year in the
beds of the bay to fatten. The imports are about 12
million oysters annually. About 40 million oysters are
also obtained from local banks and deposited in parks in
the bay to fatten. Clams are also obtained in the bay.

The waters of half of Prince Edward Island were once
stocked with natural beds. So lately as 1832 live
oysters were so plenty that legislation had to forbid their

424 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

being burned for lime. In many places the dead shells
_of once productive beds, remain many feet in thickness,
The great drawback of the oyster fishery of this Pro-
vince is the digging of oyster shells for manure under
the name of “mussel mud.” The oyster fishery is but a
mere scrap and vestige of what it once was, and might
again be made, nevertheless the oyster fishery of
this Island nets £23,000 per annum by way of ex-
port, over and above supplying a large quantity for
local consumption. They have long maintained a good
fame and are shipped to all the neighbouring cities of
the Dominion of Canada. Two forms are found indis-
criminately in the beds, namely circular and long. It
may be curious to ascertain scientifically whether these
are two distinct species—the Ostrea Canadensis and the
O. borealis—or merely difference of form. At all events
the variation is established in their earliest growth.
Both are equally valued for food.

The value of the Canadian oyster fisheries for 1883
was officially returned at £30,324, which was £8,000 less
than the previous year. The quantity obtained was
about 51,000 barrels. New Brunswick produced 10,317
barrels, Prince Edward Island, 38,880 barrels, against
57,042 barrels in the previous year. Nova Scotia 1,343
barrels. The demand for oysters and the good prices
obtained have stimulated production everywhere, and
the depleted beds are now raked more industriously than
ever. Over-fishing and indiscriminate raking have done
their work very effectually.

The oysters of Trieste and Venetia are still considered
the best in the Adriatic Sea. They are fat and savoury
after they have reached three years. They are sent from
thence to many quarters, and to prevent their opening,
they are tied round with string, for the loss of the water
or liquor causes the death of the mollusk.

The two species of oysters most eaten as food, O. edulis
and O. hypopus, are being cultivated in the Mediter-
ranean, but they produce very large shells there, the
waters being more calcareous than that of the ocean;

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 425

ae there are difficulties found in the way of rearing
them.

Scallops.—The common lid scallop (Pecten opercularis,
Linn.) is much smaller than the great scallop (P. maximus).
Scallops are found pretty generally distributed in all seas
and are much sought after for food. There are large
scallop beds off the Isle of Man, and at Weymouth the
trawlers dredge up about five bushels per week.

Pecten varius is sent in quantities to the market of
Bordeaux. At Vigo P. maximus is the constant food
of all classes from Christmas to Easter.

The scallop as seen in the fishmongers’ shops, when
shelled, consists of a small creamy white cylinder, and it
is a great mystery to many how this can be a shellfish.
This is the only part of the scallop that can be eaten,
the “mouth,” or rim, being very bitter and pungent
when cooked. It has a remarkably sweet taste, much
like that of the flesh of crabs, and is highly relished by
many, though not considered particularly digestible.

Scallops are not much eaten in England, although
occasionally seen in the fishmongers’ shops. In America,
however, they are largely consumed, and in some
localities they are obtained in quantities by dredg-
ing. Unlike the clam or the oyster, which seem in-
capable of progressive motion, the scallop is a rover.

When the tide is running fast and the water shallow,
it will rise from the bottom with open shells to the top
of the sea, squirt out: the water contained between the
shells, and by means of the impetus given, and the force
of the tide, will swim a yard or so at every spring.
The motion is a laughable one, as the shells come
together with a snap that can be heard at some distance,
and the motion is zigzag instead of direct.

In some seasons the mollusk is much larger and finer in
America than others. The catch is from twenty to a
hundred bushels a day according to the size of the boat
and the number of men engaged. From November Ist
till March, is the dredging season. The catch varies;
thus in 1879 it was a light one, and prices at the

426 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

grounds were as high as one dollar for a gallon of
“‘meats,” or as the fishermen call them “eyes.” The
largest quantity obtained was in 1877, when it was
estimated that from the ports of Riverhead, Mattiluck,
New Suffolk, and Greenport, the shipment to New York
ran up to the large number of 40,000 gallons, represent-
ing a catch of 80,000 bushels of scallops. The price
then, however, fell as low as 50 cents per gallon, barely
paying expenses. The fishermen say that the scallop
lives but three years; that the spawned mollusk is two
years reaching maturity ; the third year it is full grown
and spawns and then dies.

The scallop was held in high estimation by the
ancients and still is sought after in Catholic countries.
Pecten maximus is frequently used in England. It is
pickled and barrelled for sale, and esteemed a great
delicacy. Another species, the quin, P. opercularis, is em-
ployed for culinary purposes in Cornwall, where it is
known by the name of “ Frills” or “ Queens.”

The Anomia ephippium is used as food at Languedoc and
is there considered as preferable to the oyster.

Shellfish are largely used by the natives of India
when available on the Madras coast, purely marine
species are not common, or easily procured, but in
lagoons, bivalves are abundant and often collected as
food. The land snails, Paludina melanostoma, Benson,
and Ampullaria globosa, Swainson, are-eaten.

The pearl-wombs, as the mantles or flesh of the mother
of pearl oyster (Meleagrina margaritifera) is called, are
strung together and dried, and when cooked with
cassia buds, are eaten with rice.

All the razor fish (species of Solen) are good for food,
S. siliqua, the largest British species, is that generally
collected for the purpose. 8S. marginatus is greatly
prized by the Neapolitans, a dishful selling for about two
shillings. They are eaten boiled and fried, but are best
of all when roasted on the coals till their shells open. In
Japan the Solens are said to be so highly prized that,
by the express order of the prince of that country, it is

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 427

forbidden to fish them until a sufficient quantity has
been provided for the emperor's table.

There is a large species of bivalve with a thin shell,
sought for by the negroes of Senegal, the flesh of which
is exceedingly good, when boiled and dressed properly,
and is even esteemed by Europeans.

Clams.—Some species of razor fish (Soden ensis) as well
as Machera patula, M. costata, &c., pass in the United
States under the name of razor clams, and the term
is commonly applied there to many edible bivalves.

The Mactra solida, and M. stultorum, are used as food
by the common people about Dartmouth, and Venus
pullastra by the inhabitants of Devonshire. In North
America the various species of Mactra are called “ hen
clams.”

The people of the United States use clams in a
variety of culinary preparations, the most popular of
which is undoubtedly a kind of soup especially
esteemed in Boston. In Rhode Island and Massa-
chusetts, clams serve as a pretext for fétes of a very
peculiar kind called clam bakes. These, which take
place every year near Bristol, as well as in several other
localities of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, have -
their origin in an old Indian custom. The aborigines of
these States were accustomed to assemble in great num-
bers every year for a feast, consisting of clams and green
corn (maize), cooked together with seaweeds. The modern
clam bake is an improvement on the old one. A cir-
cular hearth or bed is first made in the sand, with large
flat stones, upon which a fire is kept up until they are
red hot. A layer of seaweed is then placed upon them,
and on the seaweed a layer of clams about three
inches thick covered by more seaweed; then follows a
layer of green corn in the husk, intermixed with
potatoes and other vegetables ; then a layer of poultry
cooked and seasoned; then more seaweed; then fish
and lobsters again covered by seaweed. This arrange-
ment is continued according to the number of persons
to take part in the feast, and when the pile is complete

428 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

it is covered with a linen cloth to prevent the steam from
escaping. When the whole is cooked each one helps
himself without ceremony. These feasts are delicious
beyond description, and it is said no one is ever made
ill by them. In former times the most renowned war-
riors came from afar to take part in them; and now
they are attended by persons of the highest social
standing, sometimes to the number of several hundreds.
Here is another more detailed description :—The clam-
bakes are a Rhode Island institution; and although
“society ” at Newport turns up its nose at them, gentle-
men go often to enjoy them at the various resorts along
the shores of Narragansett Bay. To get up a “bake,”
large clean stones are laid closely together in a circle,
and a hot wood-fire is kept up on them until the stones
are thoroughly heated. The ashes and coals are then
swept from the stones, which are covered with damp
fresh seaweed. On this are placed several bushels of
clam, green corn, and sweet potatoes, which are covered
with a layer of damp seaweed, and over all is thrown a
covering of sail-cloth, to keep in the steam generated by
the wet seaweed and the hot stones. Meanwhile accom-
plished cooks are busy at a neighbouring stove making
chowder, baking fish, and frying onions. On a round
table beneath the shade of a grove, or in a shed the sides
of which are removed, are plates heaped with brown bread
and crackers, bottles of pepper-sauce, and other bottles
not containing pepper-sauce. The. veteran epicures
watch the progress of the “ bake” with a critical eye,
and when the man in charge says that it is “about done,”
they repair to the tables, where they first enjoy plates of
clam or bluefish chowder. A little brandy-and-water is
then taken medicinally, and then come the clams. brought
in baskets from the smoking “bake,” and emptied on
the table. Each person is also supplied with a cupful
of melted butter, which is seasoned with pepper-sauce.
The clams, the shells of which have been opened by’
the heat, are then taken by the fingers of the left hand,
the upper shell is torn off by the fingers of the right

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 429

hand—the black neck is seized by the thumb and fore-
finger of that hand, the other part is dipped into melted

‘ butter and then tossed into the mouth, when the teeth
close, leaving the neck of the clam between the thumb
and forefinger. This neck and the shells are thrown into
a basket, while the luscious clam is swallowed. Between
each half-dozen clams or so a few mouthfuls of green
corn or brown bread are taken, and perhaps fried onions
also, in which case brandy-and-water has to be taken
medicinally. It is a primitive way of eating, yet to a
Rhode Islander a “bake” is an epicurean treat, throwing
the most elaborate Parisian menus into the shade.

Clams the size of small native oysters, or even less,
served on a plate filled with pounded ice, are, particu-
larly in summer, a most refreshing and appetite-
reviving dish. In 1882, 2,400 lbs., and in 1883, 8,640 lbs.
of clams were preserved or canned in British Columbia.

Soft clams (Mya arenaria and WV. truncata) form upon
the coast of New England immense banks, upon which
constant demands are made by the poorer classes as a
means of sustenance, without any apparent diminution
of the products. The consumption of these mollusks is
considerable during every season, but especially in sum-
mer, along the entire coast of the Northern States, from
New York to Maine; but nowhere is it so great as at
Boston. In most places the regular fishermen sell the
clams in their natural condition; but in some localities,
like New York, they are generally taken from the shell
and sent to market in packages of twenty-five, which.
are sold on an average at three shillings the hundred.

Clams make a palatable breakfast dish, stewed, or made
into fritters. They possess tonic properties, and are
esteemed by invalids. They may be eaten raw like oysters.
To stew, wash the shells clean with a scrubbing brush.
Add water enough to prevent their burning, and boil until
the shells open; then take out and remove the shells.
Cook the clams in the same water, adding pepper and
butter. Stir in rolled crackers. Long clams are nice
broiled or roasted in the shell.

430 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Several species of Mya are used as food both in Britain
and on the Continent, as If. arenaria, known to the fisher-
men about Southampton by the whimsical name of
“old maids.” In some parts of England and Ireland they
are much used. Another species (i. truncata), known to
the inhabitants of the northern islands as “smurslin,” is
eaten boiled as a supper dish. It is not so delicate as
some other shell-fish, but is by no means unpalatable.
Tn the San Francisco market clams are sold at two
shillings the hundred.

The round hard shell clams or quahogs (Venus mer-
cenaria, Mercenaria violacea, and M. kennicottii) are almost
as abundant on the American coast as the soft clam, and
rival that mollusk as an article of food. They are also
known as “little necks.” In summer the consumption
of these in the cities of New York and Philadelphia is
very considerable, much greater than that of the Mya
arenaria. Like the latter, sold in their natural condition
or out of the shell, they furnish many excellent dishes,
the most esteemed of which is clam chowder. Many
persons eat the smaller specimens raw, and when
flavoured with a few drops of lemon juice, they are as
palatable as the clovisses (Tapes sp.), and the “ paires
doubles” (Venus verrucosa), which are the especial
favourites of the people of Marseilles.

Large quantities of shell-fish, especially clams and
mussels, are eaten, both raw with vinegar and pepper,
and boiled in milk, in America, France, and also in
Spain and Portugal, and are a cheap and healthy food.

Several species of Tapes are’eaten in different countries
as I. pullastra, T. decussata, T. virginea, T. staminea and T.
aurea. In England they pass under the name of “ pullet”
or “ cullyock,” in France as “ clovisse” and “ palourde.”
By some they are considered richer and better than
cockles. It is a favourite dish at Continental seaports.
They sell at Bordeaux for threepence the hundred. At
Vigo thousands are gathered at every tide.

Some species of Tellina are used as food abroad. In
Iceland Psammobia vesputina is eaten, and P. gari in India..

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 431

Donaz trunculus is esteemed a delicacy in Italy, Spain, and
on the French coasts.

Several of the borers, as species of Pholas, Lithodomus,
and Platyodon eancellatus, are edible, and known in the
United States under the name of “ date fish.”

All the Pholades are edible, a large West Indian species
(P. costata) is much prized, and is regularly sold in the
markets of Cuba. In Jersey they are sold boiled ready
for eating. They are also met with in the markets of
Dieppe, La Rochelle, and other French towns. Pholas
dactylus is not often eaten in England, but in Spain they
are esteemed next to oysters, and are sometimes eaten
raw. :

Mussels.— Black mussels, Mytilus edulis, M. Californieca,
and other species, serve for food in many quarters, and
so do the brown mussels, species of Modiola, in China
where they are sold dried for food. The mussel is held
in high estimation by our lower classes, especially in the
country districts.

The common mussel (Mytilus edulis) is equally widely
distributed as the oyster, and is found upon our coasts
in the greatest abundance. In this country they are
conveyed direct to the market; but in some parts of
France they are kept for a time in salt ponds, to fatten
like the oyster, into which they admit small quanties of
fresh water. The flesh of the mussel is of a yellowish
colour, and considered very rich, especially in autumn.
It is eaten here either boiled or pickled, seldom in soup.
To the generality of stomachs it is difficult of digestion,
and to many constitutions it is deleterious. This is
attributed to the food of the mussel, which at certain
seasons consists chiefly of the noxious fry of the star-
fish. In the San Francisco market mussels sell at one
shilling the hundred.

The mussel, formerly disdained, has now risen in esti-
mation in France, and is also becoming a food luxury ;
it therefore behoves the food providers to turn their
attention to some of the more neglected mollusks, which
might under proper cooking and preparation be far more

432 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

generally utilised. Many might also be preserved cooked
in butter or oil and inclosed in tins. Mussels and others
of this kind thus prepared were shown in tins at Arcachon
and other fishery exhibitions.

On the French coasts the fishermen gather enormous
quantities of fresh mussels every day, and take them in
carts, or on the backs of horses to La Rochelle and other
places, from whence they are sent as far as Tours,
Limoges, and Bordeaux.

The number of mussels taken in France and used for
food was in 1876, 396,344 hectolitres (of 22 bushels), and
in 1878, 506,648 hectolitres ; in 1879, 503,170; and 1880
514,814. In 1883 the quantity of mussels brought into
France was 578,000,000 hectolitres, or little more than
half the take of the previous year. Of other mollusks,
151,628 hectolitres in 1876; 145,536 hectolitres in 1878 ;
128,677 in 1879; and 191,183 in 1880. ’

The Billingsgate market is chiefly supplied with mus-
sels from Holland, the east coast of England, Cornwall,
and Devonshire. About ten or twenty tons’ weight
arrive at a time, though of course the quantity varies
according to the season, and they are sold at one shilling
a measure. Mussels are fit to be eaten at two years old,
they are then two inches long, and there is a regulation
that they must not be sold under that size. The
growth, however, partly depends on the nature of the
beds. There are two trades in mussels, one in those used
for food, and the other those sold as bait for fishermen.
In 1871 the sales at Boston amounted to £5,000 in
value, but I have not later statistics.

_ The greater part of the mussels taken at Morecambe
are sold for food in Lancashire and Yorkshire. They fetch
from two shillings the cwt. upwards. In the three years
ending 1878 the Midland Railway brought from More-
cambe on an average about 1,700 tons of mussels a
year. From Listowel about 20,000 tons are sent to
London yearly by the London and South Western Rail-
way from September to February, when they cease to
be fit for food.

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 433

Mussels and whelks are sold in large quantities at
Birmingham, but no cockles.

The quantity of mussels consumed in Edinburgh and
Leith is about ten bushels per week, “say for forty weeks
each in the year,’ in all 400 bushels annually. Each
bushel of mussels, when freed from all refuse and shelléd,
will probably contain from three to four pints of the
animals, or about 900 to 1,000, according to their size.
Taking the latter number, there will be consumed in
Edinburgh and Leith about 400,000 mussels. This is a
mere trifle, however, compared to the enormous number
used as bait for all sorts of fish.”* At least 50,000,000
or 60,000,000 must be so used on various districts of the
British coast.

From Lynn, in Norfolk, in the winter of 1873-4, 2,480
tons were sent to market; in 1874-5, 445 tons; and in
1875-6 about the same quantity. There are sixteen bags
or thirty-two bushels in a ton, and each ton is worth
about £1. The average value, therefore, of the mussels
of Lynn Deeps is about £3,400 a year.

During the year 1884, there were delivered at. Bil-
lingsgate Market 16,531 tons of shell-fish, exclusive of
shrimps, &ec.

Shell-fish are present in enormous quantities in Ice-
land, especially the mussel (Mytilus edulis), which is so
abundant that its shell might supply the whole island
with lime ; at present they are only used as bait.

Some of the fresh-water mussels (Unios) are eaten in
the south of Europe, either roasted in their shells and
drenched with oil, or covered with bread crumbs and
scalloped.

Other Mollusca—On the coasts of France the people
eat as food Cardium edulis, Donax anatinum, Lutraria
compressa, Mya arenaria, Pholas dactylus, Solen vagina,
Venus decussata, Pecten varians, Turbo littoreus, Patella
vulgata, Petunculus sp.,and Echini. These varieties may
be kept alive for from two to four days. The only

* Forbes and Hanley, “ British Mollusca,” vol. ii, p. 174.
FF

434 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

mollusks that are much known or eaten in the interior
of France are the oyster and the mussel. Formerly the
oyster was within the reach of the most humble, but
now it is only available for the rich, or for extraordinary
repasts.

Several species of Pinna or wing-shell are eaten, more
especially in the Mediterranean. As an article of food
the animal is said to be nearly as good as the scallops,
and it is mentioned as forming one of the dishes at an
Attic banquet—

And Pinnas sweet and cockles fat were there,
Which the wave breeds beneath its weedy bed.

It seems to have been a favourite article of food among
the ancients, and was as highly prized by them as it is
at Naples in these days, where it is considered a recherché
morsel and too expensive for the poor people to indulge
in. The Pinnas are cooked at Naples with pepper, oil,
and lemon juice, and served with baked prunes. They
are also fried like cutlets, and made into soup.

In the Adriatic a great many more species of mollusks
‘are eaten as food than in this country, both by poor and
rich. Among the gasteropods may be mentioned Murex
brandaris and M. trunculus, known as “ bulos,” and also
under the name of “ garusola,” which are met with all the
year round in the markets, and form a large portion of
the food of the poor. The white colour of the flesh turns
green after being kept for some time, and when exposed
to the light it gives a fine red purple, from which the
ancients obtained their celebrated Tyrian purple.

Chenopus pes-pelicani is also much appreciated as food
by the poor. It is known under the common name of
“zamarugola.” Cerithium vulgatum is also frequently met

‘with in the markets, as well as Turbo rugosus, Trochus
Fragarioides, Lin., Trochus albidus, Trochus cinerarius, Lam.,
Fissurella costaria, Desh., and Bulla hydatis. The flesh of
the last is delicate, although not often eaten.

Among the acephalopods which furnish food may be
named Pholas dactylus, already alluded to, which is very
good. eating; the ship-worm (TZeredo navalis), well tasted,

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA, 435

but not generally appreciated; the razor fish (Solen
vagina and S. siliqgua), which are broiled or made into a
sort of soup. The first-named Solen is excellent, but the
second has rather a disagreeable taste. Then follow
Mactrea lactea, Poli, and I. stultorum, Lin., Tellina fragilis,
Lin., a very savoury food, Psammobia vespertina, Lam.,
Scrobicularia piperata,Gm. This last is abundant in the
markets, and is made into a kind of soup. Many species
of Venus are eaten, as V. lactea, Poli, V. verrucosa, V. decus-
sata, and V. aurea, Lin., V. virginea, Gm., V. longone,
Ol. and V. gallina. Cytherea chione is also much esteemed
for its agreeable taste.

The mussels most prized in Italy are those obtained
about the arsenal of Venice; Modiola barbata, Lin., is fre-
quently met with in the markets. Lithodomus lithophagus
is less frequently seen, but is a very agreeable food.
Pinna nobilis and Arca noae are also eaten, as well as many
species of scallops, as Pecten polymorphus, Broun, P. varius,
P. glaber, Lin., and P. jacobeus, Lam. All these, either
boiled or seasoned with oil and pepper, are considered
excellent food. Some other kinds of edible mollusca may
be named, viz. Lima inflata, Lam., and one or two species
of Spondylus.

There are scarcely any molluscous animals of much
economic importance in Australia. Two species of
oysters are commonly used for food in Sydney, and are
shipped to Melbourne. The Venus strigosa is sold in the
fish-shops under the erroneous name of “ cockle,” and the
Limetta undulata is eaten by persons near the coast
under the equally incorrect name of “ winkles.”

Among the preparations of mollusks used are the dried
abalones (Haliotis sp.), already mentioned, used by the
Chinese and Japanese, dried siphons of Schizothenus, pre-
pared by the Indians of the north-west coast of America,
and dried slugs (Limaz, etc.), used by other Indians.

There are doubtless many other kinds of edible mol-
lusca besides those already mentioned, which are or
might be made available as food for man, native and
civilised. :

FF 2

436 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

Zoophytes.—Actinia—We have thus found that the
higher orders such as oysters and many other mollusca
are commonly eaten by nearly all nations. But leaving
the more familiar kinds aside, it would seem that
scarcely a single inhabitant of the sea, from the mere
shadow of a jelly to the roughest and toughest of shell-
fish, is spared by the insatiable. hunger of man.

The shapeless red sea-nettles, that hang without shell
on the sides of submarine rocks or float about at the
mercy of waves, were a favourite dish as early as the
time of Aristotle, who praises their hard, firm flesh in
the wintry season, while the more fastidious Apicius
recommends them as best in September. Now they are
mainly eaten in Italy and the south of France, where
they divide the attention of seafaring men with the
countless meduse that sail in crowds through the ocean.
Roasted in oil, after flour has been strewn on them, they
are as palatable as they are nutritious. The tough and
indigestible Sepia, which in Venice the poor only venture
to cook, is a favourite dish of the Greeks, especially
during their fasts. They cut them lengthwise and
cook them fresh in saltpetre, which gives their meat a
bright red colour, or they dry them and eat them at
leisure, cooked with herbs and dressed with lemon-juice,
oil, and pepper. The smaller varieties, which are rarer,
are said to be better and more delicate.

The deep crimson sea anemone (Actinia Jordiaca), which
is found in the Mediterranean, is esteemed a great deli-
‘cacy by the Italians.

Mr. P. H. Gosse (“Naturalist’s Rambles on the
Devonshire Coast”) says: “ Dicquemare’s testimony to the
excellence of Actinia crassicornis for the table, tempted
me to taste it, and I determined to take an early oppor-
tunity of cooking some. In a few minutes I collected
about half a dozen of different sizes at low water near
Wildersmouth, and having rubbed them with my
fingers in a tide pool till the coating of gravel was
pretty well got rid of, brought them home. I put them
into a pan of sea-water for the night to cleanse them,

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 437

and most beautiful and gorgeous was the appearance
they presented when expanded ; no two alike in colours,
and yet all so lovely that it was difficult to say which
excelled. Perhaps one with the tentacles partly cream
colour and partly white was as beautiful as any.

“The next morning I began operations. As it was an
experiment, I did not choose to commit my pet morsels
to the servants, but took the saucepan into my own
hand. As I had no information as to how long they
required boiling, I had to find it out for myself. Some
I put into the water (sea water) cold, and allowed to
boil gradually. As soon as the water boiled, I tried
one: it was tough and evidently undone. The next I
took out after three minutes’ boiling: this was better,
and one at five minutes was better still; but not so
good as one which had boiled ten. I then put the
remaining ones into the Goiling water and let them
remain over the fire boiling fast for ten minutes, and
these were the best of all, being more tender, as well
as of amore inviting appearance. I must confess that the
first bit I essayed caused a sort of lumpy feeling in my
throat, as if a sentinel there guarded the way and said
‘It shan’t come here.’ This sensation, however, I felt to
be unworthy of a philosopher, for there was nothing
really repugnant in the taste. As soon as I had got
one that seemed well cooked I invited Mrs. G. to share
the feast; she courageously attacked the morsel, but I
am compelled to confess it could not pass the vestibule ;
the sentinel was too many for her. My little boy,
however, voted that ‘tinny was good,’ and that he
liked ‘tinny’ and loudly demanded more, like another
Oliver Twist. As for me, I proved the truth of the
adage Ce nest que le premier pas qui coute; for my
sentinel was cowed after the first defeat. I left little in
the dish.

“In truth the flavour and taste are agreeable, some-
what like those of the soft parts of the crab; I ate
them hot, with the usual crab-condiments of salt, pepper,
mustard and vinegar, mixed into a sauce. The internal

438 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

parts, including the ovaries and the tentacles, though
from their mottled appearance rather repelling to the
eye, were the most agreeable in taste; the integuments
somewhat reminded me of the jelly-like skin of a calf’s
head. I wonder they are not commonly brought to
table, for they are easily procured, and are certainly
far superior to cockles, periwinkles, and mussels. After
a very little use, I am persuaded any one would get
very fond of boiled actinias.

“Some I had left with a little of the gravel still ad-
hering, in order to see whether this would be thrown
off when life departed; but it was not so. They should
be cleansed before cooking, which can be easily and
quickly done with the fingers under water; the base
also should be scraped, so as to remove any bits of
slate, or rock, or dirt, that adhere to it. Attention to
these particulars greatly improves the appearance when
cooked. They are of a pellucid rosy hue; of a firm
consistence, at least sufficiently firm to be readily cut
with a knife.

“The next that I tried were prepared in a different
manner, and truth to say the experiment was far more
successful; this time I cleansed them more perfectly,
carefully scraping the bases, until they were freed from
every particle of extraneous matter and from slime.
These I had fried in egg and bread crumbs, and they
were very far superior to even the best on the former
occasion. All prejudice yielded to their inviting odour
and appearance, and the whole table joined in the repast
with indubitable gusto, I know not if my readers are
familiar with a dish, which in Newfoundland during the
cod fishing season we used to consider worthy of an
epicure—the tongues of the cod taken out as soon as
the fish are brought on shore, and fried immediately.
The Actinizw fried as above described I should be
searcely able to distinguish, either by the eye or by the
taste, from fresh cods’ tongues, except that perhaps my
protégés are slightly firmer in consistence.

« Anthea cereus I subsequently tried, prepared in the

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 439

manner last mentioned. They too were savoury, but
the sliminess of the tentacles was somewhat disagree-
able. They are far less substantial, in proportion to
their apparent size, than the actinie, little indeed remain-
ing but a mass of tentacles. When Dr. Johnston speaks
of the hot and peppery Anthea, I presume he glances
at its urticating properties, for there is no pungency in
its taste.”

Puiris, a species of Actinia, with hard membranous
cover, is eaten, the inner body being only used. It is
allowed to soak twelve hours before being eaten.

Sea ears, barnacles (Balanus), Lithodomus, sea urchins,
and Actinia, are eaten in Chili.

During the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in
1876, the American Fish Culturists’ Association gave a
fish dinner, at which the choicest international deli-
cacies and rarities of fish preparations were served to
a meeting of connoisseurs.

The second annual dinner of the Ichthyophagous
Club, held on the 28th May, 1881, was a complete suc-
cess, not only as a social gathering, but for the more im-
portant and practical object of developing hitherto
neglected varieties of fish for human consumption.

Among the company, which numbered nearly one
hundred guests, were men distinguished in the world
of arts, of letters, and of science, and not a few who
are deeply versed in the mysteries of the ocean. It is
thus described by Mr. A. W. Roberts in the Scientific
American: “The tables were ornamented with flowering
plants, and designs composed of materials collected from
the sea, the most noteworthy being a pyramid, twenty
feet high, consisting of the empty shells of the horseshoe
crabs, between which were introduced sharks’ fins and
sea robins’ heads (Prionotus sp.).

“While the gathering was naturally social in its
character, the practical result accomplished was the
utilizing for food of certain fishes which have been con-
sidered the very refuse of the ocean. Strange and
repulsive-looking creatures were served up during the

440 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

evening as the choicest of viands. These various dishes
of strange fish were partaken of with a relish, which,
until the experiments of last year and this were made.
and proved successful, were considered valuable only for
fertilizers or curiosities for aquaria.

“The consommé of moss-bunker (Brevoortia tyrannus).
was very palatable, and entirely free from all oleaginous-
ness.

“The ‘Bisque of razor clams’ was as delicate in
flavour as oyster soup. ‘Gray snapper a la Blackford’
was another equally palatable dish. Although the gray
snapper is not equal in flavour to the red snapper, there
is no reason why it should be neglected by our fisher-.
men, as it generally is, as a marketable fish.

“* Horseshoe crabs 4 la diable’ were served from dishes
composed of the empty shells of the horseshoe or king
crab (Limulus moluccanus). The flesh of this crab
was found to be coarser and more stringy than that of
the ordinary crab, and the flavour more pungent, but not
sufficiently so to make it unpalatable.

“*Drumfish & la Cope’ was very suggestive of sheeps-
head. The drumfish (Pogonias chromis, Lacep.) is never
to be found in the markets, and in the severest sense
is looked upon as an ‘evil’ fish by the fishermen, it
being one of the greatest enemies to the oyster.

««Sauté of shark, Chinese style’ was not very suc-
cessful, as the portion that I partook of left a disagree-
able taste in the mouth, though others declared it equal
to halibut steak; perhaps I got the evil part of the
beast.

“«Squid 4 la Starin’ Without exception the squid
is one of the most repulsive-looking animals of our coast,
and yet from it was produced a black-coloured and
gelatinous soup, which, if you could forget the disgust-
ing form of the creature, was very pleasant to the
taste. Next on the menu came hell-benders, sea robins,
‘Lophius 4 la Beard’ (L. piscatorius) and blow fish,
with sea-lettuce salad, from which were produced fries,
broils, and salads, all more or less enjoyable,”

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 441 .

Cephalopods.—“ Cuttle fishes are very common in the.
Mediterranean, and are highly prized by the Neapolitans.
The modern Greeks also make use of them, and especially
the Octopodia, as a principal article of food ; they dry them
in great quantities and store them away for use, to be
boiled or fried. Several kinds of Cephalopods are eaten
abroad. The Octopus vulgaris is eaten when young and
small at Nice, where it is more plentiful in the market
than at Genoa, and if it weighs less than a pound and is
still tender it is much esteemed. The flesh is said to.
have a peculiar taste, consequently that of the cuttle
fish and calmar (Loligo) are preferred. At Naples they
are sold ready cooked. They are also found regularly
exposed for sale in the markets of Smyrna and the
bazaars of India, and the North American Indians are
also partial to them.”* It is also one of the great treats.
of the natives of Madrid; they are either broiled on a
gridiron or stewed in red wine in an earthen jar. The
Italians fry them in oil and they taste like skate.

The most largely distributed of the class of cephalo-.
pods is the Sepia opfcinalis (Lin.). It is seen in numerous
shoals in spring and summer, frequenting all the coasts
of Algeria. In October they seek deep water, from
which they do not emerge until the month of May to
seek favourable situations, with water of a density and
temperature suitable for depositing their myriads of eggs
among the alg. It is an esteemed food much sought
after by many, the flesh being considered savoury and
delicate.

Other species esteemed for the delicacy of their flesh
are Loligo vulgaris, Lamarck, also very common in the
Mediterranean, and oligo parva, Rondelet, a smaller
species, well known to the Italian fishermen by the
name of “Calamaretto,’ and to the French sailors as
“ Casseron.”

The fishery for octopus or devil fish in Eastern Asia
is of great importance. In 1873, 9,000 boats were

* Lovell’s “ Edible British Mollusks.”

442 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

engaged in capturing them, each boat being manned
by six men. The annual yield was over 14,520,000
pounds, valued at £75,000. Eighty thousand persons
were also engaged in preparing and packing the dried
flesh.

_In Japan squids are regularly collected as food. Near
Hakodadi there is a small fishing village exclusively
devoted to the catching and curing of the squid, and
many hundreds of thousands may be seen daily drying
in the open air,.all nicely cleaned, each kept flat by
means of little bamboo stretchers, and suspended in rows
on lines, which are raised on poles about six feet from
the ground. The open spaces and all the houses in the
village are filled with these squid-laden lines.

Ika, Surami and Tako are Japanese names for species
of Sepia which are esteemed delicate eating in China and
Japan. They form a common soccano or side dish, and
are eaten either fresh, boiled or pickled. One mode of pre-
paring them is as follows: They are first macerated in a
solution of alum for three days, and then rubbed, washed
and cleaned till transparent, when they are pickled and
preserved for use. When pickled and brought to table,
they are in substance, colour and taste like the edible
birds’ nests.

Mrs. Brassey, in her “ Voyage of the Sunbeam,” tells
us the fish markets of Japan are well supplied with
octopi. A real octopus in a basket, with its hideous
body in the centre, and its eight arms, covered with
suckers, arranged in the form of a star, is worth from a
dollar to a dollar and a-half, according to its size.

The pulps and the séches are much sought after on
some of the coasts of France, although their flesh is
rather hard. They are eaten both raw and cooked. But
the most esteemed of the cephalopods is Loligo sagitta,
vulgarly known as the cornet, or “encornet,” the flavour
of which is stated to be exquisitely fine and delicate,
and far preferable to the common calmar and séche.

At Banyuls-sur-Mer there is an enormous consumption
of an Ascidian (Cynthia microcosmus) known under the

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 443

name of bitoig (pronounced bitotche) or violet, of which
considerable quantities are taken daily. It is believed
to have special properties against affections of the chest,
and marvellous cures are attributed to it. It can be kept
fresh out of the water several days. Many of the ascidians,
or sea squirts, are esteemed as articles of food in Brazil,
China, and the Mediterranean.

M. Charles Bretagne, in a report on Edible Mollusca
to the Paris Society of Acclimatation, observes, “ The
sepia is a cephalopod which is eaten in many localities,
and on our coasts from the ocean to the Mediterranean.
Although very abundant in our seaports, it is to be
regretted that it is not brought to Paris. Its repulsive
aspect in its raw state has hitherto kept it from our
tables, which yet encourage frogs. It only requires to
be disguised to become an agreeable and wholesome
food, according to the manner in which it is prepared.
T have made successful efforts in this direction, and have
marinaded some, after bleaching them in boiling water,
and my guests were satistied with them as hors-d’ceuvre.”

The polypus or octopus is fished for at Tunis, and is
exported to the Levant and the Greek market during
Lent, there being no prohibition against them in the
orthodox Church. In a good year about 6,200 ewt. are
obtained, and they fetch from 6d. to Is. 3d. a pair. Pre-
pared octopi are higher in price, as they have to be
macerated by beating them on a slab, then salted and
dried. Octopus brevipes, Orb., is eaten in Norway.

Octopus vulgaris is dried, and under the name of Tako,
is exported from Japan. Eledonne octopodia smaller, and
a Sepia, known as Ika, Loligo sagitatta, and Echinus escu-
lentus, under the name of “ Uni,” are all eaten in Japan
and China. The Sepia is very abundant on the coasts
of Cochin China and Tonkin. It is much esteemed by
the rich there, who eat it with their tea. It sells at
one shilling and sixpence the pound.

Of the Radiata or Echinodermata there are only two
requiring prominent mention here, the common sea-egg
or sea-urchin and the Holothuridide, Of the former

444 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

several species are eaten, among others Echinus esculentus,
E. sphera, Muller, and E. granulosus.

Sea-urchins crowd in vast numbers all around the
shores of Europe, Africa, and the East Indies; they feed
upon crabs and sea-nettles, and are, in return, eaten by
millions. Their bright saffron-yellow bodies may be
seen in every market from the Ganges to the Loire, and
from Benares to Marseilles. They furnish an ample pro-
portion of the daily bread of the lower classes.

In Naples they are especially valued just before they
deposit the roe, as the aggregate egg-masses are termed,
being larger and in as much repute as the soft roe of the
herring. They are highly esteemed by the inhabitants
of Chili, the Faro Islands and other districts, and are
usually eaten raw like oysters, being cut into four
quarters, and the flesh eaten with a spoon. When cooked
this becomes red like crab, and is said to resemble it in
flavour. In the Italian markets, near the rocky coasts
of Italy, may often be seen baskets of sea-urchins (Echini),
of which the following species are commonly eaten,
Echinus melo, E. lividus, E. brevispinosus, E. saxatilis, and
E. coclenterata.

Two species of anemone used as food in Italy are
commonly known under the name of “Ogliole,” they
are Actinia viridis and A. equina.

Trepang or Beche-de-Mer—tIn all that pertains to a
due appreciation of sea-worms—if that term is admis-
sible—the Chinese: must be acknowledged as feast-
masters. They ascribe to mollusks peculiar virtues, and
pay most extravagant sums for their favourite kinds.
Among these the trepang holds probably the first rank
—an ugly, shapeless, fearfully-smelling Holothuria of
Eastern seas. Thousands of Malay, English, and American
vessels are annually busy in those waters catching the
disgusting, worm-shaped animal. Its principal homes
are the coral-banks of the South Sea and Australian
waters, but Chinese fishermen go as far as New Guinea,
and American ships to the Caroline Islands, in pursuit of
this favourite of the Chinese taste. The greatest market

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. “445

‘for the trepang is Macassar, where not less than thirty-
six varieties are exposed for sale, the choicest of which
bring incredible prices. The worm is caught either by
long pointed sticks, that are thrust down at random,
or is brought up from the deep by skilful and well-paid
divers. In Sumatra they are thrown alive on heaps
of coral lime, which induces them to disgorge their
whole contents ; at other places they are cooked for
two whole days, when they begin to: resemble calf’s-
foot jelly, and, by the aid of powerful spices, become fit
for the table.

This food-article,.which is of large consumption in
China, gives rise to considerable fisheries and an exten-
sive commerce. It is known as Trepang or Beche-de-
Mer, or edible Holothuria.

The best-known species of the family are Holothuria
edulis and H..nigra, but there are more than thirty
species, varying greatly in size and general aspect.
These animals do not present much elegance of form
when living; and when cured, the trepang is an un-
seemly-looking substance of a dirty light or dark-
brown colour, hard, rigid and repulsive, with a strong
fishy odour. The largest kinds, when alive, sometimes
attain the length of two feet; but when dried they
-shrivel up to half that size. The length of those brought
to market averages from four to eight or nine inches.
Fashion and custom have caused each variety to have
a different market; while the gourmand of the south
smacks his lips on the juicy brown and black kinds, the
less cultivated taste of the people of the north is satisfied
with the red and white inferior kinds.

In the process of curing, the animal is split down one
side, the viscera removed, boiled, and pressed with a
weight of stones, then stretched open with strips of
bamboo, dried in the sun, and afterwards in the smoke
for four days, when it is fit to be packed away in bags,
but requires to be examined at intervals and exposed to
the sun, as it soon imbibes moisture and mildew.

For fuller details of the fishery, commerce, and pre-

446 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS,

paration of Trepang, I must refer the reader to another
volume of mine.*

Some species of Holothuria called “Namako” are
eaten raw in Japan, and when steamed and dried are
largely shipped to China.

The mode of cooking trepang is as follows :—Soak
it in cold water for an hour, then clean it and scrape it
carefully. Boil it for eight hours in water with a little
salt added, wash, scrape and clean it anew; and soak it
in cold water for two hours. Then cover it with meat
gravy, season and cook it for half-an-hour more, and
serve it hot.

The export of trepang from the French island of New
Caledonia amounts in value to £4,000. The specimens
shown at the Paris Exhibition in 1878, from New Cale-
donia, were thus classed and priced :—

Ist quality, black, 1.90 to 2 francs. the kilo.
2nd quality, small black, 1.25 to 1.30 franes. the kilo.

3rd quality, red fish, 1 franc. the kilo.
Large white, 70 cents. the kilo.

9,131 kilos of trepang, value 7,255 francs, were
shipped from Tahiti, in 1875, they are taken principally
at the Pomotous.

From a careful investigation of the returns of im-
ports at the Chinese trade ports, the receipts of trepang
in 1871 were about 10,000 piculs, or 12,500 cwt. In
1875 it was 21,360 cwt.

The average annual imports into China of marine
food products, were in the five years ending respectively
as follows :—

1870. 1875.
Beche-de-mer oe .-. £6,674 Piculs, ...... 19,487 Piculs.
Fish, dried and salted ... 38437 4, ..... 36,439
Isinglass... ihe sec. QEOBB os secvas 3,943,
Shell fish and crustacea,
Awaba (ates) 10,060, seseee 17,489,
dried shrimps, &c.

The picul is a little over 133 lbs. avoirdupois.

* “The Commercial Products of the Sea,” Griffith and Farran.

FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND RADIATA. 447

The following quantities of Beche-de-mer were caught
on the Indian coasts and shipped from India, chiefly to
Singapore :—

Lbs. Value, £.
1875-6 wt ae oe 9,255 waxase 96
1876-7 Seis see eae 70,220 sae 1,032
1877-8 eas “se xe 26,596 sass 469
1878-9 oe sik ahh 15,056 a... 264
1879-80 ate aes ae 10,072 oe 141
1880-1 ae ie Ses 21,104 ae 347
1881-2 ua ee aes 28,957 — sssaes 359
1882-3 oa a re 23,630 ss. 379

1883-4 ae ses 98 52,117 wee 937

In 1884, 10,430 Ibs. were imported into India from
Ceylon and the Straits Settlements. 807,032 Ibs. of
foreign catch was shipped to Hong Kong.

Much of this is imported and then re-exported.

The trepang abounds on the reefs that fringe, for so
many hundred miles, the northern coast of Queensland,
and many stations have been established for curing the
different edible species. Of late some of the hordes of
Chinese who have poured into the colony, have taken
up this fishery, and a regular junk, manned by Mon-
golian sailors, trades between the fishing stations and
collects the dried slug for export. There are probably
600 tons annually exported from the northern coast of
Australia.

There formerly existed on the coasts of the peninsula
of Giens in the Mediterranean, a species of Ascidian,
popularly termed “Violet” or “Vichet,” which was
much esteemed by the’ gourmands of Marseilles and
Toulon. In consequence of excessive dredging it has
almost disappeared. They used to sell in the Marseilles
market at 1d. and 13d. each, and owing to the seaweed
beds among which they were found, they had an excep-
tionally pleasant flavour.

About the Bahamas and other parts of the West
Indies, the edible Beche-de-mer abounds, but there is no
demand for them. It is quite possible, however, that an
enterprising individual, or firm, might reap such a
harvest as would make it worth while to participate in

‘448 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

the Eastern trade. The improved means of preserving
such products in a commercial form in tins or bottles, as
well as the old-fashioned method of sun-drying, however,
suggest the possibility of opening up quite a new
market in America and in Europe. A soup made of
Beche-de-mer is extremely nutritious and very palatable,
and if introduced in an attractive form, and under a
taking name, might prove a formidable rival to the
time-honoured turtle. Even if England should prove
sceptical, France would in all probability welcome this
addition to her list of food delicacies.

Worms.—There is a minute American variety of leech
which attaches itself to the native mollusks; they are
eaten alive in large numbers by the hard-clam. lovers.
Mr. A. W. Roberts says he had a mess of these leeches
collected and cooked, and found them very palatable,
and of the flavour of the highly prized little neck
clams, from which brand they had been taken. The
Chinese regularly eat both marine and fresh-water
leeches.* The leech was one of the forbidden meats of
the Jews.

The Pall Mali Gazette gravely reports that a group
of French gourmets have tested the edible qualities of
the common earth-worm, whose agricultural services
have been recently demonstrated.

“Fifty guests were present at the experiment. The
worms, apparently lob-worms, were first put into
vinegar, by which process they were made to disgorge
the vegetable mould. They were then rolled in batter
and put into an oven, where they acquired a delightful
golden tint, and, we are assured, a most appetising smell.
After the first plateful the fifty guests rose like one man
and asked for more. Could anything be more con-
vincing? Those who love snails, they add, will
abandon them for ever in favour of worms.”

* “ Scientific American.”

INDEX.

A.

Abalones . 409, 435
Actinia . 435, 439
Agouti eaten . 79
Albatross . 180
Albatross eggs 202
Alligators eaten . 233
Alligators’ eggs . . 206
Alpaca tribe . 123
American lobsters . 387
American oysters 416, 424
Amphibians eaten. 241
Anchovies 270—272, 284,

288, 320
Anemones . P a 436, 444

Animal food, less required

in the tropics é 7
Animal food more digesti-

ble than vegetable . 7
Animal food,,value of im-

ports into United King-

dom . 20
Animals, live, imports into

London . : . 19
Anteater ‘ 80
Antelopes . 2 126
Antelope cutlets a 9
Ants eaten . . . 350
Ants’ brood eaten . 208
Araeaten . . 143
Arctic fox . . 67
Armadilloes eaten . 80
Asses’ flesh . 4, 109

Asses and mules eaten in

France ‘ . 103 |
Auks . F . 180
Avocet ‘ : . 178
Awabi 2 . 410
Axolotl eaten . . 253
Aylesbury ducks - 171

B.

Bacon, American 88, 90, 92, 93
Bacon and hams, average

individual consumption . 26
Bacon and hamsimported. 14
Badgers’ flesh j 61
Balachong . 3 . 275
Balolo : é . 281
Balyk . . 305, 307
Bandicoot eaten . é . 71
Barbarien . 292
Barbel i & , 283
Barber ‘ & 339
Barbues e : 285
Barndoor fowls, average

weight . . 146
Barracouta . . 340
Barrel oysters. : . 422
Barrigudo, a kind of mon-

key » « 55
Busey trumpeter . 340
Bats as food . 57
Bears’ flesh 12, 59
Bears’ paws 52, 60

450 INDEX.

Beavers’ flesh . - . 73
Becassine . 3 ‘ . 156
Beccafico . ‘i ‘j + 135

Beche-de-Mer . ‘ . 444
Beef, comparison of, with

pork and veal . 92
Beef, fresh and salted, im-

ports 14
Beef product of the United

States. 118
Beef, salt, imports of 116, 118
Bees eaten . : 2 . 350
Belgian fisheries . . 272
Belouga 212, 307, 309, 310
Berlin, fish consumption . 264
Biltong . ‘ ‘ . 126
Birds’ eggs i 184
Birds’ nests, edible 10, 140
Bison of America. 127
Bitterns 169, 182
Bivalves . : % . A411
Black bass . : : . 265
Blackbirds . ss ‘ . 137
Black cod . : ; . 267
Black fish . . 265, 339
Blood cakes i : . 261
Blow fish . ‘ ; . 440
Blue fish . . . 265
Blue fish chowder. . 428
Blue points 3 : . 417

Blut-wurst, black puddings 97
Boa constrictors’ eggs eaten 207
Boar’s head. 87

Boars, wild - . 88,92
Bobolinks . a " . 139
Bonito 265, 314
Booby’s eggs. - . 199
Botargo 213, 260
Box tortoise eaten 218, 220
Brahmapootra fowls . . 147
Brahmins,strict vegetarians 32
Brazilian fish .

Bream 210, 283, 304, 306
Brent goose : 178
Brills . . F : 1 Q77
Bronze- winged pigeon . 164
Brook trout . 257, 265, 322

Buffalo fish : : . 265

Buffalo hump, a delicacy . 119
Buffalo meat 12, 119

Buffalo skin eaten . . 12
Bull frog eaten . 5 . 252
Bull trout . ‘ , . 322
Bulos . : z 7 . 434
Buntings . 137
Bunting, the brown shrimp 396
Burtah . . . . 813
Bustards 9, 155, 179
Buichers’ meat, average de-
cennial prices . : . 118
Butter, average consump-
tion per head . ¢ . 26
Butter imports . 14, 26, 28
Butter, value of . F . 112
Butier fish . , : . 338
Buzzard. : . . 135
C.
Californian salmon . 325, 327
Callipeva . . . 293, 316
Calmar . » . . 441
Camarones . 2 . . 391
Camels’ flesh . . 4,123
Canada goose. 5 . 176
Canadian oysters . . 424
Canard patés ‘ . 162
Canaries eaten . 3 . 137
Cannibalism, recordsof . 40
Canvas-back ducks 159, 181
Cape lobsters. ‘ . 386
Capelin. ie A . 272
Capercailzie ‘ . . 158
Capitones . b . 4,300
Capon 146
Carn 306, 310, 320, 337, 340
Carrelets . . 285
Carrion crows eaten . . 136
Casseron . . 441
_ Caterpillars eaten 351, 353, 355
Catfish : : 265, 333
Cattle, average weight of . 115
Cattle imported . ; . “4
Cattle in Australasia . 115
Cattle in America, aan
and Asia. ‘i . 118

INDEX. 451

Cattle, live, imported into
London ° ‘ ge LG

Cattle, London imports . 19

Cattle, statistics of, in

Europe . . - . 112
Cat, wild, eaten . ; . 62
Cats’ flesh . . 65

Caviare, varieties of . 1 212, 310
Cavys’ flesh = .

Cayman 232, 234
Centellas . : ; . 395
Centipedes eaten 3 . 349
Cerviche . : . 66
Ceylon, fisheries of . 311
Chama str. . 411
Charqui 15, 17, 114, 123
Charr . x 7 . 822
Cheese, American, imports

of . . ‘ : . 14
Cheese, average individual

consumption . : 26

Cheese, imports into the
United Kingdom . 26, 28

Cheese, nutritive value of . "112

Cheese production in the

United Kingdom . . 28
Chemaia . i é . 307
Chevenne . : ‘ . 285
Chimpanzees eaten. 54
China, fish of . . » 342
Chorigo, a Spanish sausage 89
Chowder . 2 . . 428
Chowder, clams . 2 . 275
Chowder, fish . : . 275
Chowicpee salmon. . 329
Chrysalids eaten . 349, 355

Chumars, an Indian caste
who eat all dead animals 31

Civet cat eaten . ; . 62
Clams. ‘ 4 i . 427
Clam bakes . , . 427
Clam chowder . ~ 275
Clams, hard and soft . . 429
Clams, hen. 2 : . 427
Clams, long : : . 429°
Clovesses . F ‘ . 430
Cluckinghen . 179
Coal fish F | 267, 338

Cockatoos eaten . p .- 144
Cockles 411, 435
Cocks’ combs eaten . 11
Cod . . 257, 264, 265, 284
Codfish of French. fisheries 284
Cod fisheries ~ . ‘ . 266
Cod roe eaten . : . 210
Cod’s tongues. : . 269
Condensed eggs . ‘ . 191
Conger eel . . 260, 294

Cooked food necessary to
digestion .

Cormorants’ eggs ‘ . 202
Corn-crake . ‘ 3 . 178
Cornet F ‘ é , 442
Cossus P ss § BS2
Counis, a class of oysters , 422
Cow-terrapins ‘ » 222
Crabs. ‘ , ‘ . 394
Crabs, devilled . ‘ . 275
Cranes : - . 182
Crapaud of Dominica . 251
Crayfish . ee . 388
Creatine in cod . ‘ , 266
Crevettes , ‘ ‘ . 393
Crocodiles . ; 7 . 232
Crow eaten : 7 , 139
Cuckoo eaten. : . 137
Cucumber fish . ‘ . 339
Cullycock . 3 : . 430
Cummelmums . z . 315
Curassow . i F . 165
Curlew. . 159, 178
Cuttle fish . ‘ . 441
Cygnet . : : , 177
Gonbad eaten , 2 , 407
D.
Dab . - . « 277, 285
Daily food, variation of . 6
Dead meat, imports of . 117
Deer, black-tailed . ah?
Deer tribe . - : . 124
Deer wine . =, Bt : At
Dendeng . 16,119
Devil fish . : < . 441

Gaa@a2

452 INDEX.

Diamond-backs . . « 222
Dingo eaten . . 64
Djirim . . . BOT
Dogfish . : . . 317
Dogs’ flesh . 10, 12, 62
Doghams . : . . 6

Dog hash . : : . 261
.Dog-wine . ‘ 5 . il
Dolphins eaten . 2 . 132
Domestic poultry —. 144
Dorade . 294, 304, 345
Dorey.-- . s . 278
Dorkings ee ye ee EE
Dormeur . F : . 815
Dormice eaten . : . 1
Dried meats. . 15
Dried meat pulverised » 8
Drumfish . . . 440
Ducks grey, of Australia. 178
Ducks 5 . 169

Ducks, dried, in- China 10, 172
Ducks’ gizzards, pickled . 11
Ducks in France zs . 148
Ducks in United Kingdom 148
Ducks, salted,.in Brittany . 172
Ducks, statistics of, in

France . F z . 170
Dugong. : 5 . 130
Dutch salmon. ‘ . 330

E.
Ear-shells . . 408, 410
Earth worms . : . 448
Easter eggs 5 : . 193
Edible birds’ nests. . 140
Eels . 257, 265, 283, 296,
297, 332
Egg bird, the . : . 198
Egg, chemistry of . 112, 186
Egg trade of Chicago 190
Egg traffic of the United
States . . 189

Eggs, average ‘individual
consumption . 5

Eggs, duty on foreign,
abolished z : 188

Eggs exported from Canada 189

Eggs exported from Italy . 188

Eggs from France. 188
Eggs imported into the
United Kingdom . . 186

Eggs in the United States. 151
Eggs, modes of preserving . 191
Eggs, nutritive value of . 112
Eggs, pickled. : . 192
Eggs, price of, -in America. 190
Eggs, production and ex-

port from France . . 188
Eggs, putrid, eaten . . 10
Eggs, sizing of, in France . 189
Eggs, value of. 5 . 145
Eggs, various kindseaten . 19
Eggs, weight of . 5 . 185

Eggs, wholesale prices of . 187
Egypt, fisheries of . . 310

‘Bland flesh . F : . 126
Elephants’ feet, mode of
cooking . . 83

Elephants’ flesh, ‘dried 16, 82
Elephants’ trunk, a delicacy

83, 85
Elk meat 12, 195
Elleck ‘ ‘ a . 804
Elvers ‘ . 298
Emeu eggs and flesh . . 196
Encornet . i . 442
Esquimaux food. 3 . 8
F.
Falcons eaten. 3 . 169
Feejeean cannibals. . 45
Feet of various animals
eaten ‘ . . 18
Fieldfare . i F . 136
Fire fish. 342
Fish biscuits and Fish balls 214
Fish bread and flour . . 273
Fish cake . : 2 . 301
Fish chowder. ‘ . 275
Fish dinner, a curious 260, 439
Fish extract . P 274
Fish imports into United
Kingdom 4 . . 263
Fish in oil . ‘ : . 275

INDEX.
Fish-maws . . 260, 313, 318 Game cock.
Fish, mode of cooking . 260 Game pies .
Fish, nutritive value of . 257 Ganders
Fish, prejudices against { 257 Gannet’s eggs
Fish, sauces ‘ : . 275 Garfish
Fish’ spawneaten . . 209 Gar-pike
Fish supply of Dublin 264 Garum
Fish supply of London 261, 262 Garusola .
Flamingo . ; . 168 Gazelle flesh
Flat fish. j F | 266, 276 Geese
Flat fish of Tasmania . 341 Geese in France .
Flatheads . ‘ i . 340

Flesh of diseased animals
not unwholesome food . 33

Floriken . . 155
Flounder . 257, 265, 277
Flukes : . 277
Flying fish, varieties of . 335
Flying fox eaten ‘ 57
Foies gras patés 162, 174
Food-taster, an African | 258
Forester kangaroo. . 72
Fowls . : ‘ F . 145
Fowls in France. : . 148
Fowls in United Kingdom. 148
Fowls' hearts. 3 «At

Fowls number in Austria . 151
Foxes as food y

Fox pie. . 68
France, fish consumption . 282
France, preference for pork in 95

Freshwater fish . : . 285
Frills, a name for scallops . 426
Frogs classed as fish . . 247
Frogs curried. : - il
Frogs eaten in America . 244
Frogs eaten in China . . 252

Frogs, market for, in Paris 250
Frogs, modes of cooking . 249

Frostfish . . 265, 337, 340

Frozen meat . 18

Fruit bats eaten. i . 57

Fur seal. P . 129
G.

Gaboon fisheries of . . 811

Game birds ss ‘ . 155

Geese in United Kingdom.

Gelinotte
Gemsbok

Germany fish imports

Giblets

Giraffe flesh

Goats’ flesh
Godwits

Gold Coast, fisheries of
Golden plover

.

iG,
..'160,

Goliath beetles eaten ;
Goose livers r

Gorebill

Gorillas eaten

Goslings
Gourami

Grasshoppers eaten

Gray trout .

Greaved tortoises

Grebe

Grenouilliéres in Vienna

Grives

Ground dove

Grouse

Grugru worm eaten

Guacharo .

Guanaco flesh

Guans
Gudgeon
Guepier
Guignard

Guillemot’s “eggs.

12,

| 353,

| 283,

Guinea fowls in France

Guinea pigs eaten

Gull’s eggs .

Gurnards
Gurnet

454 INDEX.
H. I.
Haddock . 257, 265, 267 Tbis
Hair seal . . 129 Ibis eggs
Hake . : : - 267 Tguanas eaten z A
Halibut . 257, 329, 330 Ika . . 442,
Haliotids 408 Incubation artificial .
Hammel-wurst, ‘a mutton India, fish consumption
sausage . . 97 Insectivora eaten
Hapuka - 337 Insects eaten
a vent of the sea. . 254 Insects’ eggs eaten
eee cts made of Ener * B06 Irico, dried shrimps .
of insects Ttal :
Hawks eaten 135 eae ia
Heads of various animals
Pia : c 18 J.
eart of lion eaten 69
Hearts of animals 19 ade
Hedgehogs eaten 58 Jack snipe .
Heingefish, dry cod 271 Jaguar fiesh eaten.
Hell-bender - 440 Jamaica, fish supply .
Hen clams . . 427 Japan fishes
Herons ‘ ; 169, 182 Jerked meats
Herrings 257, "264, 265, John Dore
278, 284, 302. 316 andi
Herrings, British’ export of 264
Herrings’ eggs eaten . 210
Herrings in Russia . 805 K.
Herrings of French catch . 284
Hilsah é : 313 Kahawai
Hippophagy : 101 Kalmuri
Pppepev ne meat . 85 Kangaroo flesh .
Hocco . 165 Kangaroo rat
Honey . 373 Kangaroo tail
Hookbill salmon, 326 Kari . ‘ . ,
Hoopoe. 137 Kavurmek. . ;
Horseflesh eaten 9, 12, 33, Killdeer
98, 101-108 King crab . ; .
Horseflesh, large consump- Kingfish . 265,
tion in France E . 103 King Salmon Z é
Horseshoe crab . . 439, 440 Kite eaten .
Horses, statistics of in Klip fish
various countries 100 Knot .
Horse tongues 19 Kryddsell, spiced herrings .
Houdan fowls 147
Human flesh eaten by eas | L.
savage tribes . 52
» Humpback salmon 326 Lake trout .
Hyzena eaten 70 Lamantine .

INDEX. 455

Lam reys . . 283, 304, 339
aa crabs. ‘ ‘ ta

apwings’ eggs . A 197
Lard, American . . 90, 92
Lard, imports. ‘ . 15
Larks . . . . 136, 140
Last, a fish measure . . 279
Lavaret i 302, 321
Leather carp. ; . 320

Leber-wurst, aliver sausage 97

Leeches eaten . 349, 448
Lemurs eaten . F . 7
Lerp . ; a . . 874
Lestiche . é . . 214
Limandes . . : . 285
Limpets 406, 410
Lion’s flesh :
Little-necks, a species of
Venus. ‘ . 430
Liver and lights . . . 19
Liver of dog eaten. . 69
Liver sausage ‘ . 59
Lizards eaten. ‘i . 235
Lizards’ eggs. ‘ . 207
Loach ‘ . 285
Lobsters 257, 265, 377

Lobster, chemical analysis of 378
Lobsters in North America 381
Lobsters, Norway . . 377

Lobsters, tinned . 381, 387
Lobworms . . . 448
Loche 3 ; F . 815
Locusts eaten. . 351
Locusts, modes of cooking . 360
Loir eaten . ‘i ‘ 10
Loons 5 - “ . 180
Losh . F A : . 833

Lumpsucker . . . 336

Lut-fisk 3 10, oe
Lynx flesh eaten :

M.
Macaws eaten . 143
Mackerel 257, 265, 284, 289, 316
Mackerel eaten raw . 8
Mackerel smoked 3 F | 332

Mactra, species of, eaten , 427

Mad-dog eaten . , . 66
Maigre a - : . 303
Malay fowls ‘ A . 147
Man an omnivorous animal 5
Manatee . 5 . . 131
Marare . ‘i Fi . 338
Marée fraiche . 3 . 285
Marimonda, a kind of
monkey . 3 i . 55
Marine mammals . . 128
Marine mollusks 3 . 406
Marine tortoises. F . 224
Marmots eaten . . B
Marrow . ‘ 2 . 125
Marrowbones . ‘ . 13
Maskalonge 2 8 . 333
Matamata terrapin . . 223

Mature animals furnish
more digestible meat
than young ones . ee

Mauviette p4tés . 2 - 162

Measly pork. : . 38

Meat, average consumption
in the United Kingdom 20, 26

Meat, diseased, asfood . 28
Meat essential tohealth . 5
Meat, preserved, from
Australia 3 14
Meat, preserved shipments
from Australia % . 116
Meat, imports of . . 118
Melet . ‘ . . 288
Menhaden . F . 274, 288
Merlans. i : . 285
Merles a i . . 137
Methy és ‘ ‘ . 214
Mice eaten . . 14
Milk, nutritious value of . 112
Minnows " 3 ‘i . 300
Mirror carp ‘ F . 320
Mollusca. i ‘ . 397
Monitor eaten . : . 236
Monkeys’ flesh eaten . . 54
Mopane . A - . 375
Moorhen . ‘ 3 . 178
Moose flesh : . 125
Morghi soup. 3 . 317

Mossbunker 5 é . 440

456 INDEX.

Moths eaten ‘ . 350
Moufle of the elk 19, 125
Mountain hen . ‘ . 12
Mountain sheep . : . 122

Mules and asses, statistics
of, in various countries . 109
Mulita, a name for the

Armadillo. ‘i . 80
Mullet . 265, 291, 307
Mullet caviare . 7 . 213
Mullet roe . é . 260
Musk rat eaten . : 61

Mussels, black and brown . 431
Mussels, consumption of in

France . a - 432
Mussels, pickled . : . 275
Mussels, white . 7 . 410
Mutton birds. ‘ . 180
Mutton bird’seggs . . 201
Mutton-fish i é . 408
Mutton, imports from Ni ew

Zealand . ‘ . 121

Mution, prices of in “Lon-
don, at decennial periods. 122
Mutton, shipments from

New Zealand. . . 116
Mutton wine. > «a
N.

Napkin caviare . . 213
Natives 413, 416, 418
New York fish supply 265
New Zealand fish . 336, 337
New Zealand pigeon ‘ . 164
Ngapee. 2 . 314
Noan salmon. ‘i . 326
Noddy’s eggs. r . 198

Norway, fish exports . . 270

Norwegian lobsters . 377, 380

Nutritive value of different
kinds of flesh . ‘ - 111

oO.

Octopi z .
Octopuseggs . ‘ . 260

Offal. .. . . 264
Ogliole 5 444
Old Maids, a name for
species of Mya. . 430
Ombre . : . . 285
Opossums eaten és 70
Opossum seeding on frogs 251 *
Ormer a 408
Ortolans . . . 139
Ostrich eggs. . 9, 195
Ostrich meat. ‘ . 165

Ostrich meat, dinner of, at
Marseilles ; :

Ostrich roast . , oe 3
Otterseaten % . 62
Oulachan . . . . 318
Ox tongues . 19
Oysters | 257, 412

Oysters, American grades
ae . 492

Oysters consumed in Lon-

don. . . 418
Oysters, consumption of in

Paris. ‘ - . 415
Oyster crabs. . 2 215
Oysters, dried . Alt

Oysters, exports from the
United States. 7 . 416
Oysters, green colour of

417, 418
Oysters of the Adriatic . 424
Oysters of Prince Edward’s
Island. - « 423
Oysters roasted . gy ALD
Oysiers salted . : . 424
P.
Pacaeaten. . : . 79
Pachyderms ‘ : - 82
Pacou 2 : 3 ~ 345
Pademelon . 4 . . 72
Painted turtle . ‘ . 222
Paires doubles . - . 430
Palm beetles eaten 353, 372
Palm worm - : . 349
Palolo Bo Sa - . 281
Palourde . o> ie . 430

INDEX. 457

Pancreas. - . 19
Para, or frost fish . 337
Paris, fish consumption of . 283
Parroquets eaten ‘ 143
Partridges . ‘ ‘ 156, 158
Partridges, truffled patés . 163
Passenger pigeons. . 163
Passeres : : . 135
Pastoorma . ‘i 5 . 16
Patiki - «+ + 838
Pancou j , é . 815
Peacocks . ‘ : . 154
Peacock’s liver . . . 10
Pea crabs . ‘ . 275, 393
Pearl-wombs. 7 . 426
Peccaries . ; . 87
Pecten, species eaten . 425,
433, 435
Pelicans. : . 182
Peludo, a name for the ar-
madillo . : . . 80
Pemmican . a 3 . 128
Penelopes . , ‘ . 165
Penguins . . . . 183
Penguins’ eggs . . 200
Perch . 265, 283, 339
Periwinkles : 407
Petrels é : , + 180
Petrel’s eggs. ‘ . 201
Phalangers . : . B
Pheasants . z : . 158
Pholads, species eaten . 431
Pickerel . ‘ . . 265
Pigeons, domestic . . 163
Pigeons in France. . 148
Pigs consumed in Paris . 90

Pigs imported into London. 93
Pigs slaughtered inAmerica 91
Pigs sold in Paris 150

Pike . 265, 288, 310
Pilchards F . 280
Pinnas . x ‘ . 434
Pintail ‘ ‘ : . 179
Piranha. , : . 344
Pirarucu . . ‘ . B44
Plaice ‘ 5 i ~ 277
Pleuro-pneumonia . 36, 37
Plovers . ‘i A . 179

Plovers’' eggs. . . 197
Polar bear, fleshof . . 61
Pollak . . - 265, 273
Pool snipe . ; , . 178
Pomfrets . - 3 . 813
Pompano . 2 . 332, 346
Porcupine eaten . ; 9
Porcupine’s flesh j . 79
Porgies . ; 265
Pork, comparison of, "with
beef and veal . . . 92
Pork, decennial prices of . 93
Pork, salt, imports . 15, 93
Pork, value of, as food . 91
Porpoises z 132
Poultry, decennial value of
ourimports . . 251
Poultry and game sold in
Paris. . 149
Poultry in Ireland . 147
Poultry in Roumania . 151
Poultry in the United
States . 151
Poultry and eggs, imports
from France . . 150
Prairie hens ; : . 159
Prawns. ‘ ‘ . 389
Prawns, dried . : . 391
Preserved meat, American. 12
Prussian carp. 7 . 337
Ptarmigan . : . 157, 158
Puffins A . . . 183
Puiris. ‘ . ‘ . 439
Pullets : . 146
Pullet, a species of Tapes. 430
Pulps. F ° . 442
Q.
Quagga eaten . 110
Quahogs, a name for hard
shell clams . : . 430
Quail : . 160
Quails sold i in Paris ‘ . 150

Queens, a name for scallops 426
Quinnat salmon . ; . 325

458 INDEX.

R.
Rabbits, large consumption
£

of . : ‘ 4 ,
Rabbits, plague of, in Aus-
tralia and New Zealand . 77

Rails . : . 178
Reptorial birds . : . 134
Rat pie 3 ‘ ‘ .
Rats eaten . . . 11,74
Rays . 5 ‘ . 289, 343
Razor fish . 2 | 426, 427
Red ants 369, 370, 372
Red fender terrapin ; . 221
Redfish : : 3 . 265
Red mullet . . . 292
Reeves : ‘i é . 160
Reindeer flesh. , . 124
Reindeer, statistics of . 124
Reindeer steaks . F x) 9
Reindeer tongues : . 19
Reptiles as food . : . 216
Reptiles’ eggs. 3 . 202
Rhinoceros’ flesh . ‘ . 87
Rice bird . ‘ . . 138
Ringneck plover . z . 179
River tortoises . 3 . 218
Roach oysters. , , 416
Robin redbreasts eaten . 136
Rockaways . ‘ 417
Rock-cod | 338, 341
Roes of various fish pre-
pared. ; 3 . 214
Roe of cod . ‘i , . 210
Roe of herring . F . 210
Roe of lavaret . 2 . 321
Roe of mullet. . 213, 293
Roe of okorune . 2 . 215
Roe of sander. A . 214
Roe of sturgeon . 212, 332
Roman snail . 4 . 898
Rooks . - F : . 139
Rotengle . ; : . 285
Rotje . 3 el wi . 180
Rouen ducks : : . 171
Rouget 285, 292
Round fish . : : . 266
Ruffs and reeves. . . 160

Ruminants. .. . 111
Russia, fish imports . . 264
Russia, fisheries of . . 307
8.
Saddlebacks . : . 417
Salamander eaten 253
Salami, a pork sausage . 97
Salmon 257, 265, 322

Salmon catch of Severn and
yne é 324

Salmon fisheries of Canada 325

Salmon from Irish fisheries 324

Salmon in Japan : . 343
Salmon of Sweden. . 802
Salmon of Tasmania . . 339
Salmon, preserved, statistics

of : . 326

Salmon-supply to London . 323

Salmon-trout . 257, 265
Salt fish. 270
Salt fish, supply to the
West Indies. ; . 316
Samlai i : - . 342
Sander 305, 310
Sand-grouse 162, 179
Sarde . ‘ , é . 316
Sardines 3 . 285, 286
Saubas, or white ants . 872
Sausages. : : « OF
Scale-carp . : 320
Scallops . 257, 265, 425
Scallops, pickled | 275, 426
Scansores . ‘i A . 148
Scotch lobster . . . 377
Sea bass. ; . 265
Sea egg or urchin » 443, 444
Sea elephant. i 130
Sea fowls’ eggs . | 198
Sea-lion a ‘ . 129
Seals’ flesh . ; : . 128
Sea-otters eaten . 2 62
Sea-robin, a fish. » 439) 440)
Sea tortoises. 3 228
Seed oysters . 418. 419

Seer . ; a . 318, 335

INDEX. 459

Séches , ‘ . 442
Senegal, fisheries of . 816
Sepia . ; . 441, 442, 443,

Serranos, a species of snail 401
Sevruga . 212, 307, 309, 310
Shad 265, 306, 310, 316, 342
Shaki, dried salmon ; . 260
Shark eaten in J: apan . 343
Sharks’ fins 10, 260, 314, 318
Sharks’ flesh . 317, 440
Shat-chew, dried yak flesh . 119

Shearwaters : 180
Sheep, average weight of
different kinds , . 122
Sheep imported . ‘ . 4
Sheep maa pease into Lon-
don . : . 20, 122
Sheep in Asia. 3 . 121
Sheep in Australia. . 121
Sherp, statistics of, in va-
_ rious countries : ae

Sheeps’ liver eaten raw.
Sheeps’-head fish . 261, 265
Shell fish, supply to Lon.

‘don. . 433
Shrimps. ‘ : . 389
Shrimps, dried . ; . 376
Sbrimps, pickled 5 . 391
Shrimps. salted . : . 10
Sinews and muscles of ani-

malseaten .. i 19
Singally 313, 314
Sisco . : Z . 265
Siscowet : F . 333
Skates : ; 266, 289
Skilly . . 801
Slips, a emall kind of sole . 276
Sloth eaten : ; 80
Slugs, dried 5 | 435
Smelts 257, 265, 275, 283,

06 319
Smelts, smoked . i . 332
Smoked meats . 15,111
Snail, analysis of 2 . 402
Snails, edible. : . 397
Snails, mode of oe . 404
Suake wine ‘ 11

Snapper | 337, 340

Snipes . 156, 178
Snotgall trevally ‘ . 841
Snow goose . . . 176
Soft clams . 3 . . 429
Soles . j : ; . 276
Sozille : . 313, 314
Spain, fish imports . . 264
Spanish fishery . 3 . 272
Spanish mackerel . 265, 333
Sparrows. 136
Spawn of fish, see Caviare 211
Spawn of lobster : . 379
Spawn of the crustacea . 215
Spiced herrings . : . 280
Spider crab j . 394
Spider monkey eaten. * . 55
Spiders eaten. ‘ . 350
Spiny lobster . ‘ . 388
Spondylus . ‘ ‘ . 411
Spoonbills’ egg . z . 202
Sprats ‘ i ‘ . 272
Squabs F . 163
Squid. ‘ | 440, 441, 442
Squirrels eaten . ‘ i, 73
Squirrel, flying, eaten Ea)
Starlings . . 187
Staten Island oysters 422
Sterlet ; ; : 305, 310
Stickleback F 3 . 285
Stint . : , ‘ . 178
Stock fish . ; : . 270
Stone chat . ‘ : . 138
Strand snipe. : . 178
Striped bass : : . 265
Stroemming ‘ ‘ . 271
Strombs eaten . 407
Sturgeons 265, 304, 310, 332
Sturgeon caviare ~. 211
Suleah é : 313
Sun-dried meat . : . 15
Surami “ : : . 442
Surf smelt . : . . 319
Surmullet . ‘ F . 291
Surubi : , : . 345
Swallows eaten . F . 136
Swans 17

Sweden, exports of lobsters 381
Sweden, fish imports . . 264

460

Swedish fisheries : . 302

Sweetbread A ‘ . 19

Swine, number in various
countries . 93

Switzerland, fish ‘imports . 272

Sword-bill . . 178

Sword-fish . ‘ 260, 265, 318

T
Taguareaten . . . 7%
Tai. . 343

Tail of beaver, a delicacy . 79
Tails of various animals

eaten> . : . . 19
Tako . : . . 442, 443
Tapir eaten és : . 87
Tarakihi . 2 - . 337
Tasago F . 15, 114
Tasmanian fish . ; . 338
Tatou, flesh eaten. . 81
Taurec, flesh eaten . . 81
Teal . ; : a . 179
Teguexin . 5 . 236
Teguexin, eggs of, eaten . 208
Tench ee . 283
Termites eaten . 350, 369
Terns’ eggs j , . 199
Terrapins . « 220, 265
Tetard p é : . 316
Thornback . 4 . . 289
Thrushes . . 2 . 136
Tiger cat eaten . : 2 al
Tigers’ flesh eaten. . 69
Tiochka . . : . 308
Tom-cod . 265, 321
Tongues, a name for small

soles : 276
Tongues of various animals

eaten =. ‘i . 18
Tongues of ducks. . 172
Tongue of the flamingo . 169
Tongues, reindeer. . 125
Tongues shipped from

Monte Video . : 114
Tortoise broth 9

Tortoise eggs. : | 206

Tortoises, land . - 217
Tortoise wine . il
Toucans eaten . 144
Tragopans . . 163
Trehalose . . 375
Trepang . . 444
Trepang, imports into
China ‘ Sel 446
Trepan, exports from
idk a 3 ee
Trepang, varieties of . 446
Trevally . : | 337, 341
Trichinous meat ‘ 35
Trout 257, 265, 283, 321, 329
Trubu . ‘ . 215
Trumpeter . F 179, 337
Tunis, fishery of . 310
Tunny , . 298
Turbot 257, 276, 277, 304
Turkeys. 152
Mares in United King-
dom : . 148
Turkeys in France . 148
Turkey, wild . 154
Turtle dove . 165
Turtle eggs . 203
Turtle, green . 265
U.
Ukali. . . 829
Ulikon . 318
Uni. . . 448
United States fisheries . 831
Univalves eaten . P 406
V,
Vandoise . 285
Veal, comparison of, with
beef and pork iy 92
Vegetarian, man not origin-
allya . é r $5, 0
Venison . 124
Venison objected to in
Borneo . 69

INDEX. 461

Veron : 3 , . 285
Veziga is . 3809, 310
Vichet ‘ 5 ; . 447
Vicuna flesh : . . 123
Violet ‘ ‘ . 443, 447
Voblas A . 214, 310
Vulture eaten . ‘ . 169
Ww.
Wallaby . 5 ‘i Pa aE
Walrus flesh ‘ ‘ . 130
Warchon . ‘ a . 337
Weakfish . . 265

West Indies, fish supply to oe

Whales’ flesh .. 128

Whales’ flesh eaten by Aus-
tralian natives

‘Whales’ nerves . s - | 261
‘Whelks 2 ‘ : . 407
Whimbrel . z : . 159
White ants eaten ‘ . 361.
Whitebait . : é . 280

Whitebait of New Zealand. 336
Whitebait of Tasmania . 339

Whitefish . 257, 265, 333
Whiting : A . 267
Whiting of Tasmania . 340

Whitstable oysters. . 418
Wide-awake, eggs of . . 199

Wig, a name for the hump

of the bison . ‘ . 127
Wild ducks - F . 158
Winkles . a . 435
Wolves’ flesh eaten. 12, 68
Wombat . é ‘ . 3
‘Wonga-wonga pigeon . . 164
Woodchuck eaten. . B
Woodcocks . ; F . 156
Woodcock patés . - . 162
Wood pigeons . : . 165

Wood turtles. E . 222
Worms eaten . 847, 448

‘Wurst, an Austrian sausage 97

Y.
Yak flesh . i 3 . 119
Yecare ‘ P ‘ . 234
Yerschi . ; a . 215
Yookalee . . : . 329
Z.
Zebras’ flesh eaten. . 110
Zoophytes . . : . 436
Zumarugola 3 . . 434

Gseful Works by the same Author.

Coffee and Chicory; their Culture and Manufacture. With
numerous illustrations. 102 pp., 2s. E. & F, N. Spon.

Tropical Agriculture. 638 pp., 2ls. E. & F. N. Spon.

Hops, their Cultivation, Commerce and Uses in various
Countries. 48.64. E. & F. N. Spon.

A Dictionary of Useful Animals and their Products. 136 pp.,
3s. E. & F. N. Spon.

The Arctic Regions and Polar Discoveries in the Nineteenth
‘Century. G. Routledge & Sons. (Has gone through Ten Editions.)

A Commercial Dictionary of Trade Products and Technical
Terms. New Edition with Supplement, 1883, 463 pp., 38. 6d. G.
Routledge & Sons.

Science and Commerce ; their Influence on our Manufactures.
648 pp., 6s. D. Bogue.

Animal Products, their Uses, etc. Prepared for the Depart-
ment of Science and Art. 300 pp. Numerous Illustratious. 4s.
South Kensington Museum.

The Commercial Products of the Animal Kingdom. 4to. 150
Illustrations, 1s. Department of Science and Art, South Kensington
Museum.

The Commercial Products of the Sea. pp. 484, 7s. 6d. Griffith
and Farran.

1885.

BOOKS RELATING

TO

APPLIED SCIENCE

PUBLISHED BY

E. & F. N. SPON,

LONDON: 126, STRAND,
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A Pocket-Book for Chemists, Chemical Mi anufacturers,

‘Metallurgists, Dyers, Distillers, Brewers, Sugar Refiners, Photographers,
Students, etc., etc. By THOMAS BAYLEY, Assoc. R.C, Sc. Ireland, Ana-
lytical and Consulting Chemist and Assayer. Third edition, with.
additions, 437 pp., royal 32mo, roan, gilt edges, 55.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS:

Atomic Weights and Factors—Useful Data—Chemical Calculations—Rules for Indirect
Analysis— Weights and Measures — Thermometers and Barometers— Chemical Physics —
Boiling Points, etc.—Solubility of Substances—Methods of Obtaining Specific Gravity—Con-
version of Hydrometers—Strength of Solutions by Specific Gravity—Analysis—Gas Analysis—
Water Analysis—Qualitative Analysis and Reactions~Volumetric Analysis—Manipulation—
Mineralogy — Assaying — Alcohol — Beer — Sugar — Miscellaneous) Technological matter
relating to Potash, Soda, Sulphuric Acid, Chlorine, Tar Products, Petroleum, Milk, Tallow,
Photography, Prices, Wages, Appendix, etc., etc,

The Mechanician: ‘A Treatise on the Construction

and Manipulation of Tools, for the use and instruction of Young Engineers
and Scientific Amateurs, comprising the Arts of Blacksmithing and Forg-
ing ; the Construction and Manufacture of Hand Tools, and the various
Methods of Using and Grinding them ; the Construction of Machine Tools,
and how to work them; Machine Fitting and Eréction ; description of
Hand and Machine Processes ; Turning and Screw Cutting ; principles of
Constructing and details of Making and Erecting Steam Engines, and the
various details of setting out work, etc, etc. By CAMERON KNIGHT,
Engineer. Containing 1147 illustrations, and 397 pages of letter-press.
Third edition, 4to, cloth, 185,
B

2 CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

On Designing Belt Gearing. By E. J. Cow ine
WELCH, Mem. Inst. Mech, Engineers, Author of ‘Designing Valve
Gearing.’ Fcap. 8vo, sewed, 6d. :

A Handbook of Formule, Tables, and Memoranda,

Jor Architectural Surveyors and others engaged in Building. By J. T.
Hurst, C.E. Thirteenth edition, royal 32mo, roan, 5s.

“«Tt is no disparagement to the many excellent publications we refer to, to say that in our
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It would be useless to attempt a recapitulation of the contents, for it appears to contain almost
everything that anyone connected with building could require, and, best of all, made up in a
compact form for carrying in the pocket, measuring only 5 in, by 3 in., and about § in. thick,
in a limp cover. We congratulate the author on the success of his laborious and practically
compiled little book, which has received unqualified and deserved praise from every profes-
sional person to whom we have shown it.”— Zhe Dublin Builder.

Tabulated Weights of Angle, Tee, Bulb, Round,

Square, and Flat Iron and Steel, and other information for the use of
Naval Architects and Shipbuilders. By C. H. JorDAN, M.I.N.A. .Fourth
edition, 32mo, cloth, 2s. 6d.

Quantity Surveying. By J. Leaninc. With 42 illus-

trations, crown 8vo, cloth, 9s.
CONTENTS :

A complete Explanation of the London
Practice. : :

General Instructions.

Order of Taking Off. :

Modes of Measurement of the various Trades.

Use and Waste. :

Ventilation and Warming, :

Credits, with various Examples of Treatment.

Abbreviations. :

Squaring the Dimensions.

Abstracting, with Examples in illustration of
each Trade. ie

Billing. .

Examples of Preambles to each Trade.

Form for a Bill of Quantities.

Do. Bill of Credits.

Do. _ Bill for. Alternative Estimate.
Restorations and Repairs, and Form of Bill.
Variations before Acceptance of Tender.
Errors in a Builder’s Estimate.

‘Schedule of Prices.

Form of Schedule of Prices.
Analysis of Schedule of Prices,
Adjustment of Accounts.

: Form of a Bill of Variations.

Remarks on Specifications.

Prices and Valuation of Work, with
Examples and Remarks upon each Trade.

The Law as it affects Quantity Surveyors,
with Law Reports.’ PE

Taking Off after the Old Method. .

Northern Practice.

The General Statement of the Methods
recommended by the Manchester Society
of Architects for taking Quantities,

Examples of Collections.

Examples of ‘‘ Taking Off” in each Trade.

Remarks on the Past and Present Methods
of Estimating.

A Practical Treatise on Heat, as applied to the

Useful Arts; for the Use of Engineers, Architects, &c.

By THomaAs

Box. With 14 plates. Third edition, crown 8vo, cloth, 125. 6d.

A

Descriptive Treatise on Mathematical Drawing

Instruments: their construction, uses, qualities, selection, preservation,
and suggestions for improvements, with hints upon Drawing and Colour-
ing. By W.F. STANLEY, M.R.I. Fifth edition, with numerous illustrations,

crown 8vo, cloth, 5s.

PUBLISHED BY E. & F. N. SPON. 3

Spons’ Architects and Builders Pocket-Book of Prices
and Memoranda. Edited by W. Youn, Architect. Royal 32mo, roan,
45. 6d. ; or cloth, red edges, 35. 6d. Published annually. Eleventh edition.
Now ready. ‘ Fy

Long-Span Railway Bridges, comprising Investiga-
tions of the Comparative Theoretical and Practical Advantages of the
various adopted or proposed Type Systems of Construction, with numerous
Formule and Tables giving the weight of Iron or Steel required in
Bridges from 300 feet to the limiting Spans; to which are added similar
Investigations and Tables relating to Short-span Railway Bridges. Second
and revised edition. By B. Baker, Assoc. Inst. C.E. lates, crown 8vo,
cloth, 53.

Elementary Theory and Calculation of [ron Bridges
and Roofs. By AUGUST RITTER, Ph.D., Professor at the Polytechnic
School at Aix-la-Chapelle. Translated from the third German edition,
by H. R. SANKEY, Capt. R.E, With 500 ¢l/ustrations, 8vo, cloth, 15s.

The Builder's Clerk: a Guide to the Management

of a Builder’s Business. By THomMAS BALEs, Fcap. 8vo, cloth, Is. 6d,

'
The Elementary Principles of Carpentry. By
THOMAS TREDGOLD. Revised from the original edition, and partly
re-written, by Joon THomas Hurst. Contained in 517 pages of letter-
press, and d/ustrated with 48 plates and 150+ wood engravings. Third

edition, crown 8vo, cloth, 18s, 4

Section I, On the Equality and Distribution of Forces—Section II. Resistance of
Timber — Section III. Construction of Floors—Section IV. Construction of Roofs— Sec-
tion V. Construction of Domes and Cupolas—Section VI. Construction of Partitions—
Section VII. Scaffolds, Staging, and Gantries—Section VIII. Construction of Centres for
Bridges—Section IX. Coffer-dams, Shoring, and Strutting—Section X. Wooden Bridges

and Viaducts—Section XI. Joints, Straps, and other Fastenings—Section XII. Timber.

Our Factories, Workshops, and Warehouses: their
Sanitary and Fire-Resisting Arrangements, By B. H. THWwaIrreE, Assoc.
Mem. Inst. C.E. With 183 wood engravings, crown 8vo, cloth, 9s.

Gold: Its Occurrence and Extraction, embracing the
Geographical and Geological Distribution and the Mineralogical Charac-
ters of Gold-bearing rocks ; the peculiar features and modes of working
Shallow Placers, Rivers, and Deep Leads ; Hydraulicing ; the Reduction
and Separation of Auriferous Quartz ; the treatment of complex Auriferons
ores containing other metals ; a Bibliography of the subject and a Glossary
of Technical and Foreign Terms. By ALFRED G, Lock, F.R.G.S. Wath
neers ilustrations and, maps, 1250 pp., super-royal 8vo, cloth,
2f; 12s. 6d,

4 CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

A Practical Treatise on Coal Mining. By GEoRGE
G. Anpr#, F.G.S., Assoc. Inst. C.E., Member of the Society of Engineers.
With 82 lithographic plates. 2 vols., royal 4to, cloth, 3/. 125.

Iron Roofs: Examples of Design, Description. [¢/us-

trated with 64 Working Drawings of Executed Roofs. By ARTHUR T.
WALMISLEY, Assoc. Mem. Inst.C.E. Imp. 4to, half-morocco, £2 12s. 6d.

A History of Electric Telegraphy, to the Year 1837.
Chiefly compiled from Original Sources, and hitherto Unpublished Docu-
ments, by J. J. FAHIE, Mem. Soc. of Tel. Engineers, and of the Inter-
national Society of Electricians, Paris. Crown 8vo, cloth, 9s.

Spons’ Information for Colonial Engineers. Edited

by J. T. Hurst. Demy 8vo, sewed.

No. 1, Ceylon. By ABRAHAM Drang, C.E. 2s. 6d.

CONTENTS:

Introductory Remarks— Natural Productions— Architecture and Engineering — Topo-
graphy, Trade, and Natural History—Principal Stations—Weights and Measures, etc., etc.

No. 2. Southern Africa, including the Cape Colony, Natal, and the
Dutch Republics. By HEnry Hat, F.RG.S., F.R.C.1. With
Map. 35. 6d.
CONTENTS: |

General Description of South Africa—Physical Geography with reference to Engineering
Operations—Notes on Labour and Material in Cape Colony—Geological Notes on Rock
Formation in South Africa—Engineering Instruments for Use in South Africa—Principal
Public Works in Cape Colony: Railways, Mountain Roads and Passes, Harbour Works,
Bridges, Gas Works, Irrigation and Water Supply, Lighthouses, Drainage and Sanitary
Engineering, Public Buildings, Mines—Table of Woods in South Africa—Animals used for

Draught Purposes—Statistical Notes—-Table of Distances—Rates of Carriage, etc. ~

No. 3. India. By F.C. DANVERS, Assoc. Inst. C.E. With Map. 4s. 6d.

CONTENTS:

Physical Geography of India—Building Materials—Roads—Railways—Bridges—Irriga-
tion— River Works— Harbours— Lighthouse Buildings— Native Labour—The Principal
Trees of India—Money—Weights and Measures—Glossary of Indian Terms, etc.

A Practical Treatise on Casting and Founding,
including descriptions of the modern machinery employed in the art. By
N. E. SpretTsON, Engineer. Third edition, with 82 plates drawn to
scale, 412 pp., demy 8vo, cloth, 18s.

Steam Fleating for Buildings ; or, Hints to Steam
Fitters, being a description of Steam Heating Apparatus for Warming
and Ventilating Private Houses and Large Buildings, with remarks on

+ Steam, Water, and Air in their relation to Heating, By W. J. BALDWIN,
With many illustrations, Fourth edition, crown 8vo, cloth, ros. 6d.

PUBLISHED BY E. & F. N. SPON. 5

The Depreciation of Factories and their Valuation.
By EwInG MATHESON, M., Inst. C.E, 8vo, cloth, 6s.

A Handbook of Electrical Testing. By H.R. Kempe,

M.S.T.E. Third edition, revised and enlarged, crown 8vo, cloth, 15s.

Gas Works: their Arrangement, Construction, Plant,

and Machinery. By F. CotyEr, M. Inst. C.E. With 31 folding plates,
8vo, cloth, 245.

The Clerk of Works: a Vade-Mecum for all engaged

in the Superintendence of Building Operations. By G. G. Hoskins,
F.R.LB.A. Third edition, feap. 8vo, cloth, 1s. 6d.

American Foundry Practice: Treating of Loam,
Dry Sand, and Green Sand Moulding, and containing a Practical Treatise
upon the Management of Cupolas, and the Melting of Iron. By T. D.
West, Practical Iron Moulder and Foundry Foreman. Second edition,
with numerous illustrations, crown 8vo, cloth, 10s. 6d.

The Maintenance of Macadamised Roads. By T.

CopRINGTON, M.LC.E, F.G.S., General Superintendent of County Roads
for South Wales. 8vo, cloth, 6s.

Hydraulic Steam and Hand Power Lifting ani

Pressing Machinery. By FREDERICK COLYER, M. Inst. C.E., M. Inst. M.E,
With 73 plates, 8vo, cloth, 185. ;

Pumps and Pumping Machinery. By F. Cotver,
M.LC.E.,.M.LM.E. With 23 folding plates, 8vo, cloth, 12s. 6d.

The Municipal and Sanitary Engineer’s Handbook.

By H. Percy Boutnois, Mem. Inst. C.E., Borough Engineer, Ports-
mouth. With numerous illustrations, demy 8vo, cloth, 125. 6d.

CoNnTENTS:

The Appointment and Duties of the Town Surveyor—Traffic—Macadamised Roadways—
Steam Rolling— Road Metal and Breaking—Pitched Pavements—Asphalte—Wood Pavements
—Footpaths—Kerbs and Gutters—Street Naming and Numbering—Street Lighting—Sewer-
age—Ventilation of Sewers—Disposal of Sewage—House Drainage—Disinfection—Gas and
Water Companies, &c., Breaking up Streets—Improvement of Private Streets— Borrowing
Powers--Artizans’ and Labourers’ Dwellings—Public Conveniences—Scavenging, including
Street Cleansing—Watering and the Removing of Snow— Planting Street Trees—Deposit of
Plans—Dangerous_Buildings—Hoardings—Obstructions—Improving Street Lines—Cellar
Openings— Public Pleasure Cconind = oricvodee= Moraddee teats and Ordinary Markets
—Public Slaughter-houses, etc.—Giving numerous Forms of Notices, Specifications, and
General Information upon these and other subjects of great importance to Municipal Engi-
neers and others engaged in Sanitary Work.

6 CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

Tables of the Principal Speeds occurring in Mechanical
Engineering, expressed in metres ina second. By P. KEERAYEFF, Chief
Mechanic of the Obouchoff Steel Works, St. Petersburg; translated by
SerGius KERN, M.E. Feap. 8vo, sewed, 6d.

A Treatise on the Origin, Progress, Prevention, and
Cure of Dry Rot in Timber; with Remarks on the Means of Preserving
Wood from Destruction by Sea-Worms, Beetles, Ants, etc. By THOMAS
ALLEN BRITTON, late Surveyor to the Metropolitan Board of Works,
etc., etc. With 10 plates, crown 8vo, cloth, 75. 6d.

Metrical Tables. By G. L. Moteswortu, M.I.C.E.

32mo, cloth, 15. 6d.
CONTENTS,

_General—Linear Measures—Square Measures—Cubic Measures—Measures of Capacity—
Weights—Combinations—Thermometers.

Elements of Construction for Electro-Magnets. By

Count TH. Du MoNcEL, Mem. de l'Institut de France. Translated from
the French by C. J. WHARTON. Crown 8vo, cloth, 45. 6d.

Electro-Telegraphy. By FReprrick S. BEECHEY,
Telegraph Engineer. A Book for Beginners. J//ustrated. ¥Fcap. 8vo,
sewed, 6d. :

Handrailing: by the Square Cut. By Joun Jones,

Staircase Builder. “Fourth edition, with seven plates, 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

Flandrailing : by the Square Cut. By Joun Jones,

Staircase Builder. Part Second, with eight plates, 8vo, cloth, 35. 6d.

Practical Electrical Units Popularly Explained, with
numerous illustrations and Remarks. By JAMES SWINBURNE, late of
J. W. Swan and Co., Paris, late of Brush-Swan Electric Light Company,
U.S.A. 18mo, cloth, 15. 6d.

Philipp Reis, Inventor of the Telephone: A Biographical

Sketch. With Documentary Testimony, Translations of the Original

. Papers of the Inventor, &c. By Sirvanus P. THompson, B.A., Dr. Sc.,

Professor of Experimental Physics in University College, Bristol. With
illustrations, 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d.

A Treatise on the Use of Belting for the Transmis-
sion of Power. By J. H, Cooper. Second edition, /ustrated, 8vo,
cloth, 155.

PUBLISHED BY E. & F. N. SPON. 7

A Pocket-Book of Useful Formule and Memoranda

Sor Civil and Mechanical Engineers. By GUILForD L, MOLEswoRTH,
Mem. Inst. C.E., Consulting Engineer to the Government of India for
State Railways. With ous wlustrations, 744 pp., Twenty-first
edition, revised and enlarged, 32mo, roan, 6s.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS:

Surveying, Levelling, etc.—Strength and Weight of Materials—Earthwork, Brickwork,
Masonry, Arches, etc.—Struts, Columns, Beams, and Trusses—Flooring, Roofing, and Roof
‘Trusses—Girders, Bridges, etc.—Railways and Roads—Hydraulic Formula—Canals, Sewers,
Waterworks, Docks—Irrigation and Breakwaters—Gas, Ventilation, and Warming—Heat,
Light, Colour, and Sound—Gravity: Centres, Forces, and Powers—Millwork, Teeth of
Wheels, Shafting, etc.—Workshop Récipes—Sundry Machinery—Animal Power—Steam and
the Steam Engine—Water-power, Water-wheels, Turbines, etc.—Wind and Windmills—
Steam Navigation, Ship Building, Tonnage, etc.—Gunnery, Projectiles, etc.—Weights,
Measures, and Money—Trigonometry, Conic Sections, and Curves—Teélegraphy—Mensura-
tion—Tables of Areas and Circumference, and Arcs of Circles—Logarithms, Square and
Cube Roots, Powers—Reciprocals, etc.—Useful Numbers—Differential and Integral Calcu-
lus—Algebraic Signs—Telegraphic Construction and Formula.

Spons Tables and Memoranda for Engineers ;

selected and arranged by J. T. Hurst, C.E., Author of ‘ Architectural
Surveyors’ Handbook,’ ‘ Hurst’s Tredgold’s Carpentry,’ etc. Fifth edition,
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This work is printed in a pearl type, and is so small, measuring only 2¢ in. by 14 in. by
# in, thick, that tt may be easily carried in the waistcoat pocket.

“It is certainly an extremely rare thing for a reviewer to. be called upon to notice a volume
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coat pocket, and containing a far greater amount and variety of information than most people
would imagine could. be compressed into so smalla space. .... The little volume has been
compiled with considerable care and judgment, and we can cordially recommend it to our
readers as a useful little pocket companion.” —L gineering.

A Practical Treatise on Natural and Artificial
Concrete, its Varieties and Constructive Adaptations. By HENRY REID,
Author of the ‘ Science and Art of the Manufacture of Portland Cement.’
New Edition, with 59 woodcuts and 5 plates, 8vo, cloth, 15s.

fTydrodynamics: Treatise relative to the Testing of
Water-Wheels and Machinery, with various other matters pertaining to
Hydrodynamics. By JAMES EMERSON. With numerous illustrations,
360 pp. Third edition, crown 8vo, cloth, 4s. 6d.

Llectricity as a Motive Power.. By Count Tu. Du
MONCEL, Membre de l'Institut de France, and FRANK GERALDY, Ingé-
nieur des Pontset Chaussées. Translated and Edited, with Additions, by
C. J. WHarTon, Assoc. Soc. Tel. Eng. and Elec. With 113 engravings
and diagrams, crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d.

FTints on Architectural Draughtsmanship. By G. W.

TUXFORD HALLATT. Fap, 8vo, cloth, 15, 6d.

6 CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

Treatise on Valve-Gears, with special consideration
of the Link-Motions of Locomotive Engines. By Dr. GusTAV ZEUNER,
Professor of Applied Mechanics at the Confederated Polytechnikum of
Zurich. Translated from the Fourth German Edition, by Professor J. F.
KLEIN, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. ///ustrated, 8vo, cloth, 12s. 6d.

The French- Polishers Manual. By a French-

Polisher; containing Timber Staining, Washing, Matching, Improving,
Painting, Imitations, Directions for Staining, Sizing, Embodying,
Smoothing, Spirit Varnishing, French-Polishing, Directions for Re-
polishing. Third edition, royal 32mo, sewed, 6d.

Hops, their Cultivation, Commerce, and Uses in
various Countries. By P.L. SimMonps. Crown 8vo, cloth, 4s. 6d.

A Practical Treatise on the Manufacture and Distri-
bution of Coal Gas. By Wi1Lt1aM RicHarps. Demy 4to, with xamerous
wood engravings and 29 plates, cloth, 28s. s

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS:

Introduction— History of Gas Lighting— Chemistry of Gas Manufacture, by Lewis
Thompson, Esq., M.R.C.S.—Coal, with Analyses, by J. Paterson, Lewis Thompson, and
G. R. Hislop, Esqrs.—Retorts, Iron and Clay—Retort Setting—Hydraulic Main—Con-
densers — Exhausters —Washers and Scrubbers — Purifiers — Purification — History of Gas
Holder-— Tanks, Brick and Stone, Composite, Concrete, Cast-iron, Compound Annular
Wrought-iron — Specifications —Gas Holders— Station Meter— Governor — Distribution—
Mains—Gas Mathematics, or Formule for the Distribution of Gas, by Lewis Thompson, Esq.—
Services—Consumers’ Meters—Regulators—Burners—F ittings—Photometer—Carburization
of Gas—Air Gas and Water Gas—Composition of Coal Gas, by Lewis Thompson, Esq.—
Analyses of Gas—Influence of Atmospheric Pressure and Temperature on Gas—Residual
Products—Appendix—Description of Retort Settings, Buildings, etc., etc.

Practical Geometry, Perspective, and Engineering
Drawing; a Course of Descriptive Geometry adapted to the Require-
ments of the Engineering Draughtsman, including the determination of
cast shadows and Isometric Projection, each chapter being followed by
numerous examples ; to which are added rules for Shading, Shade-lining,
etc., together with practical instructions as to the Lining, Colouring,
Printing, and general treatment of Engineering Drawings, with a chapter
on drawing Instruments. By GEorRGE S. CLARKE, Capt. R.E. Second
edition, zzth 21 plates. 2 vols., cloth, Ios. 6d.

The Elements of Graphic Statics. By Professor
Karu Von OTT, translated from the German by G, S. CLARKE, Capt.
R.E., Instructor in Mechanical Drawing, Royal Indian Engineering
College. With 93 illustrations, crown 8vo, cloth,’5s.

Lhe Principles of Graphic Statics. By GEORGE
SYDENHAM CLARKE, Capt. Royal Engineers. With 112 illustrations.
4to, cloth, 125. 6d.

Dynamo-Electric Machinery : A Manual for Students
of Electro-technics. By SiLvanus P. THompson, B.A., D.Sc., Professor
of Experimental Physics in University College, Bristol, etc., etc. Z//us-
trated, 8vo, cloth, 125. 6d. :

PUBLISHED BY E. & F. N. SPON. 9

The New Formula for Mean Velocity of Discharge

of Rivers and Canals. By W.R. KuTTer. Translated from articles in
the ‘Cultur-Ingénieur,’ by Lowis D’A. Jackson, Assoc. Inst. C.E.
8vo, cloth, 12s. 6d. ’

Practical Hydraulics ; a Series of Rules and Tables

for the use of Engineers, etc, etc. By THomas Box. Fifth edition,
numerous plates, post 8vo, cloth, 5s.

A Practical Treatise on the Construction of Flori-
sontal and Vertical Waterwheels, specially designed for the use of opera-
tive mechanics. By WILLIAM CULLEN, Millwright and Engineer. With
11 plates. Second edition, revised and enlarged, small 4to, cloth, 125. 6d.

Tin: Describing the Chief Methods of Mining,

Dressing and Smelting it abroad ; with Notes upon Arsenic, Bismuth and
Wolfram. By ARTHUR G, CHARLETON, Mem. American Inst. of |
Mining Engineers. With plates, 8vo, cloth, 125. 6d.

Perspective, Explained and Illustrated. By G. S.

CLARKE, Capt. R.E. With illustrations, 8vo, cloth, 35. 6d.

The Essential Elements of Practical Mechanics ;

based on the Principle of Work, designed for Engineering Students. By
OLIVER ByRNE, formerly Professor of Mathematics, College for Civil
Engineers. Third edition, with 148 wood engravings, post 8vo, cloth,
7s. 6a. :

,

CONTENTS:

Chap. 1. How Work is Measured by a Unit, both with and without reference to a Unit
of Time—Chap. 2. The Work of Living Agents, the Influence of Friction, and introduces
one of the most beautiful Laws of Motion—Chap. 3. The principles expounded,in the first and
second chapters are applied to the Motion of Bodies—Chap. 4. The Transmission of Work by
simple Machines—Chap. 5. Useful Propositions and Rules.

The Practical Millwright and Engineer's Ready
Reckoner; or Tables for finding the diameter and power of cog-wheels,
diameter, weight, and power of shafts, diameter and strength of bolts, etc.
By Tuomas Dixon. Fourth edition, 12mo, cloth, 3s.

Breweries and Maltings: their Arrangement, Con-
struction, Machinery, and Plant. By G. ScaMELL, F.R.ILB.A. Second
edition, revised, enlarged, and partly rewritten. By F. COLYER, M.LC.E.,
M.LM.E. With 20 plates, 8vo, cloth, 18s,

A Practical Treatise on the Manufacture of Starch,
Glucose, Starch-Sugar, and Dextrine, based on the German of L, Von
Wagner, Professor in the Royal Technical School, Buda Pesth, and
other authorities. By JuLius FRANKEL; edited by RoperT HutTTEeERr,
proprietor of the Philadelphia Starch Works, ith 58 ci/ustrations,
344 pp., 8vo, cloth, 18s.

BS

Ne

TO CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

A Practical Treatise on Mill-gearing, Wheels, Shafts,

Riggers, etc.; for the use of Engineers. By THomas Box. Third
edition, wth 11 plates. Crown 8vo, cloth, 75. 6d.

Mining Machinery: a Descriptive Treatise on the
Machinery, Tools, and other Appliances used in Mining. By G. G.
ANDRE, F.G.S., Assoc. Inst. C.E., Mem. of the Society of Engineers.
Royal 4to, uniform with the Author’s Treatise on Coal Mining, con-
taining 182 plates, accurately drawn to scale, with descriptive text, in
2 vols., cloth, 37. 125.

CONTENTS :

Machinery for Prospecting, Excavating, Hauling, and Hoisting—Ventilation—Pumping—
Treatment of Mineral Products, including Gold and Silver, Copper, Tin, and Lead, Iron,
Coal, Sulphur, China Clay, Brick Earth, etc.

Tables for Setting out Curves for Railways, Canals,
Roads, etc., varying from a radius of five chains to three miles. By A.
KENNEDY and R. W. Hackwoop. //lustrated, 32mo, cloth, 2s. 6d.

The Science and Art of the Manufacture of Portland

Cement, with observations on some of its constructive applications. With
66 dllustrations. By Henry Rep, C.E., Author of ‘A Practical
Treatise on Concrete,’ etc., etc. 8vo, cloth, 18s.

The Draughtsman’s Handbook of Plan and Map

Drawing; including instructions for the preparation of Engineering,
Architectural, and Mechanical Drawings. With numerous illustrations
in the text, and 33 plates (15 printed in colours). By G. G. ANDR¥,
F.G.S., Assoc. Inst. C.E. 4to, cloth, 9s.

he CONTENTS:

The Drawing Office and its Furnishings—Geometrical Problems—Lines, Dots, and their
Combinations—Colours, Shading, Lettering, Bordering, and North Points—Scales—Plotting
—-Civil Engineers’ and Surveyors’ Plans—Map Drawing—Mechanical and Architectural
Drawing—Copying and Reducing Trigonometrical Formule, etc., etc.

The Bowler-maker s and [ron Ship-builder’s Companion,
comprising a series of original and carefully calculated tables, of the
utmost utility to persons interested in the irontrades. By JAMES FoDEN,
author of ‘ Mechanical Tables,’ etc. Second edition revised, wth tllustra-
tions, crown 8vo, cloth, 55. | :

kock Blasting: a Practical Treatise on the means
employed in Blasting Rocks for Industrial Purposes. By G. G. ANDRE,
F.G.S., Assoc. Inst. C.E. With 56 zllustrations and 12 plates, 8vo, cloth,
Tos. 6d.

Painting and Painters’ Manual: a Book of Facts
for Painters and those who Use or Deal in Paint Materials. By C. L.
ConpiT and J. SCHELLER. J//ustrated, 8vo, cloth, Ios. 6d.

PUBLISHED BY E. & F. N. SPON. II

A Treatise on Ropemaking as practised in public and
private Rope-yards, with a Description of the Manufacture, Rules, Tables
of Weights, etc., adapted to the Trade, Shipping, Mining, Railways,
Builders, etc. By R. CHAPMAN, formerly foreman to Messrs. Huddart
and Co., Limehouse, and late Master Ropemaker to H.M. Dockyard,
Deptford. Second edition, 12mo, cloth, 3s.

Laxton’s Builders and Contractors Tables; for the
use of Engineers, Architects, Surveyors, Builders, Land Agents, and
others: Bricklayer, containing 22 tables, with nearly 30,000 calculations.
4to, cloth, 5s.

Laxton’s ‘Builders ‘and Contractors Tables. Ex-
cavator, Earth, Land, Water, and Gas, containing 53 tables, with nearly
24,000 calculations. 4to, cloth, 5s.

Sanitary Engineering: a Guide to the Construction
of Works of Sewerage and House Drainage, with Tables for facilitating
the calculations of the Engineer. By BALDwin LATHAM, C.E., M. Inst.
C.E., F.G.S., F.M.S., Past-President of the Society of Engineers. Second
edition, with numerous plates and woodcuts, 8vo, cloth, 12. 105.

Screw Cutting Tables for Engineers and Machinists,
giving the values of the different trains of Wheels required to produce
Screws of any pitch, calculated by Lord Lindsay, M.P., F.R.S., F.R.A.S.,
etc. Cloth, oblong, 2s.

Screw Cutting Tables, for the use of Mechanical .
Engineers, showing the proper arrangement of Wheels for cutting the
Threads of Screws of any required pitch, with a Table for making the
Universal Gas-pipe Threads and Taps. By W. A. MarRTIN, Engineer.
Second edition, oblong, cloth, Is., or sewed, 6d.

A Treatise on a Practical Method of Designing Slide-
Falve Gears by Simple Geometrical Construction, based upon the principles
enunciated in Euclid’s Elements, and comprising the various forms of

* Plain Slide-Valve and Expansion Gearing ; together with Stephenson’s,
Gooch’s, and Allan’s Link-Motions, as applied either to reversing or to
variable expansion combinations. By EDwarp J. COwLING WeLcH,
Memb. Inst. Mechanical Engineers. Crown 8vo,.cloth, 6s.

Cleaning and Scouring: a Manual for Dyers, Laun-
dresses, and for Domestic Use. By S. CHRISTOPHER. 18mo, sewed, 6d.

A Handbook of House Sanitation ; for the use of all
persons seeking a Healthy Home. A reprint of ‘those portions of Mr,
Bailey-Denton’s Lectures on Sanitary Engineering, given before the
School of Military Engineering, which related to the ‘ Dwelling,”
enlarged and revised by his Son, E. F. BAILEY-DENTON, C.E., B.A.
With 140 illustrations, 8vo, cloth, 8s. 62. :

12 CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

A Glossary of Terms used in Coal Mining. By
WILLIAM STUKELEY GRESLEY, Assoc. Mem. Inst. C.E., F.G.S., Member
of the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers. Jé/ustrated with
numerous woodcuts and diagrams, crown 8vo, cloth, 5s.

A Pocket-Book for Bowler Makers and Steam Users,

comprising a variety of useful information for Employer and Workman,
Government Inspectors, Board of Trade Surveyors, Engineers in charge
of Works and Slips, Foremen of Manufactories, and the general Steam-
using Public. By Maurice JOHN SExTON. Second edition, royal
32mo, roan, gilt edges, 55.

The Strains upon Bridge Girders and Roof Trusses,
including the Warren, Lattice, Trellis, Bowstring, and other Forms of
Girders, the Curved Roof, and Simple and Compound Trusses. By
TuHos. CARGILL, C.E.B.A.T., C.D., Assoc. Inst. C.E., Member of the
Society of Engineers. With 64 illustrations, drawn and worked out to scale,
8vo, cloth, 125. 6d.

A Practical Treatise on the Steam Engine, con-

taining Plans and Arrangements of, Details for Fixed Steam Engines,
with Essays on the Principles involved’ in Design and Construction. By
ARTHUR Ricc, Engineer, Member of the Society of Engineers and of
the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Demy 4to, copiously illustrated
with woodcuts and 96 plates, in one Volume, half-bound morocco, 22. 2s.;
or cheaper edition, cloth, 25s.

This work is not, in any sense, an elementary treatise, or history of the steam engine, but
is intended to describe examples of Fixed Steam Engines without entering into the wide
domain of locomotive or marine practice. To this end illustrations will be given of the most
recent arrangements of Horizontal, Vertical, Beam, Pumping, Winding, Portable, Semi-
portable, Corliss, Allen, Compoind, and other similar Engines, by the most eminent Firms in
Great Britain and America. The laws relating to the action and precautions to be observed
in the construction of the various details, such as Cylinders, Pistons, Piston-rods, Connecting-
rods, Cross-heads, Motion-blocks, Eccentrics, Simple, Expansion, Balanced, and Equilibrium
Slide-valves, and Valve-gearing will be minutely dealt with. In this connection will be found
articles upon the Velocity of Reciprocating Parts and the Mode of Applying the Indicator,
Heat and Expansion of Steam Governors, and the like. It is the writer’s desire to draw
illustrations from every possible source, and give only those rules that present practice deems

/correct.3 :

Barlow's Tablés of Squares, Cubes, Square Roots,
Cube Roots, Reciprocals of all Integer Numbers up to 10,000. Post 8vo,
cloth, 6s,

Camus (M.) Treatise on the Teeth of Wheels, demon-

strating the best forms which can be given to them for the purposes of
Machinery, such as Mill-work and Clock-work, and the art of finding
their numbers. Translated from the French, with details of the present

* practice of Millwrights, Engine Makers, and other Machinists, by
isAAC Hawkins. Third edition, wth 18 plates, 8vo, cloth, 5s.

PUBLISHED BY E. & F. N. SPON. 13

A Practical Treatise on the Science of Land and
Enginering Surveying, Levelling, Estimating Quantities, etc., with a
general description of the several Instruments required for Surveying,
Levelling, Plotting, etc. By H.S. Merrett. Third edition, 41 plates
with illustrations and tables, royal 8vo, cloth, 12s. 6d.

PRINCIPAL CONTENTS:

, Part 1. Introduction and the Principles of Geometry. Part 2. Land Surveying; com-
Paine General Observations—The Chain—Offsets Surveying by the Chain only—Surveying

illy Ground—To Survey an Estate or Parish by the Chain only—Surveying with the
Theodolite—Mining and Town Surveying—Railroad Surveying—Mapping—Division and
Laying out of Land—Observations on Enclosyres—Plane Trigonometry. Part 3. Levelling—
Simple and Compound Levelling—The Level Book—Parliamentary Plan and Section—
Levelling with a ‘Theodolite—Gradients—Wooden Curves—To Lay out a Railway Curve—
Setting out Widths. Part 4. Calculating Quantities generally for Estimates—Cuttings and
Embankments—Tunnels—Brickwork—Ironwork—Timber Measuring. Part 5. Description
and Use of Instruments in Surveying and Plotting—The Improved, Dumpy Level—Troughton’s
Level— The Prismatic Compass— Proportional Compass— Box Sextant—Vernier — Panta-
graph—Merrett’s Improved Quadrant—Improved Computation Scale—The Diagonal Scale—
Straight Edge and Sector. Part 6. Logarithms of Numbers— Logarithmic Sines and
Co-Sines, Tangents and Co-Tangents—Natural Sines and Co-Sines—Tables for Earthwork,
for Setting out Curves, and for various Calculations, etc., etc., etc. .

Saws: the History, Development, Action, Classifica-

tion, and Comparison of Saws of ali kinds. By ROBERT GRIMSHAW,.
With 220 illustrations, 4to, cloth, 12s. 6d.

A Supplement to the above; containing additional

practical matter, more especially relating to the forms of Saw Teeth for
special material and conditions, and to the behaviour of Saws under
particular conditions. With 120 z/lustrations, cloth, 9s.

A Guide for the Electric Testing of Telegraph Cables.

By Capt. V. Hoskia@r, Royal Danish Engineers. With illustrations,
second edition, crown 8vo, cloth, 4s. 6d.

Laying and Repairing Electric Telegraph Cables. By
Capt. V. Hoskicir, Royal Danish Engineers. Crown 8vo, cloth,
35. 6d,

A. Pocket-Book of Practical Rules for the Proportions
of Modern Engines and Boilers for Land and Marine purposes. ByN. P.
Burcu. Seventh edition, royal 32mo, roan, 45. 6d.

The Assayer’s Manual: an Abridged Treatise on
the Docimastic Examination of Ores and Furnace and other Artificial
Products. By-BRUNo KERL. . Translated by W. T. BRannT. With 65

illustrations, 8vo, cloth, 12s. 6d. ;

The Steam Engine considered asa Heat Engine: a
Treatise on the Theory of the Steam Engine, illustrated by Diagrams,
‘Tables, and Examples from’ Practice. By Jas. H. CoTTERIuy, M.A.,
F.R.S., Professor of Applied Mechanics in the Royal Naval’ College,
8vo, cloth, 125. 6d.

14 CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC BOOKS.

Electricity: its Theory, Sources, and Applications.
By J. T. Spracur, M.S.T.E. Second edition, revised and enlarged, wth
numerous illustrations, crown 8vo, cloth, 155.

The Practice of Hand Turning in Wood, Ivory, Shell,

etc., with Instructions for Turning such Work in Metal as may be required

in the Practice of Turning in Wood, Ivory, etc. ; also an, Appendix on

Ornamental Turning. (A book for beginners.) By FRANCIS CAMPIN,

Third edition, with wood engravings, crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.
ConTENTS :

On Lathes—Turning Tools-+Turning Woad—Drilling—Screw Cutting—Miscellaneous
Apparatus and Processes—Turning Particular Forms—Staining—Polishing—Spinning Metals
—Materials—Ornamental Turning, etc. : ;

flealth and Comfort in House Building, or Ventila-

tion with Warm Air by Self-Aeting Suction Power, with Review of the
mode of Calculating the Draught in Hot-Air Flues, and with some actual
Experiments. By J. DryspALE, M.D., and J. W. Haywarp, M.D.
Second edition, with Supplement, w2th plates, demy 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d.

Treatise on Watchwork, Past and Present. By the
Rev. H. L, NELTHROpP, M.A., F.S.A. With 32 illustrations, crown
8vo, cloth, 6s. 6d.

CONTENTS:

Definitions of Words and Terms uséd in Watchwork—Tools—Time—Historical Sum-
mary—On Calculations of the Numbers for Wheels and Pinions; their Proportional Sizes,
Trains, etc.—Of Dial Wheels, or Motion Work—Length of Time of Going without Winding
up—The Verge—The Horizontal—The Duplex—The Lever—The Chronometer—Repeating
Watches—Keyless Watches—The Pendulum, or Spiral Spring—Compensation—Jewelling of
Pivot Holes—Clerkenwell—Fallacies of the Trade—Incapacity of Workmen—How to Choose
and Use a Watch, etc. ~

Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Compiled prin-
cipally for the use of the Students attending the Classes on this subject at
the City of London College. By HENRY ADAMS, Mem. Inst. M.E.,
‘Mem, Inst. C.E., Mem. Soc. of Engineers. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d.

Algebra Self-Taught. By W. P. Hices, M.A.,
D.Sc., LL.D., Assoc. Inst. C.E., Author of ‘A Handbook of the Differ-
ential Calculus,’ etc. Second edition, crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. :

CONTENTS : ;

Symbols and the Signs of Operation—The Equation and the Unknown Quantity—
Positive and Negative Quantities—Multiplication—Involution—Exponents—Negative Expo-
nents—Roots, and the Use of Exponents as Logarithms—Logarithms—Tables of Logarithms
and Proportionate Parts— Transformation of System of Logarithms—Common Uses of
Common Logarithms—Compound Multiplication and the Binomial Theorem—Division,
¥ractions,:and Ratio—Continued Proportion—The Series and the Sunimation of the Series—
Limit of Series—Square and Cube Roots—Equations—List of Formula, etc.

Spons Dictionary of Engineering, Civil, Mechanical,
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Acids, 207 pp. 220 figs.

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134

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Freezing.

Fulminates.

Furniture Creams, Oils,
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Gilding.

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Darkening, Bending,
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ing.

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Horn Working.

Indiarubber.

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Matches.

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Paper.

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Fresco, House, Trans-
parency, Sign, and
Carriage Painting.

Photography.

Plastering.

Polishes.

Pottery—(Clays, Bodies,
Glazes, Colours, Oils,
Stains, Fluxes, Ena-
mels, and Lustres).

Scouring.

Silvering.

Soap.

Solders.

Tanning.

Taxidermy.

Tempering Metals.

Treating Horn, Mother-
o’-Pearl, and like sub-
stances.

Varnishes, Manufacture
and Use of.

Veneering.

Washing.

Waterprofing.

Welding.

Besides Receipts relating to the lesser Technological matters and processes,
such as the manufacture and use of Stencil Plates, Blacking, Crayons, Paste,
Putty, Wax, Size, Alloys, Catgut, Tunbridge Ware, Picture Frame and
Architectural Mouldings, Compos, Cameos, and cthers too numerous to

mention.

London: E. & F. N. SPON, 125, Strand.
New York: 35, Murray Street.

Crown 8vo, clotli, 485 pages, with illustrations, 55.

WORKSHOP RECEIPTS,
SECOND SERIES.
By ROBERT HALDANE.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS,

Acidimetry and Alkali-| Disinfectants. }eIsinglass.

metry. Dyeing, Staining, and| Ivory substitutes.
Albumen. Colouring. Leather.
Alcohol. Essences. Luminous bodies.
Alkaloids. Extracts. Magnesia.
Baking-powders, Fireproofing. Matches.
Bitters. Gelatine, Glue, and Size.} Paper.
Bleaching. Glycerine. Parchment.
Boiler Incrustations, Gut. Perchloric acid.
Cements and Lutes. Hydrogen peroxide. Potassium oxalate.
Cleansing. Ink. Preserving.
Confectionery. Todine.
Copying. Todoform.

Pigments, Paint, and Painting: embracing the preparation of
Pigments, including alumina lakes, blacks (animal, bone, Frankfort, ivory,
lamp, sight, soot), blues (antimony, Antwerp, cobait, cceruleum, Egyptian,
manganate, Paris, Péligot, Prussian, smalt, ultramarine), browns (bistre,
hinau, sepia, sienna, umber, Vandyke), greens (baryta, Brighton, Brunswick,
chrome, cobalt, Douglas, emerald, manganese, mitis, mountain, Prussian,
sap, Scheele’s, Schweinfurth, titanium, verdigris, zinc), reds (Brazilwood.lake,
carminated lake, carmine, Cassius purple, cobalt pink, cochineal lake, colco-
thar, Indian red, madder lake, red chalk, red lead, vermilion), whites (alum,
baryta, Chinese, lead sulphate, white lead—by American, Dutch, French,
German, Kremnitz, and Pattinson processes, precautions in making, and
composition of commercial samples—whiting, Wilkinson’s white, zinc white),
yellows (chrome, gamboge, Naples, orpiment, realgar, yellow lakes) ; Past
(vehicles, testing oils, driers, grinding, storing, applying, priming, ‘drying,
filling, coats, brushes, surface, water-colours, removing smell, discoloration ;
miscellaneous paints—cement paint for carton-pierre, copper paint, gold paint,
iron paint, lime paints, silicated paints, steatite paint, transparent paints,
tungsten paints, window paint, zinc paints) ; Painting (general instructions,
proportions of ingredients, measuring paint work ; carriage painting—priming
paint, best putty, finishing colour, cause of cracking, mixing the paints, oils,
driers, and colours, varnishing, importance of washing vehicles, re-varnishing,
how to dry paint ; woodwork painting).

London: E. & F. N. SPON, 125,.Strand.
New York: 35, Murray Street.

JUST PUBLISHED.

Crown sce cloth, 480 pages, with 183 illustrations, 55.
WORKSHOP RECEIPTS,
THIRD SERIES.

By C. G. WARNFORD LOCK.

Uniform with the First and Second Series.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. °

Alloys, Indium. Rubidium.
Aluminium. Tridium. Ruthenium.
Antimony. Tron and Steel. Selenium.
Barium. Lacquersand Lacquering.| Silver.
Beryllium. Lanthanum. Slag.
Bismuth. Lead. Sodium,
Cadmium. Lithium. Strontium.
Cesium, Lubricants. Tantalum.
Calcium. Magnesium. Terbium.
Cerium, | Manganese. Thallium.
Chromium, . . . | Mercury. Thorium.
Cobalt. Mica, . | Tin
Copper. Molybdenuin. Titanium.
Didymium. Nickel. Tungsten.
Electrics, Niobium. Uranium.
Enamels and Glazes. Osmium. Vanadium.
Erbium: Palladium. Yttrium.
Gallium, Platinum. Zine.
Glass, Potassium, Zirconium.
Gold. Rhodium. Aluminium. —

London: E. & F. N. SPON, 125, Strand.
New York: 35, Murray Street.

JUST PUBLISHED.

In demy 8vo, cloth, 600 pages, and 1420 Illustrations, 6s.

SPOONS’

MECHANIC’S OWN BOOK;
A MANUAL FOR HANDICRAFTSMEN AND AMATEURS.

CONTENTS.

Mechanical Drawing—Casting and Founding in Iron, Brass, Bronze,
and other Alloys—Forging and Finishing Iron—Sheetmetal Working
—Soldering, Brazing, and Burning —Carpentry and Joinery, embracing
descriptions of some 400 Woods, over 200 IIlustrations-of Tools and
their uses, Explanations (with Diagrams) of 116 joints and hinges, and
Details of Construction of Workshop appliances, rough furniture,
Garden and Yard Erections, and House Building—Cabinet-Making
and Veneering— Carving and Fretcutting — Upholstery — Painting,
Graining, and Marbling— Staining Furniture, Woods, Floors, and
Fittings—Gilding, dead and bright, on various grounds—Polishing
Marble, Metals, and Wood—Varnishing—Mechanical movements,
illustrating contrivances for transmitting motion—Turning in Wood
and Metals—Masonry, embracing Stonework, Brickwork, Terracotta,
and Concrete—Roofing with Thatch, Tiles, Slates, Felt, Zinc, &c.—
Glazing with and without putty, and lead glazing—Plastering and

" Whitewashing — Paper-hanging— Gas-fitting—Bell-hanging, ordinary

and electric Systems — Lighting — Warming — Ventilating — Roads,
Pavements, and Bridges— Hedges, Ditches, and Drains — Water
Supply and Sanitation—Hints on House Construction suited to new
countries.

London: E. & F. N. SPON, 125, Strand.
New York: 35, Murray Street.