Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/848

830 fly is an important ingredient in certain inks. Ants are valuable scavengers, and some produce an acid used in trade. The remarkable honey ants of the Southwest are considered dainties in Mexico and served after dinner alive. In the nests of these ants certain individuals cling to the ceiling, their abdomens filled with honey, which has been given to them by their companions, so they are literally living honey jars, holding the reserve food supply of the others, which they give up on application. The distended abdomen, about as large as a currant, is the luxury of the Mexicans.

Bees have a sterling value the world over and support many men, women, and children. A few years ago a single bee ranch in San Diego County, California, produced one hundred and fifty thousand pounds of honey and wax. The importance of bees, aside from the question of honey, is shown by the fact that it was found impossible to cultivate red clover in New Zealand, as there were no bumblebees to carry the pollen. These are but a few of the benefits we obtain from the insects, the majority of which are generally considered pests.

The story of the economic value of vertebrate life would mean a part of the commercial history of the world, so essential are nearly all of the higher animals to man and his advancement. We may pass rapidly in review the great fisheries of the globe which afford a direct support to thousands, from the salmon canneries of Alaska to the tunny fishermen of the Mediterranean.

The sharks, valuable scavengers, provide the makers of swords, belts, and various fancy articles with leather, the teeth being made into fancy and cheap jewelry. On the New England coast the small sharks or dogfish are in demand as guano, the fisheries giving employment to hundreds of men during the summer months. The oil of nearly all sharks is a commercial commodity, while the shark fin is a delicacy to the Chinese and collected by the ton from Catalina to China.

The torpedo ray has been utilized by science, and the electric catfish of Africa is sometimes employed as a medicine.

The Volga sturgeon fisheries give employment alone to over one hundred thousand persons, while that of our Alaskan coast is an important and growing industry. Helmets are made from the porcupine fish. The oil of the sunfish is valued in medicine. Shagreen comes from various fishes; leather and isinglass from the cod, hake, and haddock, weak and drum fishes; while the scales of the tarpon and parrot fishes are employed in ornamentation. Carp, dace, tench, and other fishes generally considered of little value, produce scales from which artificial pearls are made, and so become factors in a large and growing industry, especially in France.