Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/849

Rh The importance of fishes as food need not be mentioned. In the mere enumeration of useful products of animals but a faint idea can be gained of the vast interests they present. The National Museum, under the direction of the late lamented Prof. Goode, arranged a collection which illustrates the value of fish and fishing in all the details from the jewfish, that is made into boneless cod, to the feather fly, whose manufacture gives employment to hundreds of women and girls in New York.

The products of fish give rise to numerous industries, among which may be mentioned isinglass from the sturgeon; caviare; leather from eelskins, and guano from catfish. Then come the trades associated with the capture of fishes—the dealers in fishing tackle, the builders of fishing boats, the makers of fishhooks, sinkers, and artificial bait being a few that will suggest how the fishes indirectly enter into the life of man and aid in his support.

Passing to the reptiles and their allies, we find the frogs and lizards destroying noxious insects, ridding the gardens and trees of pests. The skin of large snakes is made into leather; that of smaller varieties into belts, hatbands, covering for boxes, etc.; while snake oil is highly valued for various purposes. In South America the white meat of the great boa is esteemed a delicacy. A political economist, whose name I do not recall, has stated that wars are a necessity to kill off the surplus population. This philosopher would probably consider the snakes of India in the light of a benefit, as since 1870 they have destroyed over two hundred thousand natives.

We obtain our real tortoise shell from the hawksbill turtle, the beautiful substance being made into countless articles, forming important industries in themselves. The Florida crocodile and alligator are on the verge of extinction that we may have satchels and the hundred and one objects in this leather which the ingenious makers give us. Every portion of the animal is of value. The teeth are made into jewelry, the oil soothes the rheumatic patient, while alligator musk forms an ingredient in the manufacture of perfumes.

The direct benefits which we obtain from the birds are well known. The egg, poultry, and wild game industry, the sale of pet birds, the extravagant use of plumes and feathers at the dictates of fashion, the sale of birds and eggs for specimens, the manufacture of fly-fishing bait, are but a few industries which afford employment to thousands all over the world and represent the investment of vast sums of money. Some of the peculiar products of birds are leather from the feet of tropic species, the albatross; pipestems from the leg of the latter; quill pens, penguin-feather furs, and penguin skins as fuel at Heard Island; the oil of gulls as lamp oil by Eskimos; leather from the pouch of