There is more still. It appears that working people turn out more work in proportion to their command of their own powers of limb and sense. We all understand very well that it answers better to pay high wages to a well-fed labourer, than half the amount to an ill-fed one. There is no less difference in the quality of labourers in regard to their use of their eyes, their hands, and their muscles generally. First, we heard that four men who have undergone drill turn out as much work as five undrilled; and now the proportion is declared to be three to five. For some time past it has been known that engineers were particular in picking and choosing their men, and glad to obtain any who had undergone military discipline. Now it appears that the same preference is shown by employers in most occupations. The bodily aptitude is an advantage in almost every kind of task; but there is much more. There is an alertness, a presence of mind, an orderliness and neatness, a punctuality and obedience about persons systematically and specially trained, in body and mind, which incalculably improves their quality in co-operation as well as in mere industry. If a ploughman is likely to work better for having full command of his limbs and use of his eyes, what must be the difference in the case of the miner, of the fisherman, and all who live in the presence of danger, of having minds awake, nerves and spirits strong, and all powers at ready call? Some work on housetops,—some in coal pits; some at the mast head,—some under water; some need more strength and some more skill; but all are alike benefited by a good education of the body, and will command a place in the labour-market corresponding with their improved ability.
In the face of such facts, we shall not leave our rising generation without these advantages for the sake of five shillings a year per head. While spending hundreds of thousands annually on popular education, we shall not withhold that trifle, knowing that consequent invalidism and funerals will consume ten times as much, and that the additional work done would pay for ten times as many instructors and gymnastic instruments. One must speak in this way when the objection of cost is brought; but it jars upon the feelings. When the question is of the manliness,—to say nothing of the life and health,—of the youth of England, it seems as if the clearest proof of profitableness were something beside the mark. As the profitableness is proved, we may step over and beyond it to contemplate “the good time coming” of the renovated manliness of the English citizen, as a common quality of men of high and low degree.
CURIOSITIES OF EEL CULTURE.
A great deal more can be said about eels than most people would suppose; more, at any rate, than has ever yet been made public in one place. For one thing, there is so little known about these fish, about their habits and history, as to have given cause for a large amount of speculation; how they breed, how they grow, and when they are fit to become food, are points which have been but very indifferently elucidated. We have, in times past, been treated to a great mass of questionable information about fish of all kinds, and particularly eels; it is only of late years, however, that naturalists have been able to resolve questions concerning the growth and powers of multiplication of that fish which have, from time to time, been propounded for scientific discussion. The study of the natural history of the eel has been hampered by old-world romances, and quaint fancies about its birth,—or, may we not say, invention?
“The eel is born of the mud,” said one old author. “It grows out of hairs,” says another. “It is the creation of the dews of evening,” said a third. “Nonsense!” exclaims a fourth controversialist, “it is produced by means of electricity.” “You are all wrong,” asserts a fifth, “the eel is generated from turf.” And a sixth theorist, determined to come nearer the mark than any of his predecessors, assures the public that the young fish are grown from particles of flesh scraped off the old ones!
Modern investigation has done away with this nonsense, and proved, as might be expected, that eels are the produce of eels. There is, as yet, no place in this country of the nature of a breeding pond, where the natural history of this fish can be properly studied. There are ponds for storing lobsters at Southampton, and there is a store-pond for white-fish in Scotland; but we know of no breeding-ponds either for eels or cod-fish, hence much of our ignorance about their powers of growth and productiveness. We have also a pond on the river Tay, in Scotland, which has been of use in determining questions connected with the growth of salmon, and likewise of adding to the value of the river; the pond-bred salmon having considerably augmented the natural supplies of that fish; and, as a consequence, raised the rental. It is likely, that in connection with the English salmon rivers, breeding-ponds will be erected on a large scale. The salmon being the king of fish, and of royal value, it will undoubtedly prove a profitable speculation to protect its spawn from injury, and its young from destruction. In the natural state, amazing quantities of fish-eggs are constantly destroyed, and countless thousands of the young fish are lost from want of protection—being devoured wholesale by their enemies. It would remunerate the enterprise if other fish were dealt with in the same way as the salmon of the River Tay, because it is well-known that if the young animals are protected from their enemies, a large per-centage of increase in the supplies becomes immediately apparent.
This fact has been already so thoroughly demonstrated in France and Germany as to lead to a national recognition of the French fresh water fisheries and their improvement by means of pisciculture, under the auspices of the government. At Huningue, near Bale, on the Rhine, there has been erected a vast dépôt for the collection and dispersion of fish eggs, which are conveyed from thence to all parts of the kingdom; and, under the directions of M. Coste, many of the depopulated rivers and bays of France have been restocked and rendered productive. The art of pisciculture, which was re-discovered some twenty years ago,
