The Magician who Makes Gold Swim–$30,000,000 in a Shoal of Cod–200 per cent. Profits in Salmon–How French Sardines are Made in Maine–Vast Fortune in Bivalves–John Bull, Brother Jonathan, and the Seal Fisheries–Chasing a Greenland Whale–Old Salts who Have Made their “Pile”–Why Salt Fish is Worth More than Fresh–The Greatest Reservoir of Wealth–A Leaf from a Business Ledger.
Gold floats within the air, swims within the sea, springs up out of the earth, and lies deep hid within the mountain mattress. How can gold swim? In the type of hundreds of thousands upon hundreds of thousands of tiny creatures whose destruction brings gold into the pockets of their captors. Literally, the ocean is the largest discipline of income on the planet. It is a reservoir of treasure which all of the ages should not more likely to exhaust. Further, the ocean, in contrast to the land, has not been and can’t be partitioned out amongst particular person homeowners. Any man can enter upon any physique of water not truly occupied by one other, and applicable all that he finds there. The following are among the many most worthwhile of the fisheries:
899. OREGON SALMONThe feminine salmon lays a thousand eggs for each pound of her weight. For salmon income go to Oregon. Immense factories, making huge income, are already within the discipline, however there’s room for extra.
900. MASSACHUSETTS CODProfessor Huxley estimates the variety of cod in a single shoal at 120,000,000. What do you consider that, you who pay twenty-five cents for a small codfish? A shoal of fish price $30,000,000! Go to Newfoundland if you wish to catch cod.
901. FRENCH SARDINESSo-called French sardines are put up in Maine. They have a overseas label, and command twice the value they might if it had been identified that they’re a local product. The deception, nonetheless, is simply within the identify, for they’re on no account inferior to the overseas model. As an instance of the large income, we have now it for a incontrovertible fact that herrings price when recent no more than $50,000, had been put up as sardines in cans holding one pound every, and in that model they introduced $770,000. This is the key of the way some people get rich.
902. SEA OTTERSThese should not so plentiful as previously, however the elevated worth of the skins partly makes up for the much less variety of furs. A couple of years in the past a schooner sailed from Boston to the Northern Pacific in quest of those slippery sea tenants, and in the middle of three journeys netted $75,000.
903. ARCTIC WHALESRivals of whale oil have decreased the value of that lubricant, however there are but many vessels engaged within the enterprise. When we think about that the whaling trade has contributed $680,000,000 to the treasure of England, Holland, and the United States, we are able to see what huge profits have been reaped by those engaged in the business. From Sandy Hook to Cape Cod, all alongside the coast, there are retired sea captains who’ve “feathered their nest” with the gross sales of whale-blubber.
904. BEHRING SEALSGo aboard a sealing vessel. The enterprise may be very worthwhile. Above 1,000,000 seals of every kind are taken yearly, a single vessel generally catching as many as 5,000. As these seals are taken by vessels owned and manned by legalized corporations, the income should not so topic to fluctuation as in what known as particular person luck. To be a member of a sealing firm you have to have some capital, however the enterprise is so worthwhile that it pays at the least twenty-five per cent. John Bull and Brother Jonathan have had many disputes about the best to catch these seals. They are undoubtedly United States property, however England bases its rights in outdated treaties. However, if the catch isn’t restricted, the indiscriminating slaughter will quickly diminish the quantity in order that there won’t be sufficient seals price preventing about.
905. SEA GOLDThough this product of the ocean has no fins, it falls extra appropriately below the heading of this chapter than every other. The South Sea Bubble has had a parallel within the current pleasure over golden sea waves. A priest, a Connecticut Yankee by the identify of Jernigan, collectively along with his brother, after many experiments, introduced that that they had found a course of for extracting gold from the ocean. A inventory firm was fashioned, a big capital raised, and a mill erected. But the bubble exploded with loss to all besides the reverend projector of the enterprise, who is alleged to have made $100,000 out of the scheme. At least, a free leaf from his ledger, which he left behind in his flight, signifies that about that sum was inveigled from the pockets of the deluded members of the “company.” However, a few of them nonetheless place confidence in the enterprise. It has been identified to chemists for a very long time that gold is contained in sea water. The solely query is whether or not it’s in adequate portions to pay for the price of its extraction. It might but be discovered that what’s at current thought to be a big swindle incorporates the seeds of a worthwhile trade.
