The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-03-08

and fisheries building on the Worlds
Fair grounds are opened to the world
May 1, 1898. No such marvellous dis
play of piscatorial research, culture and
utility has ever before been attempted. &.
Perhaps greatest of all the divisions in
this comprehensive exhibit will be the
development of commercial fisheries.
From the earliest times the utility of the
product of the deep to the purposes of
man has bred a continuous race of fisher
men. Not alone are food fishes the OBJ
.ects of the keenest search. Ten thou
sand are the uses of fish and fish prod
ucts. The most delicate perfumes on
aIy lady's dressing case are evolved from
fish products. Creatures of the bripy
deep are born and die to furnish some of
the rarest gems that encircle her snowy
throat. Sea monsters are dissected for
oils, bony products, or the sable covering
that furnishes winter attire for the rich
and fashionable. The commercial value
of the annual product of the fisheries is
almost fabulous, and there are entire
communities in various quarters of the
globe that have no other mode of sub
sistence.
Another great division of the general
fish exhibit will relate to food fishes and
their culture. Steadily, year by year,
the use of fish as an article of human
food has kept pace with increasing
knowledge of its value. There are wide
ranges of coast territory where the natives
subsist entirely on fish or fish products,
and there is not quarter of the globe,
civilized or otherwise, where fish do not
form a portion of the dietary habit. Ihe
demand for certain species of food fishes
had led to the modern science of fish
culture. Where commerce, in its greed,
is depopulsting the waters of ocean, lake
or stream, science steps in and restocks
the waters with every variety of the fnny
tribe that is desired. The breeding Of
fish has its economic as well as scientific
side. Governments of all the great Ma
tions early recognized the importance OF
perpetuating this food supply and estab-
lished fish commissions, which make q
specially of fish farming. In the exhib.
its of this country alone tie whole theory
and science of artificial propagation of
fish will be magnifcently illustrated in
the display to be made by the United
States Fish Commission. Aside from
the Government display, which will in
clude propagation in both marine and
inland waters, several States will show
their methods of fish culture.
To the biologist and student of natural
history the fisheries building will pos
cess countless charms. Here, as no.
where else, can be seen actual specimens
of the myriad forms of subaqueous life.
According to q recent estimate, there
are more than ten million species in the
insect world. Professor Forbes, the
eminent biologist, estimates that the
different forms of animal life in the
ocean are vastly more numerous than In
either the earth or air kingdom. The
fisheries exhibit at the Worlds Fair will
include specimens of every important
species of marine life that is known to
science. Not only 6sh themselves, but
their companions, curious and beautiful
forms of life that exist fathoms below
the surface of the ocean, will be shown.
The aquaria will be decorated with costly
and rare marine plants and flowers
brought from their marvellous depths by
skillful divers. Sea anemoues, that
blossom miles below the surface of the
ocean; the coral animal, that builds
islands; the sea horse, sea robin, toad
fish, trunk6sh, porpoise, sunfsh and a
thousand other remarkable marine speci-
mems will be included in the exhibit.