ufacture, especially the
more substantial viands; France and Germany exhibiting chiefly
made-dishes, game, and delicacies--of meat, fish, soups, and
vegetables.' It is an important fact for our colonies, that viands of
this description are as well prepared in Australia, Van Diemen's Land,
Canada, and the Cape of Good Hope, as in the mother-country. 'Animal
food is most abundant and cheap in some of those colonies. In
Australia, especially, during seasons of drought, it is wasted in
extraordinary quantities; flocks are slaughtered for the tallow alone,
and herds, for their bones and hides. Were the meat on these occasions
preserved, it cannot be doubted that it could be imported into
England, and sold at a cheaper rate than fresh meat in our
metropolitan markets, to the great benefit of the lower-classes.' This
is a statement well worth being borne in mind by some of those who are
at present dazzled with gold-digging wonders.

In respect to the preserved meats at the Great Exhibition, many were
merely cured or dried meats. From Canada, for instance, they comprised
hams, bacon, tongues, and barrels of beef and pork. Among the
miscellaneous contributions were grated beef, canisters of fresh
salmon, 'admirable boiled mutton in tin cases,' dried mullets,
'_mouton roti_,' fish, meats preserved in a fresh state by simple
drying--on a plan practised in Switzerland--and preserved larks. Not
the least remarkable was a preserved _pig_, which reclined in all its
glory on the floor of the south-west gallery, and was a successful
example of curing on a large scale. Still more striking than this, was
the large partridge-pie, placed somewhat out of general notice in the
'Netherlands' department; a formidable pie it truly was, for it
contained 150 partridges, with truffles, and weighed 250 pounds: it
had been made a year before it was forwarded to London. But among the
contributions more immediately relating to our present subject, may be
mentioned those of Mr Gamble, which comprised, among others, a
canister of preserved boiled mutton, which had been prepared for the
arctic expedition in 1824; many such canisters were landed at Fury
Beach in Prince Regent's Inlet; they were found by Sir John Ross at
that spot in 1833 in a perfect state, and again by Sir James Ross in
1849, the meat being as sweet and wholesome as when prepared a quarter
of a century before.

The range of these preserving processes is singularly wide and varied.
If w