care of themselves. The chief hatchery and
laboratory of the United States Fish Commission is at Woods Holl, Mass.
As many as 860,000,000 eggs, small fry, and adult fish have been
distributed in a single year. The State of New York has also a similar
department for restocking its waters.

=Sponge.=--This substance is practically the skeleton of a low order of
animal, growing at the bottom of the sea. The sponge is cut from the
place of attachment, and the gelatinous matter is washed away after
putrefaction. The chief sponge-fisheries are in the neighborhood of
Florida and the Bahama Islands.

=Seal.=--The fur-seal is an amphibian, found only in cold waters. A few
pelts are obtained along the Greenland coast, but the chief
sealing-grounds of the world have been at the Pribilof Islands, in
Bering Sea. The pelts of the young males only are taken. The rookeries
of the Pribilof Islands have been so nearly exhausted, that the killing
season has been suspended for a term of years. Much illicit
seal-catching is still going on, however.

The skins are taken to London, via San Francisco, where the fur is dyed
a rich brown color; London is the chief market for dyed pelts; San
Francisco for raw pelts; and New York, Paris, and St. Petersburg for
garments. The pelts of the sea-otter are obtained mainly in the North
Pacific Ocean.

=Other Furs.=--The furs employed in the finest garments are in part the
pelts of land animals living in polar regions. The sable, stone-marten,
otter, beaver, and red fox are the most valuable. The Persian lamb,
however, is not a polar animal. The Russian Empire and Canada are the
chief sources of supply. The Hudson Bay Company, with head-quarters at
Fort Garry, near Winnipeg, controls most of the fur-trade of North
America; the Russian furs are marketed mainly at Lower Novgorod.
Leipzig, Germany, is also an important fur-market.

Enormous quantities of rabbit-skins from Australia and nutria from
Argentina are imported into the United States and Europe for the
manufacture of the felt of which hats are made. The amount of this
substance may be realized when one considers that not far from two
hundred million people in the two countries wear felt hats.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Note an instance in which the search for deep-sea fishing-grounds has
resulted in the discovery of unknown lands.

Why are not whale products as essential now as a century ago?

What international complications have aris