flour, from which neither bran nor sharps have been removed, seems to contain precisely that proportion of azotized and non-azotized matter, which is best adapted to man in temperate climates (204); and actual experiment has fully proved, that two pounds of good wheaten bread, will sustain a man accustomed to such diet, longer and better than eight pounds of the best flesh-meat. Well authenticated facts, also, further confirm the deductions of science.

501. "The Russian and Greek labourers, and those of many other countries, will work from twelve to sixteen hours a day, with great power, activity, and cheerfulness; and subsist on about one pound of coarse bread, with a small bunch of garlics, figs, raisins, apples, or some other fruit containing little nourishment: while, according to Ross Cox,-who spent several years beyond the Rocky Mountains, as an agent of the American North Western Fur Company, the Canadian boatmen, and others in the Company's service, receive (according to stipulation), and regularly consume (when they have no other food), eight pounds of flesh per day, for each man; and ten pounds if it contain any bone: and these men, if their rations of food are cut short for two or three days, are exhausted and unstrung."* Captain Ross-who had had so many years experience in the arctic regionsremarks, that the half savage Canadian, with six pounds of solid meat in the day, or eight pounds of fish, which form his regulated allowance, is not worth more in point of exertion, than the Englishman, after a little practice

* GRAHAM'S LECTURES. Vol. II. P. 113.

in that labour, who is amply fed with one pound of the former, and a proportional quantity of the latter.* The Captain appears to have overlooked the decided advantage which the Englishman derives from a mixture of farinaceous food with his fish or flesh. He observes of the Esquimaux-"Their breakfast, consisting of five or six pounds of seal each, seemed a highly satisfactory one to them; we had judged as incautiously in measuring their appetites as their tastes by our own: but a special larder was admitted to be necessary, if we were to give dinner parties." He also informs us, that while one salmon and a half (in a cooked state) were sufficient for five of his company, each Esquimaux devoured two in a raw state. "Each man had eaten fourteen pounds of this raw salmon; and it was probably but a lunch after all, or a superfluous meal for the sake of our society."‡ He further remarks "that the Arab, on one small allowance of barley-meal in the day, is more enduring of fatigue than an Esquimaux, who perhaps eats twenty pounds of flesh and oil: while he is also stronger and more active."§

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502. "The Patagonians", says the Rev. M. Armes, who spent three months among them as a missionary, subsist almost entirely on the guanaco, which they take in the chase. They will often, in their indolence, suffer their provisions to run very low, and for two or three days subsist on very little; and then, when urged by hunger, they will mount their horses and go out in pursuit of fresh supplies. And when they return with their game,

*Ross's "NARRATIVE OF A SECOND VOYAGE" &c. P. 285.

+ Ibid. P. 187.

‡ Ibid. P. 284.

§ Ibid. P. 485.

it is a very common thing for a single Patagonian to consume from fifteen to twenty pounds of flesh, in the course of a day. Indeed, I have frequently seen a single man, after two or three days' severe abstemiousness, consume at one meal, in the course of three hours, the half of a guanaco, which would weigh from fifteen to twenty pounds. This flesh was generally eaten very slightly cooked." The accounts which have been given of the voraciousness of the Esquimaux, and other flesh-eating tribes in the northern regions of Europe, Asia, and America, and of the enormous quantities which they consume in a day, and at a single meal, are almost incredible; yet they have been repeatedly corroborated by good authority. On the other hand, millions of the inhabitants of India and China subsist on a few ounces of rice a day, for each individual; and where they are in other respects temperate and correct in their habits, they are well nourished, athletic, and active. The American Indian will travel far and subsist long on a small bag of maize, parched and pounded;-taking only six or eight ounces of it per day, mixed with water.

503, It will perhaps be objected, that the Carnivora generally consume less food than the Herbivora. But it should be recollected that, as the skin of the former is destitute of perspiratory pores, they lose (for equal bulks) much less heat than the latter, which are compelled to restore the lost heat by means of food adapted for respiration; and as the skin of man abounds with perspiratory pores, he is necessitated, when feeding on flesh solely, to eat it in greater abundance.

504. Science and fact, therefore, unite in proving, that if any portion of land yield only the same weight of grain that it does of animal food, the former will support four times as large a population as the latter. It is well known, however, that if two equal portions of land be employed, the one in grazing, the other in producing fruit, grain, potatoes, &c., the weight of the latter will considerably exceed that of the flesh obtained by feeding cattle.

505. The estimated produce of an acre of land is, of—

But Dr. Knight informs us, that a small plantation of the early ash-leaved kidney potato, produced 665 bushels of 80 lbs. each per acre, or 146 lbs. per day; and, by Mr. Rawson's improved mode of culture, 34122 lbs. per acre, or 93 lbs. per day, of the red-nosed kidney have been obtained. The produce of many fruit-trees considerably exceeds that of the potato: this has been proved by many observers. Rousseau and M. D. St. Pierre ascertained it of the chesnut tree; Forster and others of the bread-fruit tree; and Humboldt of the banana. The latter gentleman calculated, that 1000 square feet of banana plants will produce 4000 lbs. of its nutritive fruit ;

* MIDDLETON.

The quantity here given is probably too small; as the produce of maize, on a given extent of land, is said to be greater than that of any other grain.

while the same space would grow only 35 lbs. of wheat, and 514 lbs. of potatoes.

506. Now if it be admitted, that an average of six pounds of animal food a day would be necessary for each individual, on an exclusively flesh-diet, then, since an acre of land employed in feeding cattle only produces ten ounces of flesh per day, it would require nearly ten acres to support each person for a year; whereas one acre of wheat would supply three persons, and (according to Curwen), one acre of potatoes would serve at least ten persons with sufficient food for the same space of time;- -so that a diet of potatoes and fruit would support one hundred times. the number of inhabitants that could be maintained on an exclusively flesh-diet. Not to reduce man, however, to the necessity of living on the cheapest, or most productive kind of food,-which is by no means desirable for any nation, not even for the lowest classes of society,-let us suppose man enjoying the greatest variety of the choicest and most delicious fruits, roots, and grains;-the discoveries of science leading to improved culture, and triumphing over deficiency of temperature, and unsuitableness of climate; and let us further suppose that, by thus administering to the gratifications of taste and the pleasures of the table, four-fifths of the whole produce is sacrificed; still the land would be competent to maintain twenty times the population it could support on an exclusive diet of animal food.

507. In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland there are at present, about twenty-eight millions of inhabitants, and about double that number of acres of