CHAPTER XVIII 



FISHES AS FOOD FOR MAN 



HE Flesh of Fishes. Among all races of men, fishes 

 are freely eaten as food, either raw, as preferred by 

 the Japanese and Hawaiians, or else as cooked, 

 salted, dried, or otherwise preserved. 



The flesh of most fishes is white, flaky, readily digestible, 

 and with an agreeable flavor. Some, as the salmon, are charged 

 with oil, which aids to give an orange hue known as salmon 

 color. Others have colorless oil which may be of various con- 

 sistencies. Some have dark-red flesh, which usually contains 

 a heavy oil which becomes acrid when stale. Some fishes, as 

 the sharks, have tough, coarse flesh. Some have flesh which is 

 watery and coarse. Some are watery and tasteless, some dry 

 and tasteless. Some, otherwise excellent, have the muscular 

 area, which constitutes the chief edible part of the fish, filled 

 with small bones. 



Relative Rank of Food-fishes. The writer has tested most 

 of the noted food-fishes of the Northern Hemisphere. When 



FIG. 194. Eulachon, or Ulchen. Thaleichthys pretiosus Girard. Columbia River. 

 Family Argentinidce. 



properly cooked (for he is no judge of raw fish) he would place 

 first in the ranks as a food-fish the eulachon, or candle-fish 

 (Thaleichthys pacificus). 



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