310 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



phorous and lime, which, with their bodies, rich in nitrogen, worked up as fish flour, 

 make excellent agricultural manure, r Their dried skins can be manufactured into 

 leather for special purposes, or else be used to polish wood and ivory. An excessive 

 increase of predatory sea fishes might practically extinguish the marine food-fishes. 

 Then the predatory sea fish would be forced to devour their own eggs and young. 

 Especially when pushed for food, fish are cannibals. 



DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH FISHERIES DEMANDED. 



The coast and inland fisheries of Ireland should be properly developed by parlia- 

 mentary grants and assistance. Ireland has a seacoast of 2,337 miles, and inland 

 waters covering 574,887 acres, which supply chiefly a few salmon and eels. Neverthe- 

 less Ireland, for home consumption, actually largely import* cured fish. Where Irish 

 railways exist, their stations are generally distant from the harbors; the result is, 

 much fish is spoiled, and the cost of distribution of that which is saved is much 

 enhanced. Besides refrigerator stores on shore, Ireland requires dry-air refrigerator 

 steamers for its export fish trade, and refrigerator barges and insulated covered barges 

 for its inland navigable waters. 



Probably no better ground exists for the artificial propagation and rearing of 

 lobsters for commercial purposes than the west and rocky coasts of Ireland. Oyster 

 farming, such as is successfully carried on in Holland, Prance, and the United States 

 of America, might also be attempted, by introducing young oysters into ponds and 

 inclosed areas of water in salt-marshy districts bordering on the seacoast, where the 

 transplanted oysters can be bred and reared for market purposes. 



The pike, bleak, tench, and bastard carp thrive marvelously well, in number and 

 size, in peat waters. This is a further source of wealth, industry, and food for Ireland, 

 whose almost universal peat-moss litter makes excellent packing for dry-air-frozen 

 fish. 



The inland fisheries of Ireland at a trifling primary outlay should be made sources 

 of national wealth and industry. Many of the Irish inland waters would answer 

 admirably for breeding the sole, the female often supplying from 100,000 to 200,000 

 eggs at a time. The sole is justly considered the most digestible and palatable fish, 

 and its flavor seems almost always acceptable. Unlike salmon, mackerel, whiting, 

 eel, trout, cod, and other fish, including the herring, the palate even of the fastidious 

 invalid does not get tired of the sole, which has also the merit of being cooked 

 quickly and easily. I believe that, unless the sole is extensively artificially cultivated, 

 within a comparatively short period it will become, as a food-fish, extinct. For reasons 

 hitherto undiscovered, its already limited geographical area of natural production is 

 gradually decreasing. In the battle of life and struggle for existence the sole will 

 slowly but surely die out unless largely reared and farmed by man. 



By gradual acclimatization sea fish can thrive and breed in fresh water if by 

 degrees the proportions of saline matter be reduced to those of fresh water. Artifi- 

 cially cultivated in Irish inland fresh waters, soles, bled prior to the clotting of their 

 blood, gutted, well-washed in fresh flowing water, and then immediately hard-frozen 

 in dry cold air, could be profitably exported in colossal quantities to England, Europe, 

 America, and elsewhere. Probably the American sturgeon would thrive in Irish 

 iuland waters. The American shad and alewife, both large herrings, which leave the 

 sea to spawn in fresh water, should be experimentally introduced into Ireland. 



