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432 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



land. I found their livers poorer than any I had seen here at any tiino 

 before. I bought 200 barrels of livers, from which I got only about 50 

 barrels of oil, thus requiring 4 barrels of livers for one of oil. Since 

 that time there have been very few cod taken here. They have been 

 very scarce and their livers have been very poor, requiring from 4 to (5 

 barrels to furnish a barrel of oil. Last winter a few fish came in having 

 better livers, which required only about 3 to 3i barrels of livers for a 

 barrel of oil. We think the prospect looks better, and we hope when 

 they come again they will be equal to any former year. 



I am at a loss to account for this state of things. It may have been 

 caused by the scarcity of food in the locality where they spent their 

 time when away from us. 



Provincetown, Mass., April 21, 1883. 



90.— A NEW PROCESS OF IH!\I\(. FISH. 



[From the Cape Ann Advertiser, about February 25, 18S3. ] 



On Tuesday we visited the establishment of Mr. R. S. Jennings,* at 

 Vincent's Point, in the building formerly occupied by the Cape Ann 

 Anchor Works, where this gentleman has put into practical operation 

 his process for the artificial drying of fish. He has two apartments 

 fitted up with flakes, the floors of which are partially open to allow the 

 air to circulate. By means of fans, which are operated by steam power, 

 the moisture is removed from the air and applied to the fish to be dried, 

 drying them in a few hours in a perfectly satisfactory manner. By the 

 use of the process, fish-making may be as rapidly and cheaply effected in 

 wet as in dry weather, and in dog-days as in October, and the work may 

 be continued night and day. Fish may be taken from the pickle in the 

 moruing of the worst drying day in the year, and dried and shipped be- 

 fore noon, if desired. The fish are perfectly faced, and are whiter and 

 brighter than can be produced on out-door flakes. They are necessa- 

 rily cleaner, being entirely free from dust, sand, and dirt, and no practical 

 fish maker need be told that the weight of the fish when dried is in 

 favor of the process, as it is a well-known fact that the quicker a fish is 

 dried the less it shrinks in weight. We feel assured that this process 

 will soon come into general use, thereby making available for other pur- 

 poses the land now used for fish flakes, and preventing the annoyance 

 and losses now experienced in curing fish during certain seasons of the 

 year. The most searching investigation of the practicability of this 

 process is invited. The expense is warranted to be less per quintal 

 than it costs to dry them out of doors in the best drying weather. 



*A copy of Mr. Jennings' claim filed in the Patent Office will be found on page 336 

 of this volume. — C. W. S. 



