360 BULLETIN OF THE UMITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



125.— PROPOSITION TO PREPARE KING FISH BT SMOKING. 



By Capt. J. W. COLLINS. 



While at Key West I noticed that such of the kingfish as could not 

 be sold fresh were salted. The greater part of this salted fish is dried 

 in an unsystematic manner, and so prepared makes rather an indiffer- 

 ent article of food. It occurs to me that perhaps a very excellent article 

 of food may be obtained by smoking the kingfish, which I believe may 

 be found well adapted to this method of curing; if so, then an important 

 result will have been obtained. The fish are abundant, can be bought 

 for about 1 cent per pound, and consequently could be put on the market 

 at a very reasonable figure, while, if found practicable, such a method 

 of curing would in a large measure relieve the Key West fishermen from 

 too great a dependence on the Cuban markets, would probably tend to 

 enhance somewhat the price of fish, and would ultimately result in a 

 very important addition to the fleet and men engaged in catching lung- 

 fish. The best methods of utilizing the wealth of the seas around these 

 southern coasts seem to me a matter that deserves some attention. 



As a means of making a practical test of the kingfish, I suggest that 

 100 pounds be procured at Key West when the ship arrives there, and 

 brought to Washington, whence it could be sent somewhere to be 

 smoked. The opinion of a few practical men — fish dealers, catchers, 

 &c. — would then settle the question. 



Steamer Albatross, 



New Orleans, La., February 25, 1885. 



126.— THE HARVEST OF THE SEA. 



[From the Philadelphia Press, July 30, 1885.] 



If Mulhall's statistics are reliable, there are not far short of 150,000 

 vessels engaged in Europe and North America in fishing. Between 

 600,000 and 700,000 men are employed in this industry, and the total 

 annual product of fish is not far short of 1,500,000 tons. Few people 

 realize the full meaning of these latter figures. A ton of fish is equal 

 in weight to about 28 sheep, and hence, if Mulhall's estimate is approxi- 

 mately correct, a year's fish supply for ten European countries, included 

 in this estimate, and the United States and Canada, might be repre- 

 sented by 42,000,000 sheep. Of this amount the United Kingdom, 

 Canada, Russia, and the United States, alone, aggregate 1,000,000 tons, 

 equivalent to 28,000,000 sheep. 



It has been truly said that we talk in a metaphor of the "harvest of 

 the sea," but we have only lately been able to realize all that the meta- 

 phor means. The Fisheries Exhibition in London in 1883 did a great 

 deal to encourage the study of marine biology, and it is with no small 



