338 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



2. Proper climatic conditions must exist also. The proverbial hardi- 

 hood of tishermen has its limits. Elsewhere weather and storm have 

 compelled the abandoument of banks which promised to be profitable. 

 On a portiini of this coast there can be no such rigours. South of 

 Alaska and the Aleutians, and also in Bristol Bay, immediately to the 

 north of Alaska, the fishing grounds will compare in tem]»erature with 



those of Newfoundland or Norway. It is more important to 

 87 know if the fish when taken can be properly cured. This is one 



of the ])rivileges of northern skies. Within the Tro]»ics fish 

 may be taken in abundance, but the constant sun does not allow their 

 preservation. The constant rains of Sitka, with only a few bright 

 days in the year, must prevent the work of curing on any considerable 

 scale. But the navigators make frequent mention of dry or preserved 

 fish on the coast, and it is understood that fish are now cured at 

 Kodiak. It had for a long time been customary on this island to dry 

 seal flesh in the air, which could not be done on the mainland. Thus, 

 the oi)portunity of curing the fish seems to exist near the very banks 

 where they are taken. But the California fishermen carry their fish 

 home to be cured, in which they imitate the fishermen of Cxloucester. 

 As the yearly fishing product of this port is larger than that of any 

 other in North America, perhaps in the world, this example cannot be 

 without Aveight. 



3. The market also is of prime necessity. Fish are not caught and 

 cured except for a market. Besides the extended coast, where an imme- 

 diate demand must always prevail in proportion to an increasing popu- 

 lation, there is an existing market in California, which is attested by 

 long voyages to Kamtchatka for fish and by recent attempts to find fish- 

 ing grounds. San Francisco at one time took from Okhotsk 000 tons of 

 fish, being about one-eighth of the yearly fishing product of Gloucester. 

 Her fishing-vessels last year brought home from the Shumagin banks 

 1,500 tons of dried fish and 10,000 gallons of cod-liver oil. There is also 

 a growing market iu Washington and Oregon, too, unless I am misin- 

 formed. But beyond a domestic market, spreading from the coast into 

 the interior, there will be a foreign market of no limited amount. Mex- 

 ico, Central America, and the States of South America, all Catholic in 

 religion, will require this subsistence, and being southern in climate 

 they nuist look northward for a supply. The two best customers of our 

 Atlantic fisheries are Haiti and Cuba, two Catholic countries under a 

 southern sun. The fishermen of Massachusetts begau at an early day 

 to send their cod to Portugal, Spain, and Italy, all Catholic countries 

 under a southern sun. Our "salt" fish became popular. The Portu- 

 guese Minister at Loudon in 1784, in a conference with Mr. Adams on a 

 Commercial Treaty with the United States, mentioned '' salt fish" among 

 the objects most needed in his country, and added, "the consumption 

 of this article in Portugal is immense, and he would avow that the 

 American salt fish was preferred to any other on account of its quality." 

 (John Adams' "Writings," vol. viii, p. 3o0.) Such facts aue more than 

 curious. 



But more important than the Pacific States of the American Conti- 

 nent are the great Em])ire8 of Japan and China, with uncounted popu- 

 lations dei)ending nuich on fisli. In China one tenth subsist on fish. 

 Notwithstaudiiig tlie considerable sui)plies at home, it does not seem 

 im]K)ssible for an energetic and commercial people to find a nuirlcet here 

 of inconceivable magnitude, which will dwarf that original fur trade 

 with China that was once so tempting. 



