182 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Tlic yield of ivorj' in IJio form of walrus tusks, sperm-whale teelli, 

 etc., is small at present, auiountiiig to les^ than $25,000 annuall}-. 



Tlie principal industrial use for bones of aquatic animals is for 

 conversion into fertilizer. Several varieties of curious hones are used 

 for ornamentation, hut their aggregate value is inconsiderahle. 



The sponge output of Florida approximates ^500,000 annuall^^, and 

 the value of the product throughout the world is probahly not far 

 from $5,000,000. 



The uses of seaweeds are numerous. They furnish thousands of 

 tons of fertilizer, many nutritious foods, and a variety of chemicals, 

 especiallj^ iodine and hromine. Other uses are in sizing fahrics, as a 

 mordant in dyeing, in refining heer, in making paper, fishing lines, 

 ropes, for stuffing ui^holstery, packing porcelain, etc. The Japanese 

 have heen especially adept in discovering uses for seaweeds. 



Glue-manufacture provides an outlet for the profitable use of much 

 waste in dressing dried codfish. This material was formerly dis- 

 carded as useless, but now tens of thousands dollars' woi"th of 

 choicest glue for j)ostage stamps, court-plaster, adhesive paper, labels, 

 envelopes, for mechanical purposes, and for sizing of straw goods 

 and textile fabrics, and likewise office and domestic mucilage are 

 manufactured from fish skins. The product is very much stronger 

 and more durable than glue made from the skins of mammals. 



Isinglass made from the sounds or swimming bladders of sturgeon, 

 hake, cod, squeteague, etc., is -used for clarifying fermented liquors, 

 the cellular construction forming a sort of net which carries down 

 floating particles. However, the use of this material has been much 

 reduced, owing to the numerous substitutes obtained fi-om domestic 

 animals. 



Commercial albumen nmy be made from the eggs of cod and other 

 species, but it has not yet heen extensively manufactured. 



The preparation of oils and fertilizers, to which the present report 

 is devoted, is intimately associated, especially in the case of tlie men- 

 liaden industry. The tissues remaining after the extraction of oil 

 from herring and other waste fish, from the blubber of seals, porpoise, 

 and the like, from the livers of cod and related species, the livers of 

 sharks, from the waste parts of fisli in dressing, etc., are commonly 

 prepared for fertilizing purposes, and the preparation of the two 

 materials is usually carried on in the same factory and in some 

 instances by the same workmen. For this reason it appears desirable 

 to combine in one pajier the account of the preparation of oils and 

 fertilizers from aquatic products. This paper, liowever, is divided into 

 two parts, one relating to the preparation, chai'acteristics, and uses 

 of fish oils, fats, and waxes, and tlie other to the utilization of aquatic 

 products as fertilizers. 



