PACIFIC COD FISHERIES 



447 



kilns are used chiefly in the drying of export fish. During foggy 

 and damp weather and in winter when sunlight is rare they are 

 used frequently. 



After the fish have been dried they are carted to the storeroom 

 and kenched until packed for shipment. 



If the fish are to be boned and skinned they are taken to a separate 

 room. Here the operator first cuts off the dorsal and ventral fins, 

 then starts the skin at the napes and pulls it in toward the middle of 

 the back and then toward the tail. If the fish has been cured prop- 

 erly the skin can be stripped off clean without tearing the flesh. 

 The tail is then cut off, after which the fish is turned over and the 

 nape bones removed with a small iron gaff called a " bone hooker." 



Fir,. 1(1 — Making cod bricks 



The remaining portion of the backbone is cut out and the pectoral 

 fins cut off. If it is to be put up as " absolutely boneless " the fish 

 is passed to the bone pickers, who remove with forceps the ribs and 

 any pieces of bone left in the body. If the fish are to be packed 

 as so-called " boneless," then the fins only are cut off and the thick 

 part of the backbone cut out closely, the small pieces of the fins, 

 ribs, and backbone being allowed to remain. 



The United States Department of Agriculture, in " Service and 

 Regulatory Announcements No. 24," issued January 9, 1920, rules 

 as follows in the matter of labeling codfish from which part or 

 all of the bones have been removed, and it behooves all packers of 

 codfish to study this closely : 



Some manufacturers are placing on the market packages of codfish labeled 

 as " boneless " from which only a few of the larger bones have been removed. 



18163—27 5 



