506 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



chat country the venture was not successful. By 1888 fish were 

 frozen in large quantities at Astrakhan, Russia, and numerous ware- 

 houses were opened in various European cities for this trade. In 

 1894 artificially frozen steelhead salmon were first shipped from 

 Vancouver, British Columbia, to England. In the following year 

 close upon 6,000,000 pounds of salmon, halibut, and sturgeon were 

 frozen in British Columbia, and more than 1,000,000 pounds were 

 shipped to Europe, principally to Hamburg. In this same year, 

 Sir Charles Petrie began his importations of Loggie salmon into 

 England. 



By the beginning of the present century the fish-freezing industry 

 was well established, since which time it has expanded to a large 

 business, conducted in various parts of the world, reaching its high- 

 est development in the United States and Canada. Immense ware- 

 houses are now filled with frozen fish, large cargoes cross the ocean, 

 and highly elaborate and expensive machinery is built to furnish the 

 refrigeration. The art of freezing and transporting fish has been 

 refined by engineers, chemists, and practical men until it is now an 

 industry of which we may well be proud. 



In 1889 two Englishmen, Hesketh and Marcet, 11 patented the 

 process of freezing meat, fish, etc., which consists of immersing then: 

 in cold brine or inclosing them in hollow-walled cells, with cold brine 

 circulating in the walls. In the same year two other Englishmen — 

 Douglas and Donald 12 — patented the freezing of foods by inclosing 

 them in bags, immersing them in water, and freezing. Nothing came 

 of these inventions at the time, but the idea was revived later by 

 numerous inventors. It was upon the discovery several years ago 

 that rapid freezing produces frozen fish of much better quality, that 

 serious and widespread attention was given to these and similar 

 methods. Numerous patents have been issued and several of the 

 newer methods are in practical application. These will be considered 

 more fully later. 



STATISTICS OF FISH FROZEN IN THE UNITED STATES 



The amount of fish frozen annually in the United States comes 

 close upon 100,000,000 pounds. The year 1924 was the record year, 

 with 97,324,144 pounds frozen. In 1925 the total was 91,165,068 

 pounds. Of this amount 54.95 per cent were six varieties — ciscoes, 

 halibut, the salmons, lake trout, mackerel, and whiting. The 

 remainder is made up largely of squid, the pikes and pike perches, 

 shellfish, whitefish, and butterfish. Receipts at the warehouses 

 begin to exceed the withdrawals in May, and from then until Novem- 

 ber the holdings rapidly increase, particularly from July to November. 

 In November, 1925, 61,849,359 pounds were in storage. Withdrawals 

 exceed receipts from November to April. In the latter month in 

 1925 holdings had been reduced to 22,441,873 pounds from the hold- 

 ings in November, 1924, which were 70,405,786 pounds. When allow- 

 ance is made for the fish frozen during that period, amounting to 

 22,3Q9,214 pounds, there is shown a withdrawal of 70,273,127 pounds 

 in the five months from November 15, 1924, to April 15, 1925. In 

 1925, between April 15 and November 15, 70,686,243 pounds were 

 frozen and 31,278,757 pounds were withdrawn. The average hold- 



11 British patent 6117, Apr. 9, 1889. " British patent 20614, Dec. 23, 1889. 



