2 



REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



any other fish, when it can be procured. The Dominion mackerel fleet 

 buy it in quantity, and its value has been thought an important element 

 in framing treaties between our government and that of Great Britain. 

 As a food resource it is found to have great possibilities. Many hun- 

 dreds of barrels are sold, salted, in the West Indies, while thousands 

 of barrels are salted down every year for domestic use by families 

 living near the shore. In many sections the fresh fish are sold in the 

 market. Within five years has sprung up an important new industry, 

 which consists in packing these fish in oil, after the manner of sardines, 

 for home and foreign consumption. The discovery made by Mr. Good- 

 ale, that from these fish may be extracted, for the cost of carefully boil- 

 ing them, a substance possessing all the properties of Liebig's " extract 

 jof beef," opens up a vast field for future development. As a food for 

 domestic animals, in the shape of " fish meal," there seems also to be a 

 broad opening. As a source of oil the menhaden is more important than 

 any other marine animal : its annual yield usually exceeds that of 

 the whale (from American fisheries) by about 200,000 gallons, in 1874 

 not falling far short of ):he aggregate of all the whale, seal, and cod 

 oil made in America. The refuse of the oil-factories supplies a material 

 of much value for manures : as a base for nitrogen it enters largely into 

 the composition of most of the manufactured fertilizers. The amount 

 of " ammonia " derived from this source in 1875 was estimated to be 

 ^equivalent to that contained in 60,000,000 pounds of guano from Peru, 

 the gold value of which would not be far from $1,920,000. In 1876 the 

 yield of the menhaden fishery was more than twice that of any other 

 •carried on by the fishermen of the United States. In the value of its 

 l^roducts it was surpassed only by the cod and mackerel fisheries.* 

 lm;perfcct information regarding the species. 

 3, At the time of beginning the investigation, the results of which 

 are partially detailed in this memoir, comparatively little was known 

 about the menhaden. The species had been described or referred 

 to in most of the books on the ichthyology of K^orth America, and in 



* The following table of estimates shows in a general "way the relative values of the 

 hsheries in 1876 : 



Fisheries. 



Yield in 

 pouuds. 



Value. 



Menbaclen fishery 



Cod fishery 



Mackerel iishery 



Fisherif s of tho fjreat lakes (t?72) . 

 Salmon fishery of Columbia Ttiver. 



Halibut fishery 



Shad fishery ^estimate) 



Scnp fishery 



Bl-aefish fishery 



Swordfish fishery 



Bonito fishery 



Squeteaccno fishery 



Flounders fishery 



Herrinsi fishery (partly in British waters) 



Whale fishery 



Oyster fishery 



4C2, 000, COO 



215, 000, 000 



49, COO, 000 



32, 250, 000 



30, 000, 000 



22, 000, (;co 



20, 000, 000 



7, 7(10, 000 



7, 068, 000 



1, 500, 000 



2, 200, 000 

 1, goo, 000 

 1, 827, 000 



27, 933, 500 



657, 790 

 £25, 540 

 375, 262 



COO, 000 

 500, 000 

 516, 2'iO 

 OGO, 000 

 504, 400 

 424, COO 

 165, 000 

 143, COO 

 138, 200 

 109, 020 



507, 977 



2, 850, 000 



25, 000, 000 



