THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. Loo 
E.—METHODS AND ROUTINE OF FISHERY. 
The necessary limitations of space in the present essay require me to 
defer the consideration of this subject to another occasion, especially as 
it will come naturally within the investigations of the forthcoming cen- 
sus of 1880. 
F.— PRESERVATION OF FISH AND BAIT. 
The subject of the preservation of the products of the fisheries is one 
of very great importance, and is receiving more and more attention 
every day. In the earlier period of the American Republic the abund- 
ance of apimal life in the waters was so great that there was little dif- 
ficulty in taking the needed supply of food whenever it was wanted, 
rendering the question of its preservation comparatively unimportant. 
Of course, the methods of salting and drying were in vogue, but the 
long-continued preservation of fish in a fresh state was of comparatively 
little consequence. The circumstances have changed very greatly in 
this respect. The abundance of fish, &c., has diminished to a greater 
or less extent, while the population of the country has increased enor- 
mously. The demand for fresh fish, too, has increased more than in pro- 
portion to the increase of population. The great extension of the sys- 
tem of communication with the seaports, both by steamboats and rail- 
roads, has been such as to render it practicable to carry the products of 
the sea fresh to a great distance. The same methods are available both 
for keeping bait for use in the fisheries as are employed in keeping the 
products of the fisheries themselves, and it will therefore not be neces- 
sary to discriminate between them. 
We may consider this subject of preservation under several heads : 
(1) As fresh, without any special treatment; (2) as fresh, by means of 
ice; (3) by drying ; (4) by salting or the addition of some chemical sub- 
stance; (5) by smoking ; (6) that of immersion in alcohol or some saline 
substance, for scientific purposes, which properly does not enter into 
the plan of this paper. 
Fish may, of course, be preserved for a greater or less time for pur- 
poses of food or bait without any treatment whatever, this depending 
upon the amount of moisture in the atmosphere and the temperature. In 
the colder seasons of the year of any locality an object of this character 
can be kept for many days, especially if the entrails are removed, the 
adherent blood washed from the inside, and the inside surface allowed to 
dry in some way. In warmer latitudes and periods, however, the flesh 
corrupts rapidly. The difficulty is that in the tropical or sub-tropical 
latitudes a fish will acquire a taint of corruption or decomposition 
within a very short time after the capture, so that even before the 
boat’s load can be landed and subjected to the treatment of salt, or 
otherwise, it will have passed beyond the stage when this can be applied 
with any success. 
