15 



Mr. Alward (Grimsby) said it had given him great 

 pleasure to listen to this Paper, and wished it was prac- 

 ticable to carry out the proposed scheme ; but, as a 

 practical fisherman, he did not think it was — to any great 

 extent, that is to say — applicable to the North Sea 

 trawl fisheries generally, from which the greatest supply 

 was received. Several attempts had been made with a 

 view of preserving fish in that branch of the fishing in- 

 dustry, but they had all failed. As they had heard, there 

 was a difiiculty when dealing with fish in bulk. The cold 

 would cither not penetrate through the bulk of the fish at 

 all, or not to a sufficient extent to destroy the chemical 

 action which was going on. But if the fish had to be 

 separated one from the other, he was afraid it could never 

 be brought into practical use to a large extent. With very 

 elaborate contrivances, such as were found in ships fitted 

 up for the purpose of bringing meat from distant parts of 

 the globe, it might be practicable to preserve animal sub- 

 stances ; but to apply it to the fisheries of this country 

 was a very difficult question, unless some new discoveries 

 were made, or the present system was much improved 

 upon. He had salmon in a complete state of preservation, 

 but there the conditions were more favourable, and salmon 

 was a solid fish, very different from the majority of that 

 which was caught in the North Sea, which consisted of a 

 great deal of water, which could not be extracted without 

 destroying the fish. They had been trying to substitute 

 refrigerating apparatus for the ordinary method of pre- 

 serving in ice, which was now carried out to a large extent ; 

 but he feared, until some further improvements were made, 

 they would have to be content with the present system. 

 He quite endorsed what Mr. Kilbourn said about cleanli- 

 ness and the lining of boxes and houses, where fish were 



