254 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
instituted various inquiries and experiments, and, among them, the question of the possi- 
ble utilization of the skin. The chief difficulty appears to be in getting the skin off, but 
when it was once taken off and tanned it makes a very satisfactory leather for use on 
sword hilts and pocketbooks. It is a very delicate and rough leather, not unlike lizard 
skin, so much in vogue for certain ornamental articles. 
In regard to the use of the dogfish as food, we have had some practical experience. 
We served the dogfish to the Biological Club, together with halibut, and students accus- 
tomed to make observations were unable to taste the difference, and claimed that it 
was equally good. 
On the other hand, the practical packers are up against a very grave difficulty. 
They put this dogfish in competition with salmon, and they found very great difficulty 
in getting an adequate supply of the dogfish. The supply was intermittent; they 
would get one day more than they could handle, and then the factory would be obliged 
to remain idle a week, a month, or perhaps longer. So that in utilizing the dogfish it 
seems to me that the question of a definite supply to the factories in whatever way they 
are utilized is the most important one. 
The Massachusetts Commission of Fisheries and Game has taken up the question 
of determining the valuable content of these fish. They are determining the amount of 
oil in the liver, in the flesh, and in the egg; how much glue there is in the skin and head 
and fins; whether the fins may not be utilized as they are in China and Japan for making 
a material for soup; whether the skins can not be utilized as leather, or some method 
devised by which they may be utilized more cheaply. In other words, we are trying 
to get a scientific basis by which the manufacturer can be in a better position to know 
exactly what he can do with the raw material, in order that we may say to the manu- 
facturer, ‘‘ Your process is deficient in this point or the other, and there is an opportu- 
nity for you to get better returns than you are securing at present.” We are also going 
to attempt the consideration of the question whether there may not be devised some bet- 
ter method of securing a permanent supply of these dogfish to the various factories 
where they may be utilized, and the possibility of running a vessel about among the 
fishing fleet, where the dogfish may be collected and brought to the factories. We have 
in Massachusetts a considerable number of factories and fertilizer works where fish 
scrap is made, and those factories may use it to a certain extent if we can find some way 
by which the fishermen can be induced to bring the fish in. At present there is a tre- 
mendous prejudice against the dogfish. They are an ugly fish to handle; are a difficult 
fish to get off the hook if you attempt to bring them into the boat, and the only suc- 
cessful method is to bring them onto the edge of the boat and slap them off. The 
factories in one section object to handling them, whereas in Canada they are able to get 
all the dogfish they can handle at times at $4 or $5 a ton, and it is a question whether 
the fishermen in Massachusetts, who deal in the fresh fish and run the largest possible 
quantity of fresh fish in the least possible time to the Boston market, would care to take 
it up from the same point of view that the Canadian fishermen do. 
There are a number of practical questions that we hope to have light on at a later 
time. 
Mr. Hatuaway. I will say a word on just one point that Doctor Field called to 
mind, in relation to anexperiment made by the Fisheries Commission, to which I made 
reference here on Tuesday and which was conducted under my observation. One of 
the steamers that had been used in menhaden fishing was rigged up with an ocean 
overdraft, for the purpose of experimenting and seeing how the seine would work. We 
took the steamer at Timothy, R. I., and began operations just before sunset off 10 miles 
to the south of Marthas Vineyard Island. We made one haul and caught some 20 or 
30 bushels of dogfish, a great variety of other fish, but none of any particular amount 
or value. We ran down the coast that night near to Shinnecock, Long Island, and 
began the next morning at daylight operating up toward Block Island. We cast a seine 
