SEA MUSSELS AND DOGFISH AS FOOD. 257 
and very disagreeable in appearance. I have had that experience myself. It becomes 
the most nasty-looking stuff, covered with a brown, gelatinous substance; but I have 
found that if you keep the dogfish in a brine they will remain white for an indefinite 
period. I have some two years old in good condition. You can take them out of the 
brine and soak them for a few hours before cooking. If put on the market in brine they 
can be made a good food product, and persons can keep them at their homes a week or 
two before they will turn brown. 
The dogfish may be of economic value from the standpoint of the production of 
gelatine. There is a very high percentage of gelatine in the flesh of dogfish, and when 
extracted it comes out beautifully clear and white, and apparently needs no refinement, 
the only objection to it being that it has a fishy flavor. I think possibly Doctor Alsberg, 
the chemist at Woods Hole, will be able to tell us a great deal about this in a short time. 
Doctor Gi. That is quite right about the clams along this coast, south of Cape 
Cod. The common orhard clam is the Venus mercenaria, a representative of the family 
of venerids; the clam along the north coast, or soft clam, is the Mya arenaria, a species 
of the family of myids. 
B.B. F. 1908—17 
