REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES 159 



ice, canned, or packed in barrels or small packages as pickled lish, would prove to be 

 of great commercial importance. 



[]> on, Dupuy & Co., wholesale salt-fish dealers, Boston]. 



In regard to tbo value of whiting, wo would say that our business with fish being 

 confined entirely to the export trade to the West Indies, we can best give you our 

 idea of the whiting as regards its value for shipping to such tropical and semi- 

 tropical countries. The lish fit to ship to such countries must be able to withstand 

 a certain amount of hot weather, and we consider the whitiug as being too soft to 

 successfully do this, and much inferior to codfish in this respect. We consider that 

 codfish would be so much preferred that no difference in price would cause whiting 

 to be used in our trade. The meat of the whiting is so soft, watery, and tender that 

 the skin can not be removed, and they are therefore useless as boneless tish. On 

 account of these qualities people do not like the lish and will not buy them and dealers 

 will not haudle them. Therefore, their food value as compared with cod, haddock, 

 etc., is not so great, especially as the latter are caught in sufficient quantities. 



[Capt. Atkins Hughes, weir fisherman, North Truro, Mass.] 



As a food-fish, fresh, there is no ground fish that is better, in my opinion. As the 

 weir men give them to anyone who comes for them, there are a good many eaten in 

 this place and Provincetown. At some places on the Massachusetts coast, the fish- 

 dealers protested so much against this practice of the weir men. on the ground that 

 it injured their business, that the fishermen had to abandon their generosity. I 

 mention this to show that the whiting are good fish and would bo more generally used 

 if the common people could get them. Their keeping qualities fresh are as good 

 as any fish we ship away in ice. In 1893 not more than 200 or 300 barrels of whiting 

 were utilized in the Cape Cod region, about 100 barrels being salted at Provincetown 

 and the remainder shipped to the New York market. A good many whiting are now 

 taken to Boston and sold to peddlers, but the regular dealers do not handle them. 



[James <;. Tarr & Bro., wholesale fish-dealers, Gloucester.] 



We are able to state from practical experience that the whiting is only fit for use 

 fresh or pickled for immediate consumption. We split and salted 3,000 pounds in 

 1891, carried them in salt pickle three months, and found upon examination they had 

 shrunk in weight nearly one-half, and were turned a yellowish straw color on then- 

 laces. We soaked, dried, and smoked the lot, and when cured they were worthless, 

 being like cardboard, dry and shriveled up, worthless for food. In cans they do a 

 little better, but there is so much water in the fish that contents of cans get mushy, 

 and we do not consider it profitable to use them. 



[H. E. Woodward & Co., wholesale fish-dealers, Bosfou.] 



The silver hake or whiting in our judgment can only be used when split and salted 

 exactly as hake are. In lihat state could be exported same as hake, and might also 

 be dressed for cheap boneless lish. We think of no other way of utilizing it. 



THE FRESH-WATER PEARL FISHERIES. 



In December, 1893, negotiations were opened with Mr. George F. 

 Kunz, the well-known gem expert, with a view to have him make a 

 thorough investigation of the fresh-water pearl fisheries of the United 

 States and prepare a report on the subject for the Com mission. 



While the taking of fresh-water pearls is not a branch of the fish- 

 eries which possesses great importance because of the number of per- 

 sons finding employment or the capital invested therein, the, industry 

 possesses much interest and the value of the output is in the aggregate 

 large. The absence of even an approximately complete account of the 



