AQUATIC rRODUCTS IN ARTS AND INDUSTRIES. 239 



can be i^rofitably imported into this country, and on that account the 

 imports fluctuate largely from year to year. The United States 

 markets will receive it at 3 to 5 cents less per gallon than menhaden 

 oil, but it can not be exported to this country with profit when the 

 menhaden market is less than 2(3 cents per gallon, since the freights, 

 insurance, import duties, brokerage, etc. , would leave very little for 

 the exporter. In 1885 the imports into this country amounted to 

 101,2(55 gallons, valued at $24,832; in 1886, 5,01(3 gallons, valued at 

 $786; then they were insignificant until 1893, when 191,852 gallons, 

 worth $30,746, were received. In 1894 the imports were 156,456 gal- 

 lons, worth $24,656, Some very choice specimens of refined oil have 

 been received from Japan for exhibition purposes, thus demonstrating 

 what the factories there are capable of producing, but some of the 

 product sent here for consumption could be improved upon. 



OIL FROM WASTE FISH. 



In addition to menhaden and heri'ing, several species of fishes not 

 suitable or available for food are used in oil-production. The use of 

 sea-robin, skates, and bellows-fish taken with menhaden is noted in 

 the account of the menhaden industry. Of these species, the sea- 

 robin is the most desirable for this purpose, yielding about 8 gallons 

 of oil to the ton of fish. Skates and bellows- fish yield comparatively 

 little oil, amounting sometimes to less than 1 gallon to the ton. This 

 is combined with the menhaden oil, no noteworthy difference being 

 apparent. These fish are purchased by the menhaden factorymen at 

 50 to 75 cents per thousand, but it would not pay to handle them were 

 it not for the fertilizer into which the solid tissue is converted after 

 the extraction of the oil. The oil of the sun-fisli {Mola) is used by 

 some fishermen for the cure of rheumatism. 



On the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia, and to a less extent 

 in Washington and Oregon, there is secured a fish closely allied to the 

 smelt and capelin of the Atlantic coast, which is of considerable 

 value owing to its oil-yielding properties. This is the eulachon or 

 oulahon {Thaleichthys pacific us), called also the " candle-fish," for 

 the reason that the natives use it as a candle in their dwellings, it 

 being capable of ignition and burning with good illuminating quali- 

 ties. For many years, according to Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, an excel- 

 lent qualitj^of oil has been made from it by the Indians both for their 

 own use and for trade with the whites. The weather-test of this oil is 

 very high, and at ordinary temperature it is opaque and butyraceous; 

 indeed, among the Indians it supplies the place of butter. 



According to Dr. A. B. Lyons, of Detroit, eulachon oil contains 

 "about 20 per cent of palmitic and stearic acids, 60 per cent of oleic 

 acid, 13 per cent of an unsaponified substance, which is the most 

 peculiar and interesting thing about it. This substance is of an oily 

 consistency at ordinary temperature in summer, has much lower spe- 



