54 KEPOKT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



all the above-mentioned exhibits, and all my observations led me to tlie 

 decided conclusion tliat America stands very bigb as regards its salt- 

 water and fresh- water fisheries ; as high as in many other branches of 

 industry. This will become clearer from the following description of — 



11. 

 THE FISHEEIES OF Is^ORTH AMEEICA. 



Besides the observations made by me at the exhibition, I had another 

 opportunity of gaining further knowledge of this subject by a journey 

 to New York, Long Island, Boston, and Gloucester, which I made in 

 company with Mr. F. Wallem. 



I shall first speak of the fish marlcets. Of these, the Fulton Market, 

 in New York, is the largest and best arranged. It consists of a series of 

 large connected buildings, situated partly along the East Elver and 

 partly along some of the streets of New York, and contains convenient 

 places for wholesale and retail fish-dealers, for offices, and packing ; also 

 a library and reading-room, as well as kitchen and restaurants. At the 

 exhibition, and later in his establishment in Fulton Market, I made the 

 acquaintance of one of the great fish-princes, Mr. Eugene Blackford, 

 whose magnificent and well-arranged establishment contains numberless 

 live fish, and fresh fish on ice of every kind, and, as a specialty, soft 

 crabs, which in New York are considered a delicacy diuiug the period 

 when they change their shell, and are therefore eaten in enormous 

 quantities, shell and all, both boiled and broiled, lobsters and green 

 turtles, which are brought weekly from the West Indies, and are from 

 New York sent to other cities, and frogs. I suppose that Mr. Black- 

 ford is the only one of these fish-dealers who himself supplies his market 

 with live and fresh fish. For this purpose he keeps a little steamer, fur- 

 nished with a purse-seine, which twice a week makes trips between the 

 mainland and Long Island, and generally returns with a considerable 

 quantity of fish. Nearly all the fish-dealers have their own fishing- 

 schooners, or have at least an interest in one. Whenever there is no 

 sale for fresh fish, or the prices are very low, the fish are placed in large 

 and well-arranged ice-cellars, where they freeze, and are kept till they 

 can be sold to greater advantage. Although the sales were quite good 

 at the time I visited New York, I nevertheless found in Mr. Blackford's 

 ice-cellar a large quantity of frozen fish, especiallj" large salmon, which 

 had fallen a few cents in price. Whilst in the street the temperature 

 was lOS*^ Fahrenheit, it was 40° in the cellar, which made it necessary 

 to put on warm woolen clothing before descending into it. 



This large fish-market supplies Philadelphia and many other cities 

 with fresh fish or fish on ice nearly all the year round. The kinds of 

 fish which are most common are: Codfish, flounders, mackerel, salmon, 

 brook-trout {SalmofontinaUs), bass {Perca atraria, Lahrax Uneatus), blue- 

 fish [Scomber saltator), shad {Alosa or Clnpca sapidissima), turbot,pompano 



