AXDERSSKN, FISHERY EXHIBITIOX, riULADELrniA, IHTC. G3 



laud by railroad, selliug at from G to 8 cents per pound. Mackcrol and 

 also to some extent herrings are not treated in quite so summary a man- 

 ner. They arc prepared very much in the same way as with us, by being- 

 split and salted down in barrels which arc made by machinery and do 

 not look very solid. In order to keep better, the largest and fattest, 

 mackerel and herring which from August to November are caught ou 

 the coast of Labrador are cut open and their entrails are taken out. 

 The common herrings, resembling our spring herrings, which during the 

 spring and summer months are caught on the coasts of America and 

 Newfoundland, undergo a peculiar process by being salted in the holds 

 of the schooners, from which at the end of the trip they are taken to the 

 warehouses, where they are transferred to barrels and shipped inland at 

 a price of $3 per barrel. Such herrings are of course of an inferior 

 quality, and they cannot be used as with us, but must be soaked in fresh 

 water (or milk) and then either boiled or smoked. During the year 

 1876 several cargoes of salt herring of different size and quality 

 were shipped from America to Sweden. The herring-fi.sheries on the 

 coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland might be developed much more 

 than they are at present. But so far the herring has not been much 

 esteemed in America, and the herring-fisheries have consequently 1)eeu 

 somewhat neglected. 



That the shipping of herring from Norway to Montreal and Chicago 

 has paid, must be in part ascribed to the desire of the Scandinavian 

 emigrants to have this genuine Norwegian article of food, and in part 

 to the difference of quality between the Norwegian and American her- 

 ring, the former having a more delicate flavor than the larger Labrador 

 herring. 



The Americans also make use of their fisheries in numy ways un- 

 known to us. The finer portions of the halibut, of which large numbers 

 are caught on the banks and near the coast of Greenland, are prepared 

 and smoked like salmon and sold at a comparatively cheap price (8 to 

 12 cents per pound), whilst a number of other fish, e. g.^ the menhaden 

 {Brevoortia), and a sardel-like fish are used for making oil and guano. 

 (The Pacific Guano Company uses enormous quantities of fish for these 

 purposes.) Oil for medicinal purposes is, as far as I could ascertain, 

 not made in America. 



As I have mentioned before, great quantities of lobsters, oysters, and 

 clams are caught on the eastern coast of North America, are sold at a 

 cheap price, and therefore form a very common article of food, ])artly 

 raw (oysters and clams) and i^artly cooked, oyster and clam soup being 

 a very common, cheap, and delicious dish. Of late years many oysters 

 are put up in hermetically-sealed cans, and find a ready market, partly 

 for ships going out on long voyages and partly in Euroi>e. The Amer- 

 ican oyster has a somewhat different shape from ours, as well as from 

 the French and English oyster, being somewhat longer and more fleshy 

 than ours. In America oysters are not raised artificially, as in France 



