82 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



posed of dried salmon. Neither dainty herring nor fat herring from l!^or- 

 way were served, nor Norwegian anchovies, although both Swedish and 

 French anchovies were. Perhaps the Norwegian specimens were spoiled 

 in the strong summer heat ; of this, however, I have no certain informa- 

 tion. If, notwithstanding this, a small market be found in America for 

 the Norwegian flsh-products here named, it will happen in this way, that 

 the strongly mixed population, especially in the Western States, con- 

 tains many families from countries in Europe where the Norwegian fish- 

 wares are current articles. These families become customers for the 

 Norwegian as well as for the corresponding American wares ; also as 

 supplies for different European ships' crews small lots of Norwegian 

 fish-products may find some sale. But, taken in tlie mass, the population 

 of North America will not become customers for Norwegian dried cod, 

 split cod, and pickled herring. 



This committee, conversant with the subject of fish-dishes, confirmed 

 me also in another assumption with regard to the Norwegian manufac- 

 turing. As before remarked, there were served both large and small 

 fish in oil — not fewer than seven dishes were in oil — among them Norwe- 

 gian and Portuguese mackerel, sardines (both Spanish and Portuguese), 

 eels, &c. In restaurants in the great cities in North America one will 

 scarcely find highly spiced herring or anchovies in the way that the 

 North-European taste demands them, but almost exclusively oil-pre- 

 pared articles. This, I assume, is due to a culinary principle, that it is 

 not desirable to serve up strong articles, with which jjarticularly should 

 be classed brandy and beer or ale, in a dry and warm climate. The 

 Americans have, in this point, appropriated the South-European taste 

 for oil-prepared articles without liquors. Naturally, here, also, excep- 

 tions are found, as before mentioned, concerning dried cod and split cod, 

 especially in the Western States ; in the communities strongly inter- 

 spersed with German, Scandinavian, and Irish in the West even highly- 

 spiced herring, sausage, and pickled meats are staple articles ; they 

 are served up as "free lunch" in eatiug-houses, because the strong 

 seasoning makes it necessary for the customer to drink beer to quench 

 the burning thirst which these articles produce and gradually augment. 



I have tried these things. They are, according to my taste, a very 

 disagreeable food, and the traflBic itself with this sort of "fi'ee lunch" is 

 ill-esteemed as an ugly, rumseller's specidation. 



The bill of fare, moreover, regarded from a culinary standpoint, has 

 interest in this, that prepared fish-roe, other than Russian caviar itself, 

 must be able to find a market, forasmuch as it was adopted to be served 

 up with this dinner. It is true, only the Turks and Chinese supplied 

 these delicacies, but for a manufacturer in Norway this might well be 

 almost a matter of indifference and no serious hinderance from imitation. 

 As for the rest, the Norwegian exhibitors, Bordewich & Co. and Stormer 

 (in Svolvser), had caviar, the first of cod-roe. These articles, however, 

 were not served ui^ with the dinner. For Norwegian manufactured fish- 



