90 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Against this result I shall venture to make some objections, because I 

 will point out the weakness of the conclusions which have been advanced. 



They have, in the first place, so far as I can judge, confined themselves 

 to England as a market and to cod as an article of exx^ort. Just as I, on 

 the one hand, regard this limitation of the matter as inadequate, so, on 

 the other hand, I consider the views which have put themselves forward 

 in this region; and I may say, further, that the question being limited 

 thus, the answer must be what it is, namely, that for the present the 

 attempt to send cod in ice to Englaiid should be discouraged. That this 

 should be the answer arises simply from the fact that the English imj)ort- 

 ers of fish desire living cod. With it the afi'air is decided. Closer inves- 

 tigation as to what kinds of cod are most esteemed in the Englisli market 

 might, therefore, at present seem superfluous. And to institute calcu- 

 lations as to how great expenses will attend the carrying of fresh dead 

 cod in ice from Lofoten or Kristianssund to Hull or London may be un- 

 necessary. However, the subject may acquire interest later on, and 

 therefore I shall not retain certain information comnmnicated to me on 

 the prices of cod in England : 



Living North Sea and Iceland cod are sold for $19.11 to $27.30 ])er score. 

 Ekero cod, wet-salted, " '' " .98 " 1.17 " " 



Lofoten cod, " " " " " .79 " .98 " " 



The j^orway-coast cod, as well as the Lofoten, are thus seen to rate at 

 very low j^rices ; yes, lower than one as a rule can secure in the fishing- 

 places in Norway itself. Cod in ice command only one-fourth to one- 

 sixth as much as cod in the living state, and are said, under the present 

 management, to have great difficulties to overcome. These difficulties 

 consist chiefly iia this, that the wholesale fish-dealers in England (the 

 whole of England's and Scotland's trade in fresh fish is in the hands of 

 ten to twelve wholesale dealers) antagonize the importation of all other 

 fresh fish than those which they themselves get. They have their own 

 vessels with wells for keeping living fish, and every attempt to compete 

 with them in this or in the traffic generally they contend against so reck- 

 lessly that a fresh attempt hardly occurs.* One may even in Norway 

 have a little experience of this. But should the opposition from the 

 wholesale dealers themselves be relinquished, yet will the fact that the 

 cod is a kind of fish which easily loses its fresh taste in fi'eezing, always 

 render competition with the Englishmen's own living cod the more diffi- 

 cult. After all, one will naturally prefer the living cod. 



Of halibut, salmon, and mackerel — three kinds of fishes which are well 

 adapted for sending in iho, frozen or iced condition — there have gone, on 

 the contrary, for many years, a not inconsiderable quantity from Norway 



* When the Americans began to export to England fresh meat in ice the English 

 butchers raised a strong opposition, and only after sundry conflicts, which cost much 

 money, the Americans, with the aid of the press and the ])eople, won admission. How- 

 ever, a time was selected when a single English butcher, in order to spite the Amer- 

 icans and their meat, called all his worst meat "American," and solii it cheap. 



