318 REPORT OF COMMIS.SIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



per cent. The higiiest percentage whicli, to my knowledge, line fat but 

 small summer cod have yielded, has been 4LM per cent, and often it huK 

 been less. On the south and west coasts of Iceland the spawning season 

 is generally the first half of April, and during the principal fishing sea- 

 son (from March 1 to May 14) the fish will be of inierior (puility for 

 fully a month. It should be remembered also that the seaco«l which 

 come near the coast vary greatly in (jualiry, the dilference as regards 

 fatness often amounting to 53 per cent or more. The average weight of 

 the sea-cod in the Faxe 15ay is such that from 120 to 100 fish make a 

 slcippund (I skijjpund = 100 kilograms = ."351' i)Ounds). 



The Norwegian TidsslriJ't (1884, p. I'M) states that 100 kilograms of 

 fresh fish yield in Scotland .'iO.."] kilograms of klip-fish; in Norway, S'A.'A 

 kilograms; in Newfoundland, .')(). t kilograms. On the strength of this 

 statement I venture to express the suj)position — while believing that 

 this statement itself is also nu>re or less only a supposition — that the 

 average yield of kli[) lish in Iceland is about 'Mj\ .per cent of the fresh 

 fish, therefore about the same as in Newfoundland. 



In the above-mentioned article in the Norwegian Tidsslrift an analy- 

 sis is given of the klii) fish of difi'erent countries, among the rest of a 

 well-dried Iceland klip-fish which weighed 1.5 kilograms, and is stated 

 to have contained 5.4 per cent more water and 4.4 per cent more salt 

 than a Norwegian fish. An analysis of one or two fish should be re- 

 ceived with great caution, all the more as the ({uality of the fish varies 

 greatly, and as the fish have often been in salt for a varying time. It 

 must certainly be supposed that the fish which underwent this analysis 

 had been in salt two or three months. The analysis of the Noi'wegian 

 fish, moreover, was nuule in the jilace where it had been cured, while 

 the Icehind fish had been shii)ped from lcelan<l to Norway. There is 

 likewise little doubt that in a cargo of fish shii)ped to Spain changes 

 take place which can be noticed ^'ery i)lainly, although we may not be 

 able to explain them until an analysis of the fish has been made both 

 at the place whence they are shijiped an<l at tlu^ i)oit where they are 

 landed. As Spain is the inincii»al market foi' Norwegian, French, Amer- 

 ican, and Icelandic fish, the analyses should be made there. In order 

 that these analyses may be productiNe of reliable lesults, they shonkl 

 extend to a number of different speciuu-ns, and be nmde under the same 

 ccuulitions. 



It is very difficult to state exactly the dilference between salted and 

 dried fish. Mr. Annaniassen states it to be one-third ; but 1 am inclined 

 to think that this is too low. l^^rom data which have been furnished 

 me I think that it is from 37 to 30 ]>er cent in sea-cod, and that it va- 

 ries greatly. Lieutenant Trolle's figures (in Fiskeritidende, 1884, i). 132) 

 are the lowest I have seen, namely, L\S.l» i)er cent; but juobably they 

 relate to thick and fat small codfish, lightly cured for immediate con- 

 sumption. 



As regards some of these <piestious it will be exceedinglv difficult to 



