P] REVIEW OF ANNaNIASSEn's VOYAGE TO ICELAND. 319 



^21 """a ^'"^^^^^V'^^"'^« ^^l'-'' -'^> ^^-0 u« a basis i«r AUure cal- 

 caLit.ous As regards u.y stat^nu-nts ] n.ust say that they are based 

 principal y on the observations of other people, and that I had To 

 means of ascertaining the special conditions under whu-h they were 

 h,ken. iHit considering the knowledge that I possess of the Iceland 

 h.henes, I presume that they are tolerably reliable, and may under the 

 circumstances deserve as much consideration as statistical data in gen- 



./: After the fish have been dried they are either kept in a pile under 

 very l.ght^pressure, or if there is a large quantity they are placed in the 

 I.ouse. If they are moist they should be laid for a short time in the 

 sunshine before they are shipped. 



I'. The sounds or air-bladders of small lish are not used, because 

 tl.cy have no value; but the sounds of the large codfish can always be 

 used, am when properly dried they bring from 24 to 27 cents a pound 

 Ihe usual treatment of the sound is not as stated by Mr. A • but they 

 are washed as soon as jmssible, cleansed from blood and all impurities 

 and are then spread out on the outside of the drying-shed where there' 

 N a good draft, or on stone fences, but so that they are not either in 

 « H' ram or the sunshine. After they have become so stiff that they 

 ^tuy apart, they are drawn on strings and dried in the wind. The lee- 

 land hshermen do .not salt the sounds, nor should they be salted If 

 they cannot be dried immediately a little salt is sprinkled on them 

 they are soaked as soon as possible, and then dried in the usual man- 



thc> tie.i ted m the manner described by Mr. A., and by this process a 

 serviceable article is obtained, but by no means so good a one as when 

 they are treated in the proper manner. To avoid the necessity (.f 

 sprmkhng the sounds with salt is a problem of great importance, and 

 lam of the opinion that at the larger fishing stations and even on board 

 the vessels suitable drying-ovens could be employed so as to obtain a 



Ir^ted' ' '"''' ''" ^^'"^ '""""^^ '''" '''^''''^'' ^''' ''^'''' ^''''^'''^y 



j. Those fish (hat are shipped to Spain are very can-fuiiv sorted over 

 again. I do not know whether haddock are sent to Spain' or not. The 

 taiger j)orHon is sent to Great Britain or Denmark 



'". Mr. Annaniasseu grants that the Iceland lish are fatter and 

 tueker than the Norwegian fish ; but he states that the liver of the 

 iceh.mlhsh ,s lean and does not contain much oil. Both in Iceland 

 and in ^orway the conditions under which the ccmI obtains its food 

 ^al;^ greatly. Those fish which come to the banks from the ocean are 

 ^^enera y very fat, but in some years they are lean. Their liver is 

 generally of fine quality and contains as much oil as the liver of anv 

 codfish, furnishing excellent medicinal oil. Genuine fat summer codfish 

 also have good livers. It is doubtful that haddock, as a rule,have lar.^er 

 livers than codfish, though this may be the case with manv individual 



