96 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [8] 
sible way, as thereby the chance of selling them in different markets 
will be largely increased. This is a very important consideration, as it 
is well known from former herring periods that the number of fish 
caught is limited by no other reason than that there is no ready market 
for them. Moreover, in such large fisheries it frequently happens that 
large masses of herring are brought on shore which cannot be consumed 
in a fresh condition, and which, from some cause or other, are not suited 
for salting or smoking. Such herring could possibly be sold if prepared 
in a different way—that is, steamed, and then passed through a machine 
which separates the firm en the ‘soft portions. From the latter oil, 
_artificial butter, glue, and from the former fish-flour, guano, &c., can 
be manufactured. During the last fishing period all that was done was 
to separate the fat by boiling the herring—all the rest of the fish was 
thrown away; and it is not long since a more improved method of pre- 
paring the ‘“menhaden” (a kind of herring found on the coasts of 
America) has been adopted in the northeastern part of America. Dur- 
ing those years, when the fisheries of the last herring period were at their 
height, 30,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil were produced every year (15 to 
20 large barrelsful of herring being required to make one barrel of oil). 
As a ready sale of fish, and of the products of the fisheries, is an 
essential condition for an increase in the number of fish caught, it will 
be necessary to extend the market for our herring. In this connection 
it should be remembered that an increase in the sale of fish will cause 
a greater development of the entire fish industry by making it possible 
to introduce improved methods, to use better materials, and inducing 
more persons to engage in this industry. The sale of our herring could 
be greatly increased if the government would take the proper steps for 
spreading a knowledge of the different methods of preparing herring, 
and of the herring trade in general; and would see to it that the salt- 
ing of herring is properly regulated and superintended. It would also 
prove a great benefit if the means of communication could be increased 
and improved, and especially a better connection be established between 
the outer coast and the railroad system of the interior; this being one 
of the most efficient means of developing deep-sea fisheries Widely 
different as are the opinions regarding the various methods of improving 
and developing the deep-sea fisheries, there is no difference, or rather 
there has been none for the last 20 or 30 years, as to the vast impor- 
tance of railroads to the sea fisheries. All the foreign fish commissions 
have, without exception, testified to the vast benefits accruing to the 
sea fisheries from the introduction of railroads, as it thereby becomes 
possible to carry fresh fish a very considerable distance, and as it tends 
to increase the material well-being of the entire coast population by 
building up all the industries, and by furthering the commercial inter- 
course of the coast with the rest of the country. 
The railroads have already proved a great benefit to the Bohus-lin 
herring fisheries by opening up new markets, and have at the same 
time enabled the greater portion of our poor throughout the country to 
