THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 133 



E. — Methods and routine of fishery. 



The necessary limitations of space in the present essay require me to 

 defer the consideration of this subject to another occasion, especially as 

 it will come naturally within the investigations of the forthcoming cen- 

 sus of 1880. 



F. — Preservation of fish and bait. 



The subject of the preservation of the products of the fisheries is one 

 of very great importance, and is receiving more and more attention 

 every day. In the earlier period of the American Kepublic the abund- 

 ance of animal life in the waters was so great that there was little dif- 

 ficulty in taking the needed supply of food whenever it was wanted, 

 rendering the question of its preservation comparatively unimportant. 

 Of course, the methods of salting and drying were in vogue, but the 

 long-continued preservation of fish in a fresh state was of comparatively 

 little consequence. The circumstances have changed very greatly in 

 this respect. The abundance offish, &c, has diminished to a greater 

 or less extent, while the population of the country has increased enor- 

 mously. The demand for fresh fish, too, has increased more than in pro- 

 portion to the' increase of population. The great extension of the sys- 

 tem of communication with the seaports, both by steamboats and rail- 

 roads, has been such as to render it practicable to carry the products of 

 the sea fresh to a great distance. The same methods are available both 

 for keeping bait for use in the fisheries as are employed in keeping the 

 products of the fisheries themselves, and it will therefore not be neces- 

 sary to discriminate between them. 



We may consider this subject of preservation under several heads : 

 (1) As fresh, without any special treatment ; (2) as fresh, by means of 

 ice ; (3) by drying ; (4) by salting or the addition of some chemical sub- 

 stance; (5) by smoking ; (0) that of immersion in alcohol or some saline 

 substance, for scientific purposes, which properly does not enter into 

 the plan of this paper. 



Fish may, of course, be preserved for a greater or less time for pur- 

 poses of food or bait without any treatment whatever, this depending 

 upon the amount of moisture in the atmosphere and the temperature. In 

 the colder seasons of the year of any locality an object of this character 

 can be kept for many days, especially if the entrails are removed, the 

 adherent blood washed from the inside, and the inside surface allowed to 

 dry in some way. In warmer latitudes and periods, however, the flesh 

 corrupts rapidly. The difficulty is that in the tropical or sub- tropical 

 latitudes a fish will acquire a taint of corruption or decomposition 

 within a very short time after the capture, so that even before the 

 boat's load can be landed and subjected to the treatment of salt, or 

 otherwise, it will have passed beyond the stage when this can be applied 

 with any success. 



