134 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Of course, when fish are taken in cold weather and frozen they will 

 remain in good condition as long as the cold lasts ; * and the absence of 

 a definite continuance of this condition suggested the use of ice in some 

 form in the warmer season of the year. The simplest method of using 

 ice is, of course, to lay the fish on it, and thus keeping down the tem- 

 perature. The more common method of employing ice, however, is to 

 pound it up and arrange it in layers with the fish, one alternating with 

 the other until the given receptacle is filled. This, however, has the 

 very serious disadvantage in the quantity of moisture necessarily held 

 in contact with the fish, the ice melting very rapidly and the fish becom- 

 ing saturated with the resultant water, from which in time comes an 

 acidity or mustiness of the fish which is not at all palatable. In some 

 cases, indeed, fish will keep better by being immersed in water kept 

 cool by means of floating pieces of ice than when packed away in pounded 

 ice itself. Fish thus treated become unpalatable when kept some time 

 after removal from the ice. About two weeks represents the limit of 

 time daring which, under ordinary circumstances, fish may be kept by 

 the method indicated. After that period the fisherman finds that his 

 bait ceases to be attractive, and the necessity for a renewal occurs. 



Icing of Jisli and bait. — The fishermen at New London and Noank, 

 who are almost exclusively occupied in furnishing fresh'fish to the New 

 York market, by the exercise of special precaution are able to keep their 

 fish and bait fresh a much longer time than is the experience at Glou- 

 cester. They exercise very great care in the preparation of the bait, 

 which is opened and thoroughly washed and cleaned, the adherent blood 

 along the backbone being especially removed. 



Their bait pens are in one large apartment instead of three or four 

 smaller ones, as is the practice at Gloucester, and are carefully lined 

 with some non-conducting substance. The bottom is paved continu- 

 ously with ice, to the original thickness of the block, whatever that 

 may be. On this is placed a layer of fish three or four inches thick, 

 and above this a layer of equal thickness of finely-pounded ice, snow 

 answering a very good purpose if this can be had. On this is another 

 stratum of fish, and then pounded ice, and so on until the whole is filled. 

 The atmospheric air is excluded very thoroughly in this way, and the 

 amount of melting is comparatively trifling. The resultant water is 

 immediately absorbed by the porous layers of pounded ice and held as 

 by a sponge, so that the fish are kept comparatively dry. 



In the other method of breaking up the ice with a hammer and slid- 

 ing in layers over the fish there is much greater exposure to the air, 

 and the water from the melting ice sinks to the bottom and keeps the 

 fish or bait saturated throughout. In this way two weeks is usually 



* I am informed that the first to commence the business of freezing herring and 

 bringing them from Newfoundland was Capt. Henry Smith, of Gloucester, in 1856. 

 In 1857 Capt. Sylvanus Smith went into the same business and continued it for some 

 time. 



