138 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



years. To restore it to softness and flexibility it is only nece«sary to 

 plunge'it tliree or four days into fresh water. In time it acquires the 

 hardness of wood, and the fatty portions have a tallowy odor. 



Smoking. — A remaining method of preserving fish for food, if not for 

 bait, is that of smoking, which has been used from time immemorial. 

 This consists merely in exposing the flesh, either fresh or after being 

 salted to some degree, to the smoke produced by burning bark or wood. 

 This changes the texture of the fiber apparently by the action of pyro- 

 ligneous acid or some creosote product, at the same time preserving it 

 and giving it a very agreeable taste. The celebrated Finmark baddies 

 consist of the haddock slightly smoked to a moderate degree, not enough 

 to keep them for a long time, but involving a less amount of salt and of 

 smoking than usual. Other fish, of course, are readily prepared in the 

 same way. 



G. — Disposition of offal or "gurry." 



The question of a convenient or economical disposition of the offal of 

 fish, especially of the heads and entrails, is a serious- matter to the fish- 

 erman, especially when the cleaning or preparation for market is con- 

 ducted at sea. This waste matter constitutes a large percentage of the 

 entire mass (about a third), and what is thrown away every year by 

 fishermen of any considerable fishing station may amount to hundreds 

 of tons. Men fishing in small boats, however, usually have no other 

 convenient alternative. 



The objections made to this disposition of offal are of two classes, one 

 on the score of waste, the other on the ground that the capture of fish 

 in that locality is greatly interfered with. In the same connection I 

 may refer to the question of waste of fish by means of the trawl-line, or 

 the purse and gill net. As already mentioned, a severe complaint 

 brought in North America against the apparatus referred to, is that 

 large numbers of fish are lost from the trawl line or from the nets in 

 consequence of storms or otherwise; and that apart from the waste, 

 these fish falling to the bottom, contaminate the fishing-grounds by 

 their decomposition and drive other fish away, as shown by the ina- 

 bility to make successful catches until after a period sufficient to allow 

 this matter to be decomposed or removed in some manner. 



The assertions of injury to the fishing-grounds in consequence of the 

 gurry being thrown overboard or of the number of dead fish dropping 

 from the lines or partly devoured by other fishes, apply most generally 

 to the localities of the capture of the Gadidce or members of the cod 

 family, especially the true cod, haddock, hake, cusk, as well as of some 

 other species, including also the halibut and others of the flat-fish 

 family. It must be remembered, however, that these grounds are al- 

 ways in the colder portions of the sea, not unfrequently where the tem- 

 perature of the water is but little above the freezing-point of fresh 

 water, and always where it is as low as 50°. In regions where such 

 temperatures prevail the year round, the cod and its allies are found 



