THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 139 



continuously. In others, as in the south side of New England, the fish 

 come in as the waters at the bottom of the sea assume the temperature 

 which they affect. 



So far as the cleaning of fish at sea and the throwing overboard of 

 the offal or so-called gurry are concerned, the practice is highly repre- 

 hensible in an economical point of view ; and as representing an enor- 

 mous waste of material capable of being devoted to useful purposes, the 

 practice should be frowned down and prevented by legislation if possible. 



On the coast of Norway all such materials, which formerly were 

 wasted, are now carefully husbanded and add very greatly to the per- 

 centage of the yield of any fishery. Sometimes this material is boiled 

 and' made to furnish a large amount of oil and scrap. At others the 

 heads are assorted and dried as a special food for animals. The actual 

 yield of guano alone from the Norwegian fisheries has in a single year 

 amounted to 7,700,000 pounds, a very notable element in the productive 

 resources of the country. Whether this material be injurious to the 

 fisheries or not, its preservation and utilization is too important to be 

 neglected ; and for this, instead of enacting a prohibitory law, which 

 could not be enforced, it might be better to offer a bounty or drawback 

 of some kind, in proportion to the amount of this material delivered on 

 shore. In this event, even if the fish were more conveniently cleaned 

 at sea, the refuse might be saved in barrels and put ou shore at a con- 

 venient point. If the solid parts were for the most part saved, the 

 juices and small particles might be poured into the sea without any 

 detriment. 



In regard to the allegation, however, that this offal or the dead fish 

 falling from the hooks, in whatever quantity this may be present, affects 

 the fishing-ground, it is extremely difficult to comprehend how this can 

 have any serious effect. In the first place, the cold water in which the 

 fishes of the cod family occur abound to an enormous degree with 

 marine crustaceans, the self-appointed scavengers of the ocean. These 

 are largely a species of Gammarus and allied forms very varying in size 

 and in overwhelming and almost incredible numbers, and their efficiency 

 in their appointed task is so great that a large fish placed in a box or 

 suspended in a bag of netting, will frequently be picked to a most per- 

 fect and complete skeleton in from twelve to twenty-four hours ; indeed, 

 not unfrequently the fish on the trawl-lines are brought up skeletonized 

 in this way. 



The same waters in which these shrimps are to be found abound very 

 largely in lobsters, which are baited by precisely the same offal which 

 is considered so detrimental to the fishing. There are also immense 

 schools of small fish such as cuuners, and more particularly the 

 Cyprinodonts, which are as active and prompt in their attacks upon dead 

 matter as the Crustacea ; as witness the experience of those who find a 

 large and valued bait cleaned entirely from the hook by these smaller 

 fish before it has been down more than a very few minutes. The wolf- 

 fish or catfish (Anarrhiclias), the sculpins, the sea-ravens, the goosefish, 



