THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 145 



inosphere, caii the temperature be kept below 40°, and where the fish 

 are not actually in contact with the ice, possibly not below 50°. This 

 involves a tendency to become stale, as above referred to. If, however, 

 the fish be frozen hard and stiff immediately after being caught it may 

 be kept in this condition for an indefinite period of time, and when care- 

 fully thawed out and used immediately after, will be very little if at all 

 inferior to a fresh fish. For this purpose the fish are now exposed as 

 soon as possible after being caught to the proximity of a freezing mixt- 

 ure of ice and salt ; and as soon as well, frozen they are transferred to 

 a much larger chamber in which the temperature is kept by the same 

 means at about 12° to 16°. 



These apartments have double walls, with some non-conducting sub- 

 stance interposed, as charcoal or sawdust, and usually have several 

 iron cylinders passing through, which are kept filled with a mixture of 

 ice and salt, provision being made for their introduction above the 

 chamber and for the drainage of the melted liquid below without the 

 necessity of opening the room. Here immense quantities may be kept 

 in a state of absolute unchaugeableness as long as the condition of the 

 market requires. This method is now employed m New York and else- 

 where for the preservation of all kinds of fish, salmon, striped bass, cod, 

 Spanish mackerel, bluefish, &c, being piled up by the cord. 



A very important result of these processes consists in equalizing the 

 market, preventing a glut at one time and an excessive cost at another. 

 Any one of the fish just mentioned, with numerous others, can now be 

 obtained without any difficulty, at any season of the year, from such 

 dealers as E. G. Blackford, Middletou, Carman & Co., and others, in 

 Fulton Market, New York. 



There seems to be no reason why dry, hard freezing may not main- 

 tain animal matter in a sound and wholesome condition for any 

 period during which it may be applied without interruption ; and as a 

 case in point, I adduce certain well-substantiated facts in regard to the 

 occurrence of a carcass of the mammoth in Siberia. It is well known 

 that at one time, probably during the iuterglacial period, the mam- 

 moth, or fossil hairy elephant, was extremely abundant in arctic Asia 

 and America, in the former especially, and that even now a large per- 

 centage of the ivory of commerce is derived from the tusks of these 

 animals found in the soil, in the river-beds, or dredged up in the Arctic 

 Ocean off the mouths of the Siberian rivers. It is probable that 

 herds of these animals, in crossing the rivers, were drowned and 

 carried out to sea by the powerful current, when the meat soon decayed 

 or was devoured, and the bones decomposing in time left only the 

 tusks to reward the gatherer. Some years ago a merchant of St. 

 Petersburg, in visiting Northern Siberia in the course of his trade, 

 came across the carcass of a mammoth that had been washed out from 

 a frozen gravel bank along one of the rivers, and lay on the beach, 

 where it had been for many mouths the prey of dogs and of wolves and 

 S. Mis. 90 10 



