FIKTKRN't H ANNUAL MEETING. 71 



ruljber bags while they are being frozen. In t88o, Mr. D. W. 

 Davis patented a method of packing fish in finely crushed ice 

 in a barrel and freezing the mass solid, the fish being so stowed 

 as not to come in contact with each other. 



Freezing pans, with or without covers, are now in common 

 use in most of the fishing centers of the Great Lakes, as also in 

 some Eastern markets. In Boston, New York and at other 

 points large buildings are devoted to the freezing and storage 

 of bluefish, salmon and other species. The large species are 

 frozen by hanging them in tlie freezing room or by ranging 

 them on shelves. The improved systems of refrigerator cars 

 and steamers render it feasible to transport frozen fish to any 

 part of the United States, or to foreign countries whenever the 

 trade may require. 



Washington, D. C. 



Secretary MArHER. — Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I would 

 like to say a little something not laid down in the programme 

 nor embodied in a regular paper, and that is about work of the 

 UniDed States Fish Commission in its experiments of stocking 

 the Hudson with salmon. For the past three years 1 have had 

 the hatchery under my charge on Long Island, and been 

 hatching some sea salmon from the Penobscot for Prof. Baird. 

 They have been placed mainly in the Hudson, and some few in 

 the Salmon river, in the State of New York, which empties into 

 Lake Ontario, not the Salmon river entering the St. Lawrence, 

 and also last year in the Oswego river. We have made some 

 effort to find out if there was any prospect of getting evidence 

 of the success or failure of these plans. The fish were taken 

 away to the headwaters of the Hudson, and deposited in trout 

 streams there where they would find food, which they would 

 not find suitable for young fish in the main body of the river. 

 It has been Prof. Baird's idea that the Hudson never was a 

 salmon stream naturally, because of mechanical obstacles, such 

 as the falls at Cohoes, which prevented the ascent to the tribu- 

 taries of the Mohawk, and Baker's Falls on the upper Hudson, 

 which prevented their ascent any further in that way, and any fish 

 which entered the river before the white man put up his dams 



