118 Tiventy-scvciith Annual Meeting 



ticularly limited to the Pacific coast, I should say that no fishery 

 should be entirely independent of the commission's careful super- 

 vision, even where the myriads of fish seem to promise inex- 

 haustible supplies. It should guard all from depletion, and by 

 so doing the profit will continue at a consistent ratio over de- 

 cades, or we may say, centuries of prolific business, instead of 

 being rushed through at lightning speed, with but a few indi- 

 viduals or corporations gathering the enormous profits, leaving 

 so little that even the natives of the most distant points will suf- 

 fer, if not perish, for want of their annual complement of nature's 

 provisions for their maintenance. 



A grand movement in the proper direction has begun in the 

 establishment of schools for the study of the liabits and culture 

 of fish. In the pursuit of this sul)iect, for instance, I find that 

 the Fraser River salmon has a supply of oil in its composition 

 which aids in the preservation of the flesh, and it suggests to 

 my mind the utility of compressing the oil from the heads and 

 tails, the discarded parts from the canneries, and using that oil 

 for the preserving of these salmon and others of dififerent kinds 

 that require the addition of oil. 



I would second the idea, also, of inventing some plan for 

 using up the skins, heads, tails and other refuse, not only of 

 sturgeon but of all fishes at tlie canneries. The prevention of 

 the enormous c|uantities of offal being left to render the atmos- 

 phere pestilential would be no less desirable than that so much 

 objectionable matter should not l)e returned to the sea in decom- 

 posing streams when rain fell in copious showers, thus providing 

 literal poison for the living fish. And this kind of protection is 

 extremely desirable, for even in the waters of Alaska fishes have 

 been found with diseases or with parasitic enemies that cause 

 sloughing. At first this latter trouble would seem like a sort of 

 cankerous malady, but it is known that fish never renew their 

 scales, nor do those that have no scales renew their skin to its 

 normal condition after having been injured. If then, the parasite 

 that renders one fish unsightly is freed from that fish and cast 

 among others it is natural to suppose that the objectionable 

 creatures will multiply upon the other fish with which they come 

 in contact. 



With limitations in the catches, even to the establishment of 

 off seasons when necessary. I would earnestly suggest that the 

 refuse matter from every cannery or drying and salting station 

 should be turned into oil, glue, or possibly, dry compost. And 

 if none of these commodities can be obtained from it. then let the 



