202 EIGHTH PACIFIC SCIENCE CONGRESS 



and the United States because of its current depredations on the com- 

 mercial fishes of the Great Lakes. 



What precautions were taken in these early days to maintain the 

 delectable qualities of freshly caught fishery products? History tells us 

 that much of the fish was not cured in any way, and the need for keep- 

 ing fish cool was already appreciated. Nehemiah, Governor of Judaea, 

 complained in the Biblical book of his name about the sale of food- 

 stuffs in Jerusalem on the Sabbath, including fish brought by the men 

 of Tyre from the shores of the Mediterranean some 35 miles away; he 

 caused the gates of Jerusalem to be closed to such commerce over the 

 Sabbath, but later it was allowed that a special gate, called the "fish 

 gate" should remain open so that fish could be sold before it would 

 spoil. In Greece, runners were sent up the slopes of 8060-foot Mt. Par- 

 nassus to collect snow for preserving fresh oysters for banquets in near- 

 by Athens. The Romans constructed huge vivaria or fish ponds in which 

 to keep fish alive during warm weather until required for the table. 

 Lucius Philippus had a tunnel pierced through a mountain in order 

 to bring cool sea water to his vivarium; Hortensius Varro placed more 

 importance on the coolness of the water in his vivarium than on the 

 coolness of a draught of water for a fevered friend. Archimedes is 

 credited with planning the construction of a large live-well, made of 

 planks lined with lead, in the bow of one of the large vessels plying 

 between Lgypt and Sicily for the corn trade and carrying live fish in 

 this well in which the salt water was constantly renewed by hand pump- 

 ing. In early Egypt fish for the fresh trade were usually dressed on the 

 boat and quickly dispatched to market. By New Testament times fresh 

 fish were roasted, baked, or boiled; eggs were sometimes combined with 

 the boiled type. But what of the fish that could not be transported 

 fresh to market? The Egyptians were familiar with the process of split- 

 ting and salting then drying in the sun, and such salted fish, as well as 

 pickled fish, were exported in baskets or barrels certainly as far as 

 Palestine. 



Turning now from ancient times in the Old World to more modern 

 times in the West Coast of Canada, the native Indians of this coast 

 prior to the coming of the white man had developed not only their 

 clam fishery attested by the huge clam shell middens already mentioned, 

 but also a considerable adeptness in catching fish, particularly salmon 

 and eulachons. To preserve these fish for use out of season, salmon 

 were cleaned, split, and subjected to a combined drying and smoking 

 process in crude smoke houses; because the salmon ascends rivers to 

 spawn hundreds of miles inland, many Interior tribes had access to this 

 fish, though it lacked fat by the time it reached distant spawning beds. 



