California War Papers. 



him and his army with lampreys whenever 

 they should happen to march. Henry I 

 died of a surfeit of lampreys. King John 

 sent special agents to the Continent to 

 purchase lampreys. A single lamprey was 

 made a present from the Earl of Chester 

 to King John who, in return, sent a good 

 palfrey. Gloucester city used at one time 

 to send every Christmas a dish of lam- 

 preys to the sovereign, and a pie of the 

 same fishes to the Prince of Wales. 



ATKA MACKEREL (Pleurogrammus mon- 

 optcrygius) is found in large schools, 

 mainly along the Aleutian chain. The 

 codfish vessels find schools frequently 

 when fishing around the Shumagin 

 Islands. The fish, which averages about 

 2| pounds in weight, is rather hard to 

 cure properly, but when the work has been 

 well done it is delicious in flavor. In the 

 early days of the Nome rush, when the 

 steamers made regular stops at Dutch 

 Harbor for coal, a sm;ill business was 

 maintained by the natives of Unalaska in 

 selling pickled Atka mackerel to them, but 

 when the vessels ceased making it. a port 

 of. call the business died out. Recently 

 sample lots have been pickled and sent to 

 the states r.s samples with most gratifying 

 results. Many thousands of pounds could 

 be packed if the market demands justified 

 it. As the fish is not a mackerel at all, 

 and bears no resemblance to. one, it having 

 acquired the name because of a fancied 

 resemblance in flavor to -the real mackerel, 

 the F. S. Bureau of Fisheries has sug- 

 gested Atkafish as a more appropriate 

 name for it. 



BLACKFISH (Dallia, pectoraUs) This 

 species, which is peculiar to the Kuskok- 

 wim and Yukon deltas, and the Nushagak 

 region, in Alaska, does not exceed 5 or 8 

 inches in length, and is one of the most 

 nutritious and toothsome fishes found in 

 Alaskan waters. The species is exceed- 

 ingly tenacious of life, living for weeks 

 at a time entirely without food. It is also 

 reported that the natives frequently catch 

 them in the wintertime, freeze them in the 

 open, place them in baskets, which are 

 stored in the caches elevated on wooden 

 supports to lift them beyond the reach of 

 the dogs, and when needed the fish are 

 thawed out in water, when many of them 

 come to life again. 



The muscle of the fish contains a con- 

 siderable quantity of oil which could be 

 extracted and used for various purposes. 

 The fish could also be canned or pickled, 

 in which condition a demand might be 

 created for them. 



SCULPINS (Vottidce) Sculpins are 

 quite abundant everywhere along the coast, 

 and are almost invariably thrown back 



when brought to the surface in the nets or 

 taken on the hooks. This is due mainly 

 to the, at first, repulsive appearance of the 

 fish to the fishermen, and to the belief 

 generally prevalent that there is but little 

 flesh on its body, and what little there is 

 is far from palatable. As to the reputed 

 ugliness of its appearance, that is soon 

 dispelled in considerable measure by a 

 closer inspection, some of the species, and 

 more particularly the "Irish Lord," being 

 really beautifully marked. The flesh of 

 practically all members of the genera is 

 excellent, and as one species, Scorp&nich- 

 thi/s marmoratus, found on the California 

 coast, attains a length of 24 feet, it may 

 easily be seen that not only this one, but 

 those much smaller in size, would yield 

 much in the way of food were they saved. 



SURF FISHES, OR PERCHES A few of 

 these, especially the species commonly 

 known as the "blue perch," are sold in the 

 coast markets. They are very common on 

 our coast and in shape resemble somewhat 

 the eastern sunfishes. Were the demand 

 sufficient, the catch of these fishes could be 

 increased manyfold. 



The cultus cod (OpJiiodon elongatus), 

 several species of sea bass, known locally 

 as red rock cod (Scbastodes rubcrrimus) , 

 Sitka black bass (Spbastodes melanops) , 

 etc., are excellent food fishes and are to 

 be found in abundance along our coasts 

 and in Alaska. Most of them now find a 

 limited market in the coast towns, but 

 eventually they will be shipped to all sec- 

 tions of the West, as their food qualities 

 become better known. 



FISHING OFFAL The most remarkable 

 instance of wholesale waste of fishery 

 products is to be seen in connection with 

 the great salmon industry of this coast. 

 In 1915 some 435,973,290 pounds of sal- 

 mon were used in a fresh condition, and 

 in canning, pickling, mild-curing, freezing, 

 smoking, etc. Estimating the loss in 

 dressing these salmon at 30 per cent, a 

 most conservative one, gives us the enor- 

 mous total of 65',395 tons of offal. With 

 the exception of about 15,000 tons which 

 were used at a few small plants, all of 

 this enormous total was thrown back into 

 the water, thus wasting valuable material. 

 For various reasons, not all of this mate- 

 rial could be saved, but the amount that 

 could be worked up into merchantable 

 products would surprise most of my 

 readers. This offal would make excellent 

 fish meal, fertilizer and oil. 



A few unthinking persons have blamed 

 the cannerymen for not having done this 

 years ago, but they must be acquitted of 

 most of the blame. For once American 

 inventive genius has lagged behind. In 



