AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 2797 



year) you have the home fisheries, the river fisheries; they don't come 

 directly uuder our cognizance. A. These are the coast and river fish- 

 eries particularly. 



o. Not the deep sea? A. Only incidentally. They are sea coast fish, 

 but not outside. There is a schedule of the principal fish marketed in 

 the Boston market. My object was to get the number of pounds of 

 these fish taken in the vicinity of the person to whom the circular was 

 given. 



( v ). Vou tfiink these have been pretty fully answered? A. I have a 

 great many answers. 



Q. And from your information, which you gather as you go about, 

 from what is sent to you by the return of these circulars, and from the 

 persons employed by you, it has been your business to make yourself 

 fully acquainted with the subject? A. Yes; I have, of course, used 

 what published material I have found. I found a great deal of value in 

 the reports of the Canadian fisheries. What little I know of the fish- 

 eries in Canada I have learned from these documents. 



Q. Wherever there are documents published by the United States 

 you have them ? A. Yes ; I have them ; and I have European docu- 

 ments, English, and Norwegian, &c. I believe I have everything. 



Q. I will question you first about codfish. I want you to state what 

 is your opinion about the cod as a fish for all sorts of commercial pur- 

 poses, as compared with others. A. I think the cod stands at the head 

 of fish at the present day. There is no fish that furnishes food to. so- 

 many people, the production of which is of so much importance, or 

 which is applied to such a variety of purposes. The commercial yield 

 is very great, and its capture is the main occupation of a large portion, 

 of the inhabitants of the sea-coast region of the Northern Hemisphere. 



Q. Besides as an article of food, either fresh or salted, what other 

 purposes does it serve ? A. Well, it is applied to a great many pur- 

 poses by different nations. It is used, of course, as food in the different 

 modes of preparation. Particular parts are used as food, other than the 

 muscles. The sounds are used as food, converted into gelatine, and in 

 the form of isinglass. They serve a great variety of purposes. The 

 roes are used as food and bait for fish. The skin is tanned for leather 

 and clothing. A great many nations dress very largely in the skins of 

 cod and salmon. And the fish is dried and used as food for cattle in 

 Iceland and Norway. The bones are used as fuel in some places; and,, 

 of course, the oil is used for medicine, and for the various purposes to 

 which animal oils are applied. There is scarcely any part that is not 

 valuable. The offal, in Norway, is converted into a valuable manure. 

 Every part is called into play. 



Q. The bones ? A. They are burned as fuel, as well as eaten by dogs, 

 or converted into fertilizers. 



Q. It is not, probably, applied in the United States to all the uses you 

 have specified ? A. No; I don't think the skin is used as clothing in 

 the United States, but it makes an admirable leather for shoes, and makes 

 very nice slippers. We have in Washington quite a large number of 

 articles made from the skins, as used in Alaska, the Aleutian Islands,, 

 and in Siberia. 



Q. You think they can be used ? A. I have no doubt in the course of 

 years the skin will be utilized very largely. In fact, I may remark, that 

 at the late exhibition at the Westminster Aquarium, among the special 

 articles exhibited were shoes made from leather of the codfish, furnished 

 by an exhibitor from Christiania. 



Q. You think it is the foremost fish ! A. 1 think it is. There is none 



