2806 AWAKD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



cept what could be got upon their own coast, they could obtain a suffi- 

 cient supply there ? A. Well, unless the American fishery should be 

 expanded to very enormous limits, far in excess of what it is now, I can't 

 see that there would be any difficulty. I may refer to one bait at our 

 command, which is an excellent bait salt liver. In some parts that is 

 considered an excellent bait. Of course each part of the world swears 

 by its own particular bait. While the Cape Cod man swears by men- 

 haden, the Newfoundlander by herring and caplin, and the Englishman 

 by winkles, the Dutchman swears by salt liver. 



*Q. We could have that, of course. A. Yes. Then the roes of cod 

 are good for bait. 



Q. What do you say about gurry ? We had a good deal about that 

 in the early part of this inquiry. Be so good as to tell what opinion 

 yon have or what conclusion you have come to about its use and abuse. 

 A. It hardly applies to cod any more than to any other fish cleaned 

 at sea. The gurry is the offal, and that of course may be of salmon or 

 cod or haddock or mackerel. The practice of throwing overboard gurry 

 is in many respects reprehensible, because in the first place it is a very 

 great waste of animal matter. The applicability of this offal to commer- 

 cial purposes is such that whenever it can be had in sufficient quantities 

 it should be utilized. It is so on the coast of Xorway. An enormous 

 number of pounds of fertilizer are made out of the gurry, and the heads 

 are dried and used for food for dogs and cattle. I presume you refer, 

 however, to the supposed influence of the gurry on the fishing grounds 

 more particularly. Well, in the first place more of it can be used now. 

 In the process of hard freezing applied to cod it is brought in more as a 

 fresh fish. But a large proportion of what is thrown overboard can be 

 utilized. It can all be utilized, and it would be very proper, I think, to 

 impose seme penalty upon the waste of the gurry by throwing it over- 

 board, in favor of securing its preservation and utilization. But of 

 course the question is as to what influence the gurry can exercise upon 

 the sea fishery supposing it to be abundant and to be thrown over- 

 board. I have no practical experience in regard to that. I know a 

 great many persons testify that it is very objectionable. The reason 

 why I should be inclined to attribute very little importance to the ob- 

 jection is the readiness with which all such offal is consumed in the sea 

 by the scavengers appointed by nature to destroy it. In the northern 

 seas, where codfish are most abundant and this gurry is in the greatest 

 abundance, the waters abound with countless numbers of minute crus- 

 taceans whose business it is to destroy animal matter. The so called 

 sea fleas are so active that if you take a fish the size of a codfish and 

 put it in a bag of net- work and put it overboard where it will be exposed 

 for a tide in water, of anywhere from five to ten or twenty fathoms, you 

 will find, as a general rule, that next day you will have the bones picked 

 clean and a perfect skeleton without a single particle of flesh. I have 

 had thousands of skeletons (I may say literally so) of fishes and birds 

 and small quadrupeds prepared for museum purposes by simply expos- 

 ing them to the action of the sea fleas. I have put them in bags perfo- 

 rated with holes and left them at the edge of low tide for a tide or two, 

 and the skeleton would be perfectly complete without a bit of meat left. 



Q. Well, these sea scavengers, are they usually at the bottom ? A. 

 Everywhere, at the bottom and the top. Then there are the dogfish, the 

 small sharks, catfish, goosefish, sculpius, and the codfish themselves, a 

 variety of lobsters, and other inhabitants of the sea, that are at work, 

 always ready and eager to seize anything of this kind and consume it. 

 Then when the bones are exposed there are the sea-urchins, that make 



