300 THE WORLDS LUMBER ROOM. 



bines are found useful for this purpose, as indeed one would 

 expect, and the " shells " of crabs and lobsters, which accu- 

 mulate in regular mountains where the canning business 

 is carried on, are ground to powder and applied to the soil 

 with some success. 



Better than lobster-shells, however, is the refuse of the 

 fish-trade, large quantities of which are at present wasted, 

 and might be had for the mere cost of collecting, as it is 

 of little or no value. In cleaning cod for salting and drying, 

 at least one half of the weight of the fish is thrown away, 

 to be food either for the gulls and other birds attendant 

 on the fishermen, or for other fishes if thrown back into the 

 sea; and as the French and Americans alone catch some 

 three million hundredweights of cod between them, the 

 refuse must be enormous. 



At least 50,000 tons of animal matter must remain, too, 

 after the seals have been deprived of their oil and skins. 

 On some of the North American coasts the offal is simply 

 burnt or thrown into the water as food for the bait-fish. 



Some years ago even the livers of the cod were of next 

 to no value in Newfoundland, the people not having the 

 necessary appliances for extracting the oil. But the arrival 

 of Mr. Fox, an English chemist, soon caused them to rise 

 in price, and he also made known the value of the heads 

 which till then had been thrown into the sea or upon the 

 manure-heap. Mr. Fox obtained from them a large 

 quantity of superior isinglass as well as glue. 



At the Exhibition of 1862 M. Rohart showed samples of 

 fish manure from the Loffoden Isles, where he had collected 

 heads and backbones, formerly wasted, and after drying them 



