87 



evinced by the fishermen entitles them to the sympathy and 

 to the support of the public. 



I .should like to say a word before concluding this Paper 

 on the distribution of the vast number of herrings taken off 

 the Scotch coast. The Duke of Edinburgh estimates the 

 value of the fish taken by the trawlers off the coast of the 

 United Kingdom at 2,581,000, or about 300,000 more 

 than the value of the herrings taken off the Scotch coast. 

 Cured herrings, representing 1,006,462, were exported in 

 1 88 1, the value of the other fish exported that year from 

 all parts of the kingdom was only 398,048. It will thus 

 be seen that the distribution of the herrings is very dif- 

 ferent . from that of other fish. I believe a far greater pro- 

 portion of the Scotch herrings, especially those caught on 

 the west coast, would be consumed as fresh fish at home, if 

 greater facilities were given by the railways for their con- 

 veyances.* 



The evidence given before the Railway Committee last 

 year, fully exposes the high rates frequently imposed by 



* u Still more important has been the general adoption of scientific 

 methods of preparation and transportation. Great freezing houses 

 have been built on the Great Lakes, on the Pacific coast, and in the 

 cities of the East, and refrigerator cars are running upon all the trunk 

 lines of railway. Columbia salmon, lake white-fish, cod, bass, Spanish 

 mackerel, and other choice fishes are frozen stiff and packed up in 

 heaps like cordwood, and can be had at any season of the year. 

 Refrigerator cars carry unfrozen fish from sea and lake inland. Smelts 

 and trout, packed in snow in the north, are received in New York by 

 the cartload daily throughout the winter. Halibut are brought from 

 the distant oceanic banks in refrigerators built in the holds of the 

 vessels, and 12,000,000 to 14,000,000 pounds are distributed, packed in 

 ice, to the cities of the interior. Baltimore, from September to April, 

 sends special trains laden with oysters, daily, into the west, and 

 Chesapeake oysters are food for all, not luxuries, even beyond the 

 Mississippi." Professor Brown Goode. 



