FISHERIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 
137 
sold the first installment, has the boxes refilled. This stops competition 
and obviates much loss that otherwise would result to the fishermen.* 
Care of the fish , etc . — In no other respect is change and improve- 
ment so imperatively demanded in connection with the market fishery 
as in the care of the products. The best interests of all are concerned 
in this; for improvement in this direction will materially benefit fish- 
ermen, dealers, and consumers. Complete success can only be attained 
by the utilization of all available resources and a proper appreciation 
of the needs and desires of the consumer. Obsolete European methods 
can not long meet with even passive favor in this country. San Fran- 
cisco especially, with such an immense wealth of fish to draw upon t 
and fishing grounds at her very doors, should not only have a great 
variety of marine products for food, but should have those products 
placed before the consumer in the best possible condition. The con- 
sensus of statement, however, shows a very different condition of affairs 
in this respect from that which should exist. The most careful and con- 
servative observers admit the necessity for change, while pages might 
be filled with quotations from newspapers relative to “bad fish” in the 
markets.J Published statements of this character are very injurious 
to the fishery, and it is to be regretted that they are in any manner jus- 
tified. This matter should be seriously dealt with. The prosperity of 
the fishery depends in a large measure on the adoption of such methods 
as will tend to disarm criticism and to improve the demand for fresh 
fish, and at the same time relieve the fishermen from loss now fre- 
quently incurred through delay in reaching the market. 
At present tight-bottomed boats are exclusively employed; the fish 
are not eviscerated but are thrown in bulk into the hold or left on deck 
with perhaps a piece of canvas spread over them to keep off the sun’s 
rays. No ice is used, and in warm weather deterioration is rapid, all 
the more so because the viscera soon begin to ferment and decay. 
Under favorable conditions the fish caught in San Francisco Bay and 
adjoining bays reach the city in good order. But even here some of 
the grounds are 15 to 20 miles distant, and calms often delay arrivals 
for many hours. The boats that go out to the Farallones, to Bodega 
Head, or Drake’s Bay, or down the coast toward Santa Cruz, are neces- 
sarily much longer in reaching the city even under the most favorable 
circumstances, while light winds or calms (which often prevail) may 
* On some occasions, when the market is so overstocked with herring that sales 
cannot be effected at paying prices, a portion at least of the surplus is sometimes 
disposed of for smoking, and afterwards packed in small boxes of 5 or 10 pounds each, 
similar to the smoked herring put up on the Atlantic coast. 
tOn October 1, 1889, Dr. Beau recognized 40 different species of fish in the Clay 
Street market. These were chiefly the rock-cods, salmonidm, pleurouectidce, sciie- 
nidae, and viviparous perch. 
t There seems to have been an effort to control this matter by the authorities. Dr. 
Bean says an officer makes a daily inspection of the markets and condemns any fish 
he finds unfit for food. Cart loads are daily thrown away at the foot of Seventh street. 
