CHAPTER IX 
FISHES AS FOOD FOR MAN 
WIHE Flesh of Fishes.—Among all races of men, fishes 
are freely eaten as food, either raw, as preferred by 
Ew}; the Japanese and Hawaiians, or else as cooked, 
salted, dried, or otherwise preserved. 
The flesh of most fishes is white, flaky, readily digestible, 
and with an agreeable flavor. Some, as the salmon, are charged 
with oil, which aids to give an orange hue known as salmon 
color. Others have colorless oil which may be of various con- 
sistencies. Some have dark-red flesh, which usually contains 
a heavy oil which becomes acrid when stale. Some fishes, as 
the sharks, have tough, coarse flesh. Some have flesh which is 
watery and coarse. Some are watery and tasteless, some dry 
and tasteless. Some, otherwise excellent, have the muscular 
area, which constitutes the chief edible part of the fish, filled 
with small bones. 
Relative Rank of Food-fishes.—The writer has tested most 
of the noted food-fishes of the Northern Hemisphere. When 
Fie. 79.—Eulachon, or Ulchen. Thaleichthys pretiosus Girard. Columbia River. 
Family Argentinide. 
properly cooked (for he is no judge of raw fish) he would place 
first in the ranks as a food-fish the eulachon, or candle-fish 
(Thaleichthys pacificus). 
129 
