332 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



grown up there in drying, pickling, and smoking fish. 

 For the most part the city cured fish are taken by 

 fishermen under contract, and roughly salted at sea. 

 They are mainly cod, mackerel, and salmon. Other 

 establishments are directly engaged in sea and shore 

 fishing. One firm, which cures from 15,000 to 40,000 

 pounds of fish a week, makes a speciality of smoked 

 shad and sturgeon. The sturgeon are taken in drift 

 nets oif the coasts of Florida and Georgia. The nets are 

 100 fathoms long and 20 fathoms deep, the sturgeon 

 often weighing from 300 to 500 pounds each. Occa- 

 sionally the capture of a large shark or alligator gives 

 serious and unprofitable diversity to the work of the 

 fishermen. When caught the sturgeon are cleaned, the 

 back bone is cut out, and the sides packed in ice and 

 sent to Savannah. There the fish is packed in fresh ice 

 and shipped by steamer to New York. The sides are- 

 cut in slices, pickled in brine for four hours, dried, 

 and smoked. The drying takes about six hours and the 

 smoking fourteen hours. The smoke is made from 

 hickory wood aiid cedar sawdust, and the smoking room 

 is hot enough to thoroughly cook the fish. Other fish 

 are smoked in substantially the same way. The sturgeon 

 roe is immediately treated to successive washings, passing 

 each time through sieves to cleanse it thoroughly, and 

 is then packed in salt. The same parties have sturgeon 

 fisheries in Delaware, and eel fisheries there and in New 

 Jersey. The best and fattest eels are said to come from 

 the mouth of the Shrewsbury River. The eels are 

 thoroughly scrubbed to remove the slime, and either 

 smoked or put up in jelly. Herrings are smoked and 

 also put up in kits in pickle. Considerable quantities of 

 smelts from the coast of Massachusetts are smoked, also 

 many lake whitefish, which are accounted particularly 

 fine in flavour. Mackerel smoked round when fresh — 

 Boston smoked — is becoming a popular preparation. All 

 the fish to be smoked are brought to the city fresh, 

 packed in ice, except salmon, which during part of the 

 year is pickled. 



