Fishery Board for Scotland. 



xxi 



Dr Stirling finds that the red or coloured muscles in some fishes, 

 e.g., mackerel, contain numerous fatty granules in their sarcous 

 substance, while the pale muscles are devoid of such fatty granules. 



The importance of utilising the bye-products of the fisheries is Bye-products 

 now widely recognised. Professor Ewart, in his paper on the 

 progress of fish culture in America, which appeared in our last 

 Eeport, mentioned that the oils, glues, fertilising agents, &c., prepared 

 from the refuse of the fisheries of the United States, realised 14 per 

 cent, of the total value of the fish captured. Scotland has hitherto 

 done little to utilise either the refuse which results from the fish 

 cured or the large numbers of fish of various kinds, which owing 

 to low prices or unsatisfactory modes of transit, never reach the 

 great fresh fish markets. Recently, however, as the results of 

 experiments made on a fairly large scale in Aberdeen by Mr 

 Sahlstrom, arrangements are likely to be made which will, it is 

 hoped, lead to the present harvest of the sea yielding not only a 

 considerably larger amount of food but also a large number of 

 exceedingly useful products. A paper bearing on this subject by 

 Professor Stirling will be found in the Appendix (p. 256). In this 

 paper Dr Stirling gives an account of certain economical products 

 obtainable from fish, e.g., glue in various forms, fish extracts from 

 the flesh of fish, mollusca and Crustacea, and from whales and other 

 large marine animals ; oil from the liver ; bone earth, and manure 

 from the refuse. The great point is that many products suitable 

 for food, or for economical purposes, can be obtained from fish 

 and other marine animals were suitable factories established on 

 the sea-coast near those parts where fish can be caught in abund- 

 ance, but whence removal of the fish in a perfectly fresh con- 

 dition cannot be effected, either so expeditiously or so profitably as 

 to make the matter commercially successful. 



There is another paper bearing on the same subject in the Blood of the 

 Appendix (p. 171) by Mr Halliburton, who gives an account of the Norway 

 blood of the Norway lobster {Nephrons) so abundant in our waters. 

 The blood of the higher vertebrates has long been used for the 

 manufacture of albumen, which has a high market value. Eecent 

 inquiries show that equally good albumen can be obtained from 

 the blood of fishes, and it may be further shown that the blood of 

 Nephrops (of which there is relatively a large quantity) and 

 other invertebrates may be utilised in the same way. 



In the Board's last Eeport it was mentioned that Professor Fungi, &c., in 

 Greenfield had undertaken to investigate the lower fungi met Salmon rivers, 

 with in some of our more important salmon rivers. This inves- 

 tigation has been advanced a step, and numerous forms have been 

 isolated and cultivated by the methods already described. 



An account of the observations already made will be found in 

 Appendix, p. 176. 



The samples of water examined were taken from the Tweed 

 and Tay during the months of March and April. 



The number of organisms in Tweed water was found to 

 exceed that which should be present in good potable water. 

 Professor G-reenfield also describes the naked-eye forms of 

 growth and microscopic appearance of many of the minute 

 organisms isolated. 



