PRESERVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
339 
PRESERVING FISHERY PRODUCTS ALIVE. 
In some foreign countries, especially in Germany, a large portion of the fresh- 
water fish and some salt-water species are supplied to the markets alive. The live-fish 
trade in China is very extensive, the fish being peddled about the cities and villages 
in buckets (d‘ water, and those not sold are returned to inclosures of water for future 
sale. In the United States, however, live fish represent an inconsiderable portion of 
the trade. A few of the New York luarket fishermen take their catch of cod, sea bass, 
and blackfish into port alive by means of well-smacks, and some of the shore fisher- 
men at points along the coast or on the interior waters retain their fish for a few days 
in live-cars or live-boxesj but the quantity of fish sold alive in this country is indeed 
very small. However, lobsters, crabs, oysters, clams, terrapin, and turtles are sold 
alive, and unless in that condition are not generally considered marketable as fresh, 
except in the case of shucked oysters and clams. 
When practicable, this is one of the most satisfactory methods of marketing 
marine foods, not only because of the superior quality of the product, but also because 
it avoids costly processes of iireservation. There is no general or uniform process 
employed for keeping the animals, each species receiving such treatment as it particu- 
larly requires. Fish and lobsters are kept alive in large inclosures or in well-smacks 
and live-boxes, while oysters, clams, terrapin, and turtles ordinarily require little care, 
unless they are to be held a considerable length of time. 
INCLOSED WATER AREAS. 
When whitefish were abundant in Lake St. Clair and Detroit River, a practice 
prevailed of building inclosures one-eighth to one-half acre or more in extent, conform- 
ing to the shore, for retaining the fish during October and November for sale during 
the early winter. These pens were usually built of 2-inch by (finch hard-wood piles 
driven into the bottom and projecting above the surface, with about f inch space 
between the piles to allow the water to freely pass through the area. A platform 
with a barred entrance was arranged at one side to facilitate the handling of the seine 
and the admission of the fish into the pen, or this was accomplished by having a gate 
hinged to a mudsill at the bottom and with the upper part about a foot above the 
surface of the water and inclined at an angle of about 45°. The gate was opened by 
pushing it beneath the surface, when the fish might be easily emptied from the seine 
into the pond. The ponds were usually emptied before the end of December, the fish 
being removed from the inclosure as the market demand required. The introduction of 
freezing and the increasing scarcity of whitefish in Lake St. Clair led to the abandon- 
ment of these ponds about 1888. Whitefish are still preserved alive in net iuclosures 
in Lake Erie, but this is principally for the purpose of obtaining eggs for use in arti- 
ficial propagation. 
At Port Huron, in 1881, Messrs. Friichtuicht & Neilson, of Sandusky, Ohio, 
constructed a large pen for retaining sturgeon alive. This inclosure covered an area 
