344 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
LIVE-CARS OR LIVE-BOXES. 
The most usual method of keeping lishery iiroducts iu captivity alive is by means 
of live-cai’s or live-boxes. These are employed in the market fishery of New York, 
the lobster fishery of the New England States, the catfish fishery of Louisiana, the 
seine fishery of the Gulf of Mexico, and in numerous other small fisheries along the 
coast and on the interior waters. Ordinarily they are plain wooden boxes, wdth open 
seams or numerous auger-holes to permit a free circulation of water and yet not so large 
as to permit the escape of the fish, their size and shape conforming to the requirements 
of the fishes and the localities for which they are intended. The buoyancy of the 
material entering into their construction keeps them at the surface of the water, with 
little more than the upper portion exposed, this position being regulated if necessary 
by attaching fioats or weights, as the case may require. When it is desirable to move 
them frequently from place to place they are made in the form of skiff's. 
The live cars enqdoyed at Fulton Maiket, New York City, for retaining cod, sea 
bass, and tautog or blacktish brought in by the well-smacks, are of various sizes, but 
generally about 18 feet long, 12 feet wdde, and from 2 to 3 feet deep, the depth being 
greater in the center than at the two ends. They are made of planking 1 inch thick 
and 0 inches wide, nailed to a rectangular frame of joist, with s])aces of 1 or 2 inches 
between the planks to allow free circulation of water, and are without partitions on 
the inside and without barrels or other buoys. In the top of each ai’e two pairs of 
doors, running the entire length of the car, but covering only about half the width, 
and Avhich may be fastened with a padlock. The cars are moored in the dock at the 
rear of the market, and by means of tackle attached to the rear of each fish-house they 
are raised occasionally and rested on a platform or float running the entire length of 
Fulton Market, so that they may be cleaned and dried to iirevent their becoming 
water-logged. They cost about $24 each and have capacity for 3,000 or 4,000 pounds 
of fish under ordinary conditions. No food is given the fish confined in the cars and 
the length of time during Avhich they may be kept depends on the Aveather. If bottom 
ice forms, the tautog may all die iu one night, but the cod are quite hardy. As soon as 
the fish are removed from the cars they are killed, and being much fresher and firmer 
they are sold at a higher price than that received for fish brought iu packed in ice. 
These cars are used also for holding lobsters and green turtle aliA^e. 
At certain of the European fishing jiorts the retaining of live cod in floating cars 
is quite extensive. From Holdsworth’s “Sea Fisheries” is obtained the following 
account of the business at Grimsby: 
AA' hen the smacks arrive with their cargoes of live and dead tish at Grinishy, the cod in the well 
are taken out hy means of long-handled lauding nets, and are x)laced iu wooden boxes or chests which 
are kept floating in the dock; there the tish are stored till wanted for the market. These cod chests 
are 7 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 2 feet deep ; the bottom is made of stout battens j)laced a short distance 
apart, so that the water jieuetrates freely to the interior, as it does also between the planks of which 
the sides and ends are built np. The top is wholly planked over, except iu the center, where there is an 
oblong oiieuing for putting iu and taking out lish. This opening is closed by a cover when the chest is 
iu the water. Two ropes or chains are fixed in the ends of each chest for convenience iu moAdug it about 
and hoisting it out of the water. About 40 good-sized cod, or nearly 100 smaller ones, may be put into 
one of these chests, and will live there without much deterioration for about a fortnight. There are 
usually as many as 400 of these chests in the Grimsby fish-dock, sometimes all in use and containing 
from 1.5,000 to 20,000 live cod. Every day during the cod season a remarkable scene is presented here, 
and the same thing occurs at Harwich, although on a smaller scale, Gj'imsby and Harwich being the 
two ports where the live cod are stored. A certain number of fish being Avauted for market, the 
