370 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
ill Gloucester for bait, nearly all tlie frozen herring are carried directly to Boston and 
jSTew York, and two or three cargoes are carried to Philadelphia eacth season. At 
these places they are sold locally and packed in barrels for distribution, and sent as 
far south as Washington, and as far west as the Mississippi Biver.* After reaching 
their destination, the great bulk are sold fresh, but some are pickled by the dealers, 
while others are cured as bloaters or hard herring. After being frozen, herring are 
not especially desirable for either of these purposes, as they become soft and the flesh 
is rather dark and unattractive in color 
ARTIFICIAL FREEZING AND COLD STORAGE. 
The artificial freezing of fish and other food products with their subsequent 
retention in cold storage is one of the most recent methods of preservation, origi- 
nating about thirty-five years ago; and while it has acquired considerable importance 
in certain localities, its practical value is scarcely appreciated by the general public. 
It is applied in the various marketing centers of the United States and to some extent 
in the countries of Europe and South America. Its greatest development and most 
extensive application in the fisheries exists along the Great Lakes in freezing white- 
fish, trout, herring, pike, etc., about 3,500 tons of which are frozen each year. On 
the Atlantic coast of the United States it is used in preserving blueflsh, squeteague, 
mackerel, smelt, sturgeon, herring, etc., the trade in these frozen fish “tailing on” or 
immediately following the season for fresh or green fish. On the Pacific coast large 
quantities of salmon and sturgeon are frozen and held in cold storage until shqiped, 
the trade extending to all parts of America and northern Europe. At various points 
throughout the interior of the country there are cold-storage houses where fishery 
products are held awaiting demand from consumers. In Europe there is comparatively 
little freezing of fisli, although the process is applied very extensively to preserving 
beef, mutton, and other meat products, and the markets of Hamburg and other conti- 
nental cities receive annually several million pounds of frozen salmon from the Pacific 
coast. In England large fish-freezers were erected several years ago at Grimsby and 
Hull, but did not prove successful and were finally dismantled. 
By the use of ice alone during warm weather the temperature of fish can never be 
kept below 32° F. While this low temperature retards decomposition, the fish acquire 
a musty taste and loss of flavor and eventually spoil. To entirely prevent decomposi- 
tion the fish must be frozen immediately after capture and then kept at a temperature 
of several degrees below freezing. The belief held by some persons that freezing 
destroys the flavor of fish is not well founded, the result depending more on its condi- 
tion when the cold is applied and the manner of such application than upon the effect 
of the low temperature. Fish decreases less in value from freezing than meat does, but 
it is especially subject to two difficulties from which frozen meat is free; first, the eye 
dries up and loses its shining appearance after a very long exposure to cold, and 
second, the skin, being less elastic than the texture of the fish, gets hard and becomes 
somewhat loose on the flesh. Frozen fish is not less wholesome than fish not so pre- 
served. Tlie chemical constituents are identical, except that the latter may contain 
more water, but the water derived from ingested fish has no greater food value than 
water taken as such. The principal objection to this form of preservation is the ten- 
dency to freeze fish in which decomposition has already set in, and the prosperity of 
* See Fishery Industries of the United States, sec. x, vol. 1, p. 4.51-1.56. 
