PRESERVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD 
387 
mixture of ice and salt [10 per cent of the latter]. When frozen, they are taken out and shipped in 
baskets hy rapid transit to Kharkolf, Moscow, and other great centers. 
At Genichesk the freezing of dolphins and sturgeon is carried on in an ordinary cellar constructed 
on the seashore. In the spring and autumn the cellar is u.sed for salting the lish, and in the summer 
when the dolphin fishery is mostly carried on in the sea, the chests i'roni which the lish are taken are 
used to freeze the fish. This is done in the following manner: A layer of ice, 1 arshine * in depth, is laid 
on the bottom of the chest; this is covered with salt; on this is placed a layer of fish which is covered 
with a fresh layer of ice and salt of half an arshine, and so on to the top. The fish remain in this 
condition for 3 weeks, not longer, and are frozen, as in winter, in 24 hours after they are placed in the 
chest. If it is necessary to keep the fish longer than 3 weeks they are taken out of the ice and placed 
in boxes containing gratings in order that the cold may penetrate them and to prevent the lish from 
becoming soft hy not being sufficiently salted. If it is intended to take the fish out within a week, 
the first layer of ice is made only one-half arshine deep and the others much less. The capacity is 
7.000 poods of frozen fish. The whole shipment from Genichesk amounts to 20,000 X)Oods every 
summer. The frozen lish is shiiiped mostly to Kharkoff where it arrives in 24 hours, and may go as 
far as Moscow. It is sent with great rapidity, in baskets containing 10 x)oods, with a mat over the top. 
At the jilace of the catch the doliihins are sent direct in fresh condition to the freezing establish- 
ment, where they are frozen. On islands at a distance from Genichesk, ice is stored on the spot and 
the fish are frozen there by being buried in the ice, and are then shiiiped at night on sailing vessels 
when the wind is favorable. 
The same method has l)een emjdoyed recently at Uralsk for freezing sturgeon, and the frozen 
sturgeon of the sjiring catch are shijjped to Busuluk and Grenburg. In order to show the fish-dealers 
the construction of the cold-storage rooms of the American type, for the i)reservation of frozen fish, a 
room of that kind was constructed at Uralsk after my ijlaus. The whole oijoration of freezing the 
fish and the construction of the room itself have been several times explained in this miniature ware- 
house; and an oiiportunity of inspecting it is offered at any time to those wishing to do so. 
There is no doubt that freezing fish in the ordinary ice-house aiiimars to be the simplest 
method, as it requires no 8i)ecial buildings and is done in the common cellar ice-house, jiart of the ice 
in which serves for that x>urpose. The large fish, as I succeeded in ascertaining by x>ersoual observa- 
tion, are frozen very thoroughly by this means and lose nothing of their external api^earance. The 
time during which the fish can be preserved by this method, however, is limited. The fish must be 
taken out within a week or a week and a half; otherwise the brine acts ujjon the frozen fish, and it 
becomes soft and dark. Besides, this method can only be ai)plied where there is a large stock of ice 
on hand, as is the case in vaults which are also used for other jjurjjoses. 
In view of what has been said, we must conclude that for Russia, in jilaces where there are 
fisheries, the most exiiedient mode of cold storage consists in a combination of the vault and the cold- 
storage rooms of the American tyjie for the jireservation of frozen fish. By means of such combination, 
in the first xilace, the s^iace may be used for the ordinary purjicses of the spring and autumn salting; 
in the second place, the largest fish can be easily frozen by direct burial in the ice without any great 
expense for labor; and in the third jilace, when the frozen fish are taken out of the ice, they can be 
stored for the longest iieriod in the cold-storage rooms of the American type. 
FREEZING HERRING FOR BAIT. 
The demand for fresh herring- as bait in the cod fisheries led, in 1890, to the build- 
ing of a number of freezing houses along the New England coast, where shore herring 
are frozen during the fall and kept for use during the winter and early spring. Most 
of these were of the direct anhydrous ammonia absorption system and were designed 
by M. J. Paulson, of Gloucester. From 1890 to 1893 the following idauts, with the 
designated capacities, were constructed: Gloucester, 4,500 barrels; Rockland, 10,000 
barrels; Boothbay Harbor, 4,000 barrels; Provincetown, 3,000 barrels; North Truro, 
3.000 barrels. The Rockland freezer did not pay and was dismantled in 1894. The 
walls of the storage chambers in these plants are thick and well insulated. About 
the walls on the inside are ranged the ammonia pipes in nests of horizontal rows, the 
Oue arsbiue e,(]uals 28 inches. 
