76 Proceedings of the Newport Natural History Society. 
curiosity, also furnishes a valuable oil. An abundance of 
them could be harpooned off Block Island and this side of 
the Gulf Stream. There are certain very oily fishes, com¬ 
mon upon our coast/ the employment of which would be 
valuable medicinally as well as for simple food. Certain 
of these, as the shad, mackerel, blue-fish and herring, are 
always marketable. Another, the menhaden, is not mar¬ 
ketable, save for bait, but is valuable upon a large scale 
for its oil. There is little doubt, however, that if neatly 
canned, there could be obtained for menhaden an extensive 
sale to invalids with wasting diseases throughout the coun¬ 
try. 
Again, still speaking from a professional standpoint, a 
large proportion of the iodine of commerce is even yet 
produced from seaweed. Upon the southern coast of New 
England we have, according to Prof. Farlow of Cambridge, 
over a hundred species of algse, and I have no doubt that 
many of these neglected seaweeds would be found useful 
for medical indications. The carragheen, or Irish moss, 
one of the very few northern species found below Cape 
Cod, abounds with us. In its green state, fresh from the 
rocks, it is not unpalatable, and can be turned to good 
account for the table. Dried and bleached, as we buy it 
from the grocer and druggist, it has not only lost some 
of its chemical value, but has undergone partial decompo¬ 
sition also. Those who have visited the large colony of 
“mossers” along the Cohasset and Scituate shores of Mas¬ 
sachusetts Bay will agree with me in believing that it 
could be equally profitably prepared for the market at 
Newport. From the food aspect alone much could be said 
of the waste of valuable material at Newport. The fish- 
livers of which I have spoken can, when fresh, be palata¬ 
bly prepared for the table. There are certain fishes, oc¬ 
curring with us in great quantities, that are seldom or 
never used at all, unless for lobster-bait. The sea-robin 
or gurnard is so abundant that it sometimes almost fills 
the nets, and is thrown aside as “trash.” There are few 
