Commercial Products of the Sea. 
77 
who are aware that strips cut from the side of the sea- 
robin and properly cooked are really delicious, but there 
being no demand for them the fishermen do not take the 
trouble to prepare them. The hake, usually despised, is 
excellent if cooked when fresh; though in the farther 
north they are split and dried and packed with cod for 
exportation, here they are thrown away. Cuttle-fish or 
squid, abundant in their season, are most delicate eating 
if well prepared: I speak from personal knowledge. Epi¬ 
cures know that there is nothing, unless it be the head of 
the halibut, that makes so delicious a chowder as the head 
of a cod: they are thrown away in this vicinity. 
Every year at Newport fish are so plenty that but a 
small portion of those that could be readily caught can be 
sold at home. In the mackerel season the water often 
seems fairly alive with fish. In the scup season large 
pounds or sea-cages are now constructed, in which thou¬ 
sands of barrels of the fish are kept waiting the demands 
of an overstocked market. Curiously enough, there seem 
to be marked local limitations to popular tastes. Thus, 
while the delicious scup is ardently called for by New 
York and Philadelphia, it is not wanted in Boston, while 
the equally toothsome sword-fish is particularly demanded 
bv the last of these cities. It would seem that if Newport 
had a fresh fish cold-storage house on a sufficiently large 
scale, stocked when fish are plenty and drawn upon when 
they are otherwise out of the market, there might be large 
money returns to its owners. 
Aside from the purposes of medicine and food, there 
are others for which these sea-products can be profitably 
employed. The skins of sharks and sturgeons make admir¬ 
able leather: that of the former, shagreen, has long been 
used for producing a delicate polish upon wood and metal. 
Every year quite a number of sturgeon are taken in 
the Newport stationary nets. Their swimming-bladders 
or sounds produce the finest isinglass. So high is still its 
price that, despite the substitutes that are generally em- 
