The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-11-18
A STRING OF FISH.
Caught From tho Bulletin of the
sfl,itrG stascS EiNh Co commission.

quantities in the United StateS, anu III:
smoked fish is a very important article
os food. In England halibut is but little
used. Gloucester has been sending hei
vessels to Iceland for a number OF years,
and in 1854 twenty vessels were hshlns
in these northern seas. The lcelandel
apparently looks with wonder at the SUI
periority not only of the Gloucester YES
sells, but at the excellence OF their tlsh nS
apparatus. Mr.. T.orsteinsoa. descrlb-
ing a Gloucester schooner, writes mat as
to construction, rigging, and sails she
''could not be distinguished from an
English pleasure boat" The comparl-
son was evidently made between the
trim American craft and the slovenly
English and French vessels. The Ice
lander tells how we'll fed was the Amerl'
can crew--"receiving fresh bread every
dav.n As many as 1000 fish were caught
last year bv the Gloucester craft. These
Northern halibut will weigh sometimes
800 bounds. As the halibut on the
Grand Banks ave decreasing, the supply
of these fish, it is probable, will be taken
in the future from Icelar die waters.
When the Vikings first reached Iceland,
using it as a stepping stone Tor the ois'
coverv of shores not so far distant to inc
westward, could they have ever fancled
that a race of men waull have been born
who in their tarn should start from the
west and seek Iceland oLcc more!
American trout have been successlvelg
introduced into Norway.
The well known action of c~arnlvorous
plants, living on the land, p~resupposes
the existence OF q similar fauna III the
water. Land pltnts catch insects, water
plants fish. Both want heterogeneous
food. and take 1t where they can iiud 1t.
A Mr.. Simms, Of Oxford, was the hrst to
direct attention to the Utricutarla vul-
paris which caught small fish, hold.
inc them firmly between the valves OF
the bladders or this voracious plant.
When Mr.. Darwin studied the roots OF
the carnivorous plant he found these TO
be but little developed. 1t became then
a necesSity for the existence OF the plant
to find nutrimeut elsewhere. The same
parallelism is found in the pisclvorous
water plants.
CLANS, undoubtedly Of Atlantic origin
are now found on the Pacific coast. IN
1S69-7O oysters were taken from the At
lantic to San Francisco bay. 1t IS quite
probable that Spat Of the Nya were thus
conveyed. Some adult clans were prop
ably taken to the coast of Washington
Territory. Examinations of she'll heaps
left by former races on the California
coast show no fragment of shell belong
ing to our common Atlantic clam.
If a ton of fish is equal in weight TO
twenty-eieht sheep, and the total eaten
of fish made by the United Kingdom,
Canada, Russia and the United states
aggregates 1000, 900 tons, that IS ABOUT
in weight equivalent to about 2S,ooo,'
900 sheen. As to the comparative value
of fish and animal flesh, there would DC
more nutriment in the sheep. Stu the
amount of food furnished by fish to man
is According to Mulhali' IN
Europe and America $50, 600 YES
sells are employed in fishing, and between
600, 900 and 700, 900 men are employed
The Philadelphia Press writes: Eng.
lish economists maintain that the
haphazard and improvident meth
DDS of fishing are exhaust.
ing the fish supply of that
country as surely as mining is ~exhausting
the supply of coal. The supply of many
kinds of fish is rapidly diminishing, n
the only way to check the waste is by
a systematic study of the conditions
which regulate the supply.
With the increased demand for 1000,
and with abundant evidence from other
countries of the result of neg'ect we
shoald rather increase than relax our
efforts to understand more about tho
food, habits, spawning, and propagation
of our fish in rivers, lakes and the sea-
in order that the harvest may not gro"
less as the demand becomes more ur-
gent"
When salmon was first canned on the
Pacific side, in order to Introduce the
prepared salmon Mr.. Hume used to MI
q basket with cans of salmon and give
them away. The man who did Il Il put
up last year some so. 900 cases of cameo
salmon. each containing forty-clght
pound cans. In describing thct Usher
men engaged in catching salmon the
statement is made that the rims,
Swedes, N%orwegians, and Russians are
reliable and industrious fishermen, but
that the Italians and Portuguese are not.
When a fisherman is incorporate he runs
a great risk of death, because the slight
est mistake made in handling q boat re-
suits in drowning. The gigantic break
ers where the ocean and river currents
meet, on the Columbia river, overwhelm
a careless fisherman.
Mr.. Worthington, United States con-
sui at Malta, writes to the state depart
ment that year by year the supply OF
fish has been decreasing in Maltese
waters, and to such an extent that the
poorer classes on the island are una tic to
buy fish at all owing to the enhanced
price. The Acknowledgements oil
Malta writes to the American consul
stating that he IS directed by the gov
erpor to ask whether the United State
will not furnish the Malta government
with information, and that such infor-
nation in regard to means of increasing
the supply Of fish will be gratefully re-
ceived and highly appreciated by the
governor and the Maltese people,
The sailing of herring roes in Norway
is an important branch of business. the
bulk of the roes going to France, wh:re
they are used in catching sardines. The
exports now amount to over 70: 600 bar
rels.
Porpoise fishing off Hatteras, North
Carolina, looks as if it were likely to
become an important business. A por-
poise of fair size yields products worth
con In oil md ekin Il Is sold that the