The Penn's Grove record., 1891-05-29
OCEAN TREASURES.
THINGS OF VALUE WHICH THE
SEA CONTRIBUTES.
Skins and Scales of Fishes Tha.
Are Available in h Indus
tries-Curious Uses to Which
Sea Weeds Arc Put.

Few people are aware of the many
curious uses to which the products Of
the tribe of fishes are put, but a Wash
ington Star reporter has gathered some
information upon that point from con-
versations with the scientists at the Ma
tional Museum. The spines of the ray
are employed by the Indians of Brazil as
points for their arrows. Sharks teeth
are likewise utilized for arming weapons,
as well as for trinklets, and the jawbone
of the s'boalee" is rendered serviceable
as a comb by the natives of Dacca, the
teeth being small and closely set, so as
% be available in removing the loose
fbers from cotton wool. The jaws OF
che "sleeper shark are worn for head
dresses by the North American aborigi-
mes rand fish bones are used by the
Eskimo for canes. The osseous portions
of sharks and skates are transformed 10
Japan into imitation tortoise shell, while,
among the islands of the Korean archi.
pelago the children shake the dried eggs
of the skate in their rattles.
Many ornaments for ladies, of various
sorts, are manufactured from fish scales
both in this country and abroad. They
are worked up, either plain or colored,
for making artificial flowers and other
fancy work. The Chinese have a method
of grinding up fish scales and using the
powder as a dry pigment for employment
in paintings. The skins Of many marine
animals-such as the seal, walrus, white
whale and porpoise-have long been
commercially utilized. Eel skins have
been found available for the throngs Of
whips, dried sole skins to clarity coffee,
and shark and ray skins for shagreen
leather. Whale skins are turned out,
sixty feet in length by twelve inches
wide, for wheel bands to drive machin-
cry with. Skins of various fat fishes are
dressed and prepared for gloves, as well
as in the shape Of upper leather for
shoes. Skins of soles are likewise rem.
dered suitable for purses, while skins OF
thornbacks serve cabinet makers instead
of sandpaper, being very much more
durable.
In Egypt fish skins from the Red sea
are found useful for the .soles of shoes,
and in Gloucester, Mass, the skin of the
cusk is tanned for upper leather. In
parts of Russia and Siberia the skin Of
the burbot, cleaned, stretched and dried,
serves the country people as a trimming
for their dresses, and also instead Of
glass for the windows of their dwellings,
being as transparent as oiled paper. The
inhabitants Of the middle coast of eastern
Asia clothe themselves with the tanned
skins of salmon, the scale marks giving
a very neat pattern to the leather.
From a certain portion Of the skin oil
the angel shark the Turks make beauti'
full sea green watch cases. European
workers in ebony use the rough skin OF
the blue dog fish, like emery paper, foi
smoothing their work and preparing it
for polishing. The hides of the SAINT
animals are utilized for shagreen leather.
Among the most peculiar preparations oil
Norway are the fish flours, composed Of
the flesh of the fish reduced to powder,
from which biscuits are made, which are
alleged by chemists to contain four times
the nutritive matters of beef and sixteen
times those of milk or of rye bread.
Dried loaves of putrid pounded fish are
commonly eaten in Africa and South
America and esteemed delicious diet.
1t is not commonly realized that sea.
weeds produce a large annual income fol
the worlds use. They are an interest.
ing sort of plants anyway, varying in
size from almost microscopic dwarfs to
giant vegetables like the great seal
tangle, which grows to a height of 36G
feet, a single specimen nourishing my
RAIDS of marine animals. These curious
growths subsist not like those which de-
velop on the earth from roots, but COM,
monty they have merely an attachment
to some rock or other anchor, which
holds them stationary while theil
branches float about, deriving from the
sea water all the sustenance they need id
the shape of carbonic acid and ammonia,
as well as of alkaline and earthly phos;
pilates and carbonates. Many kinds Of
seaweeds are used directly in m
for the manufacture of soda, iodine,
bromine and gelatinous extracts. In
Scotland and other northern countries
they are utilized in winter for feeding
horses and cattle. Upholsterers use the
plants for stutfing furniture as a substi,
tute for horsehair-also mattresses and
beds for children, because their aromatic
odor keeps away insects. Packers EN-
ploy seaweeds for wrapping fragile OBJ
jects and chemists obtain from them no
end of chlorides, sulphates, s~ilicates and
other such valuable products. y