eries and of the National Museum (Washington, 1870 onward); governmental documents issued by Canada and Newfoundland; Eigenmann, South American Fishes (San Francisco, 1893); Yarrell, History of British Fishes (3d ed., London, 1859); Couch, History of British Fishes (London, 1865); Houghton, Freshwater Fishes of Great Britain (London, 1879); Siebold, Die Süsswasserfische von Mitteleuropa (Leipzig, 1863); Blanchard, Les poissons des eaux douces de la France (Paris, 1866); Day, Fauna of British India: Fishes (London, 1889); Hutton and Hector, Fishes of New Zealand (Wellington, 1872). For fossil fishes, consult Woodward, Outlines of Vertebrate Paleontology (Cambridge, 1898), in which is a full bibliography to the fossil forms; Agassiz, Recherches sur les poissons fossiles, vols, i.-iii. and supplement (Neufchâtel, 1833-44); Woodward, Catalogue of Fossil Fishes of the British Museum, vols, i.-iii. (London, 1889-95); and for American forms, Newberry, “Paleozoic Fishes of North America,” in Monographs of the United States Geological Survey, vol. xvi. (Washington, 1890).
FISH AS FOOD. Fish is almost universally recognized as one of the important food materials, and enters into the diet of very many if not most American families. From recent data collected by the United States Fish Commission it appears that the total weight of the fish marketed yearly in the United States is 1,696,000.000 pounds, having a value of $47,200,000. By the processes of canning, salting, smoking, and otherwise preserving, the value of the fish is very much increased. In addition, thousands of pounds of fish are annually caught by sportsmen, but statistics of the amount are not available. Of the very large quantity of fish annually placed on the American market the greater part is consumed at home, although a portion is prepared in various ways for export. The preference for fresh-water or salt-water fish is a matter of individual taste. Both are, so far as known, equally wholesome. The market value of fish is affected by various conditions. Among these are the locality from which they come, the season in which they are taken, and the food on which they have grown.
Fish are sold either dressed or round, i.e. whole. Sometimes only the entrails are removed. Often, however, especially when dressed for cooking, the head, fins, and, less frequently, the bones, are removed. This entails a considerable loss in weight as well as of nutritive material. It has been stated on good authority that in dressing fish the following percentages are lost: Large-mouthed black bass, sea-bass, cisco, kingfish, mullet, white perch, pickerel, pike, tomcod, weakfish, and whitefish, each, 17½ per cent.; small-mouthed black bass, eel, Spanish mackerel, porgy, and turbot, each, 13½ per cent.; butter-fish, 12½ per cent.; shad, 11 per cent., and brook-trout, 16½ per cent. More recent figures for loss in weight in dressing are as follows: Bullhead, 50 per cent.; buffalo-fish and lake sturgeon, 40 per cent.; carp and sucker, 35 per cent.; fresh water sheepshead, 23 per cent.; grass pike, black bass, white bass, yellow perch, and salmon, 15 per cent.; and eels, 10 per cent.
Fresh water and salt water fish alike are offered for sale as taken from the water, or preserved in various ways. Large quantities of fish are dried, salted, and smoked, the processes being employed alone or in combination. These methods insure preservation, but modify the flavor. Several fish products are also prepared by these processes. For example, caviar, prepared very largely in Russia, and now made to a large extent also in the United States, is usually prepared from sturgeon-roe by salting. The methods of salting and packing vary somewhat and give rise to a number of varieties.
When fish is salted or otherwise cured there is a considerable loss in weight due to removal of the entrails, drying, etc. Codfish loses 60 per cent. in preparation for market. If the market-dried fish be boned, there is a further loss of 20 per cent. The loss in weight of pollack is 60 per cent.; haddock, 62 per cent.; hake, 56 per cent.; and cusk, 51 per cent. The canning industry has been enormously developed in recent years, and thousands of pounds of fish, oysters, clams, lobsters, shrimps, etc., are annually preserved in this way. Various kinds of fish extract, clam-juice, etc., are offered for sale. There are also a number of fish pastes—anchovy paste, for instance—and similar products which are used as relishes or condiments. Preservatives such as salicylate of soda are employed to some extent with fish, and especially oysters, for shipping. The extended use of such materials is not desirable, since some of them are justly regarded as harmful.
Oysters and other shellfish are placed on the market alive in the shell, or are removed from the shell and kept in good condition by chilling or other means. In the shell oysters are usually transported in barrels or sacks. Shipment is made to far inland points in refrigerator cars, and to Europe in cold-storage chambers of vessels. Oysters are often sold as they are taken from the salt water. However, the practice of ‘freshening,’ ‘fattening,’ or ‘floating’ is very widespread—that is, oysters are placed in fresh or brackish water for a short period, in which they become plump in appearance, owing chiefly to the water taken up by their tissues. They have a different flavor from those taken directly from salt water. Lobsters, crabs, and other crustacea, though sometimes boiled before being marketed, are usually sold alive. Turtle and terrapin are usually marketed alive. Turtle soup, however, is canned in large quantities. Frogs, valued for their hind legs, are marketed alive or dressed in all seasons, but are in the best condition in fall or winter.
The average composition of the principal fish, crustacea, etc., used for food is shown in the table below. That of others less frequently eaten is similar.
Fish usually contains less fat than is found in meat. There is, however, much difference in the fat content of the various kinds of fish. They may, indeed, be roughly divided into three classes: The first class would include those containing over 5 per cent. fat; the second those containing between 2 and 5 per cent.; and the third those containing less than 2 per cent. The first group would include such fish as salmon, shad, herring, Spanish mackerel, and butter-fish; the second, whitefish, mackerel, mullet, halibut, and porgy; the third, smelt, black bass, bluefish, white perch, weakfish, brook-trout, hake, flounder, yellow perch, pike, pickerel, sea-bass, cod, and haddock.
