A San Francisco paper states:—‘The salmon of California and Oregon, with which our markets are supplied in the fresh and cured state, are nowhere surpassed in quality or flavour. Our rivers, bays, and estuaries are alive with these valuable fish, and the fishermen are busy in securing them during the present run. It is estimated that there are 400 boats on the Sacramento river alone, engaged in fisheries. The boats are valued at 60,000 dollars, the nets at 80,000 dollars, and seines at 6,000 dollars. The fishing season lasts from the 1st of February to the 1st of August, during which time the estimated average of each boat per day is 30 dollars, or an aggregate of 12,000 dollars. The hauling seines yield 100 dollars each per day, or 2,000 dollars in the aggregate. The fish thus caught supply the markets of San Francisco, Sacramento, Marysville, and the mining towns in the interior. Sometimes 2,000 lbs. are sent to one order. The amount shipped daily to San Francisco at present is from 5,000 to 6,000 lbs., which will be increased as the season advances.
‘The fishing smacks outside the harbour in the vicinity of Drake’s Bay, Punto de los Reyes, Tomales, and similar points, as well as other portions of the coast, are busily engaged in the trade.
‘This business is becoming every year of greater interest, and the attention of our legislature has recently been drawn to its proper regulation and protection. A description of the fishes common to these waters, with an account of their habits, quality, and relative value, would be of great interest.
‘In addition to salmon there are other varieties of fish deserving more than a passing notice. Much difficulty is experienced in classifying them under the proper heads, and recognizing the species under their various arbitrary names. The sturgeon, the rock cod, the mackerel—which, although it bears some resemblance to the Atlantic fish is inferior to it in flavour and fatness—the herring, the smelt, the sardine, and other varieties found in our markets, are all more or less valuable. Myriads of sardines abound along the whole southern coast. The Bay of Monterey has especially become famous for its abundance of this small but valuable fish. It is a matter of surprise that the taking and preparation of this fish, which enters so largely into the commerce of the world, has never been attended to as a source of revenue and profit in this region. The experiment certainly is worth testing. There are doubtless many persons here, familiar with the trade as practised on the coast of France, whose services might be secured in the business.’
Another Californian paper, the Sacramento Union, remarks:—‘The fishing interest in the Sacramento at this point is increasing and expanding with astonishing rapidity, from year to year, and from month to month. The water of the river must be alive with salmon, or such numbers caught daily would sensibly reduce their numbers. But experienced fishermen inform us, while the run lasts, so countless is the number, that no matter how many are employed in the business, or how many are taken daily, no diminution can be perceived. Even the ‘tules’ between this and the Coast Range are reported to be filled with salmon. The run this year is said to be greater than ever before known at this season. The extraordinary run of the present time is only expected to continue for something like three weeks. They seem to run in immense schools, with some weeks intervening between the appearance of each school, during which the numbers taken are light, as compared with the quantity taken during a time like the present. No account is kept of the number engaged in fishing, or of the amount caught, and all statements relative thereto are made from estimates obtained from those who have experience in the business, and probably approximate correctness. These estimates give the number of men employed now in taking fish in the Sacramento at about 6OO—the number of fish taken daily, on an average, at 2,000—their average weight 17 lbs., making 34,000 lbs. per day. Two cents per lb., which is probably more than the present average price by the quantity, would give a daily income to those employed of 680 dollars, not very high pay. Either the number of men engaged in the business, we imagine, must be over estimated, or the number of fish caught under estimated. It requires two men to man a boat, which would give 300 boats for 600 men: 2,000 fish a day would give to each man a fraction over three as his share. We presume few are fishing who do not catch a good many more than that number. We saw a boat-load, the product of the previous night, consisting of 66 salmon, weighed yesterday morning. They averaged a fraction over 17 lbs., and gave 33 as the number caught by each man, instead of three, as estimated above. Say the 600 fishermen man, on an average, 200 boats a night; the average number caught by each boat put at 20, and the sum total would be 4,000 fish, instead of 2,000, as estimated. Our impression is that the latter comes nearer the mark than the former, as a good many of the fishermen send their fish directly to San Francisco; others take them to different points for salting. Large numbers are salted down daily, several firms and individuals being extensively engaged in this branch of the trade. The fish are put down in hogsheads, which average, when filled, about 800 lbs. From 1,000 to 3,000 lbs. are put down daily by those engaged in salting. An acquaintance has filled 65 hogsheads this season. The most of those engaged in salting live on the Washington side of the river, and salt their fish there. Including those engaged in salting, catching, and selling, probably the fish business furnishes employment for 1,000 men.’
The salmon is found in no other waters in such vast multitudes as are met in the rivers emptying into the Pacific. On the Atlantic side, the leading fish feature is the run of shad in the spring; on the Pacific side, salmon ascend the rivers at all seasons, in numbers beyond all computation. In California and Oregon, the rivers are alive with them; the great number taken by fishermen are but a drop from the bucket. Above this, on the coast side, tribes of Indians use no other food. As a table luxury, they are esteemed by most persons the finest fish caught. Unlike many fish, they contain but few bones, and the orange-coloured meat can be served in slices to suit customers. It is emphatically the meat for the million; it costs so little—not a quarter that of other meats—that rich and poor can feast upon salmon as often in the day as they choose to indulge in the luxury. In the course of a few years, salmon fishing will extend itself to all the prominent rivers in the North Pacific States. Catching and curing salmon will then have become a systematized business; the fish consumption will then have extended itself generally over those States, and more than likely become, in the meantime, an important article of export.
While upon the subject of these fisheries, it may be added, that a considerable portion of the Chinese population, both at San Francisco and at Sacramento, have engaged extensively in this business. In the vicinity of Mission Creek, near the former city, they have gone into the business upon a large scale. The average ‘catch,’ each day, is estimated at about 5,000 lbs., for which a ready market is found among the Chinese population, at five dollars per cwt. The process of catching, cleaning, and curing, presents a busy and curious scene.
Sir John Bowring remarks that, ‘The multitudes of persons who live by the fisheries in China afford evidence not only that the land is cultivated to the greatest possible extent, but that it is insufficient to supply the necessities of the overflowing population; for agriculture is held in high honour in China, and the husbandman stands next in rank to the sage, or literary man, in the social hierarchy. It has been supposed that nearly a tenth of the population derive their means of support from fisheries. Hundreds and thousands of boats crowd the whole coasts of China—sometimes acting in communities, sometimes independent and isolated. There is no species of craft by which a fish can be inveigled which is not practised with success in China. Every variety of net, from vast seines, embracing miles, to the smallest hand-filet in the care of a child. Fishing by night and fishing by day—fishing in moonlight, by torchlight, and in utter darkness—fishing in boats of all sizes—fishing by those who are stationary on the rock by the seaside, and by those who are absent for weeks on the wildest of seas—fishing by cormorants—fishing by divers—fishing with lines, with baskets—by every imaginable decoy and device. There is no river which is not staked to assist the fisherman in his craft. There is no lake, no pond, which is not crowded with fish. A piece of water is nearly as valuable as a field of fertile land. At daybreak every city is crowded with sellers of live fish, who carry their commodity in buckets of water, saving all they do not sell to be returned to the pond or kept for another day’s service.
The fishing grounds of Van Diemen’s Land are periodically visited by a splendid fish named arbouka, a well-known piscatory visitant on the coast of New Zealand. Great numbers of these beautiful denizens of the deep have been caught, varying in weight from 60 lbs. to 100 lbs. each. The trumpeter is one of the most magnificent of Tasmanian fish; and is unrivalled in the quality of its flesh by any visitant in those waters. A demand has been created for them in Victoria; and before long, a stirring trade will be established between the two colonies in these beautiful fish.
The native cooking-oven of New Zealand, called the unu, is a very curious contrivance, and is thus described by Mr. S. C. Brees. It consists of a round hole, about two or three feet in diameter, and twelve inches deep, in which some wood is placed and lighted. Large pebble-stones are then thrown on the fire and heated, which remain at the bottom of the hole after the wood is consumed; the stones are next arranged, so as to present a level surface, and sprinkled with water; wild cabbage or other leaves are moistened and spread over them, upon which the food intended to be cooked is laid; the whole is then covered over with leaves and flax-baskets, and lastly, filled over with earth, which completes the operation. After allowing it to remain a certain time, according to circumstances, which the cook determines with the utmost precision, the oven is opened and the food removed. Eels and potatoes are delicious when cooked in this manner, and every other kind of provision.