19^ MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIII, 



aggregate yields vary greatly in actual quantity ; in the ten 

 years 1889 to 1898 the yield varied from 3,327,030 gallons maxi- 

 mum to 1,329,644 gallons minimum ; in 1910 the production was 

 70,000 barrels, while in 1911 it was 135,000 barrels : the differences 

 are due partly to fluctuations in the number of fish caught, partly 

 tc variations in the percentage of oil. 



These facts are of great importance in considering the yield of 

 sardine oil on the West Coast and consequent profit to the industry 

 and its value as a trade. It is to be remembered that Madras West 

 Coast waters are ivholly tropical so that on the analogy of the 

 United States the average Madras yields of oil should be very low ; 

 this would undoubtedly be the case but for the enormous amounts 

 of food brought down in the south-west monsoon (June to September) 

 by the high floods in the coastal rivers ; the sardines usually fatten 

 tremendously on this food, and it is for several months after the 

 monsoon that the fish are at their fattest. Whether there is a 

 direct connexion between the character of the monsoon and the 

 fatness of the fish has not been seriously examined. But another 

 factor seems to be of importance, viz., the age of the fish ; it is the 

 adult fish which give the maximum amount of fat, and it was from 

 these, averaging 25,000 to 40,000 to the ton, that the heavy yields in 

 I910-II were obtained at Cannanore and the neighbourhood. For 

 most of the subsequent years the average size of the fish has greatly 

 decreased ; e.g., the bulk of the catches in Malabar have lately been 

 running at from 70,000 to 90,000 or more per ton ; these are all small 

 and very lean, immature fish which produce, at any season, a mini- 

 mum of oil ; see the remarks in the several annual reports recorded 

 in Fisheries Bulletin X and for subsequent years, both as to scarcity 

 and leanness of the fish. Mature fish, frequent shoals, a heavy 

 monsoon, and localities in which, as in the bay below Mount Dilli 

 (just north of Cannanore) and in other similar localities, the fish 

 find sheltered feeding, seem to be important factors in the yield of 

 oil. South Kanara appears to be more productive both of fish and 

 oil than Malabar. 



91. In the reports for 1909-IO and I910-II, the facts found at 

 Cannanore where experiment began, appeared to warrant in good 

 years an expectation of 20 per cent guano and 10 per cent oil, the 

 latter outturn being well below the percentage obtained in 19TO-II, 

 viz., 15 per cent; the remarks were, however, expressly limited to 

 that particular season, and the following seasons showed that the 



