15^ MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIII, 



American coast, or at least that they will be comparatively low on 

 an average, 



It may be added as regards general yields of oil from the 

 menhaden that, during the ten years ending 1898, the average yield 

 of oil on the Atlantic Coast, taking all regions together, was just 

 about 5 per cent ; in the previous ten years, it was about 4^ per 

 cent and in the six years previous to that period was about 6 per 

 cent. 



9, A curious fact is stated in a record of 1902, viz., that on 

 the Maine coast — in the northernmost waters fished — these fish 

 yielded in 1888 as high as about 13 per cent, in 1889 about II^ 

 per cent, and in 1898 about 10^ per cent; from 1898 to 1902 

 practically no fish were taken on that northernmost coast, and in 

 1912 there was only one factory in Maine. This apparent desertion 

 of a coast by the menhaden is parallelled by a similar desertion of 

 its ma-ckerel shoals; it is not therefore strange that on the Madras 

 West Coast the shoals of sardine (and mackerel) are found to 

 fluctuate very greatly both in quantity and in oil productivity in 

 various years and various localities: this aspect of affairs is all 

 important when estimating the chances of large factories on the 

 West Coast. 



10. Capture of fish. — In the United States of America the men- 

 haden {Brevoortia tvraunus or Alosa) were originally taken on the 

 Atlantic Coast by the ordinary shore seine net, the joint property 

 of the coast farmers who captured the fish which were used whole 

 as fertilizer for their fields. These seines were of large size, up 

 to 3,000 feet in total length, and were capable of taking several 

 hundred thousand fish at a time if big shoals were available, and 

 were evidently similar to the " rampani " nets now gradually 

 coming into use in South Kanara. As the demand grew in conse- 

 quence of the introduction of boiling the fish so as to obtain both 

 oil and fertilizer, sailing boats operating the newly invented purse 

 seine in the open sea, became general, and these were speedily 

 followed and are now entirely replaced by steam and oil-driven 

 boats, operating purse seines. The purse seines are enormous nets 

 of the seine class, the bottom edges of which, after enclosing a 

 shoal, can be drawn together so as to form a vast purse or bag from 

 which but few fish can escape ; it is said that some of these nets 

 can take half a million fish — about 150 tons^n an hour if the fish 

 are available. The nets cost up to Rs. 3,000 and are said to last 



