176 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. Xlll, 



with below s.v. " adulteration." With proper drying grounds of 

 plastered floors or at least beaten earth, there should be no admix- 

 ture of sand, etc., beyond at most 2 per cent : in Tanur it is, or was, 

 less; a small amount is inevitable owing to the strong sea breeze 

 blowing from the sandy beach over the drying ground. 



62. (7) Owing to smallness of the factories and the slow 

 character of operations conducted as above with crammed boiling 

 pans, imperfect heating, and a minimum of workers, the fish are 

 often thoroughly tainted before being boiled, especially when 

 catches are plentiful and cheap ; this spoils the oil and injures the 

 guano. Moreover, this fact coupled with want of cleanliness in 

 factory and surroundings, attracts or begets multitudes of flies 

 which are probably a greater evil than the odours which are the 

 chief subject of complaint, 



63. (8) The effluent water from the separating pits is supposed 

 to be carried away by drains to the sea : it is too often allowed to 

 flow into the sand where it forms pools or swampy patches of 

 noisome character. 



64. Taiiur practice. — At the Government yard, Tanur, these 

 imperfections are avoided except that (8) is not yet properly dealt 

 with owing to distance from the sea which has greatly receded. 



Boiling is here effected by steam from a vertical boiler which 

 heats up the water and fish with great rapidity, 30 to 35 minutes 

 sufficing for long, somewhat narrow pans. This not only prevents 

 any possibility of scorching but enables batches to be worked off 

 with rapidity only limited by the number of presses ; this rapidity 

 is increased and economy effected by placing the sluice valve well 

 above the false bottom (see supra, paragraph 54) so that when the 

 mass is run off a considerable body of boiling water is left in the pans 

 ready to heat up the next batch. Instead of cramming the pans 

 almost solid with fish, plenty of water is used and this is increased 

 by the condensed steam ; the quantity of water is such that the 

 pan contains water full of fish and not a mass of fish with a little 

 water ; the fish can easily be moved in the water. Hence the oil 

 which is almost at once fluidized from the lower layers near the 

 steam pipe, readily finds its way to the surface and is then skimmed 

 off at once with a proportion of the water, by women with skim- 

 mers : when heating begins the first oil is almost colourless but 

 gradually assumes a yellow colour; this skimmed oil is never 

 deeper in colour than a bright yellow ; colour deepens in proportion 



