50 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIV, 



(Zostera) or with wood shavings- the latter are preferable and 

 cheaper, but are not always available. A 3-inch layer is laid upon 

 the bottom of the wagon and up the sides and ends, as well as over 

 the pile of fish boxes. 



The Henderson process, patented three years before the Ottesen 

 one, in essential features is the same in principle ; its particular 

 characteristic is a preliminary chilling of the fish, previously 

 gutted, either in a weak brine of about 5 per cent strength or in a 

 cold chamber (the former preferably according to Henderson's latest 

 practice) at or just under freezing point, prior to immersion in a 

 20 per cent brine solution at a temperature between 5° — 10° F. A 

 circulation of brine is maintained during the freezing stage to 

 accelerate the process. The patent provides also for the use in the 

 freezing brine of a certain secret substance in minute quantity. 

 There is some mystery about this, one writer speaking of it as a 

 volatile harmless compound and another as " sugar or some 

 innocuous material in very small quantity." Whatever it is, its 

 absence appears to make no appreciable difference in the result, 

 as judged by the numerous trials of this process made by the 

 Madras Fisheries Department. The results were generally most 

 excellent and there was never any question of the superior keeping 

 quality of fish so treated over similar fish unfrozen, packed for 

 rail transport in broken ice. The method, however, suffers from 

 several minor objections : — ■ 



(a) it entails two handlings in freezing against one in the 

 Billingsgate and Ottesen methods, 



(b) the operation is slower, owing to the provision of a 

 preliminary cooling tank and the extra handling entailed, and 



(c) most serious of all, the slight salt taste sometimes imparted 

 to the fish by their immersion in the chilling solution. 



For all practical purposes, both the Billingsgate and Ottesen 

 processes are preferable, as they suffer from none of the drawbacks 

 inherent in the Henderson process. 



The "Blok" system was patented in England in IQ16 by Herr 

 Henrik J. Bull, the Superintendent of the Chemical and Technical 

 Experimental Laboratory of the Norwegian Fisheries Department. 

 Its chief advantage was based on an alleged drawback in the 

 Henderson and Ottesen process. Herr Bull pointed out that in both 

 these, it is found that the frozen fish, by reason of their hard and 

 stiff condition and frequently more or less curved form, cannot be 



