54 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIV, 



Steady flow into the topmost box of each pile. The cold brine as it 

 rushes from the pipe, bathes the fish in the topmost box and thence 

 passes by way of the slots in the bottom of the case into the box 

 beneath and thence into the lowest one. From there it flows back 

 along the sides of the freezing platform to the open mouth of the 

 ice-filled reservoir to be rechilled by a double passage through 

 broken ice, before it returns to the cooled brine reservoir to be 

 re-circulated to the boxes of freezing fish. As undue dilution of 

 the brine solution ensues because of the necessity to pass the some- 

 what warmed brine aj>ain through crushed ice, piles of salt are 

 thrown into the gutters by which the used brine flows back to the 

 ice boxes, to restore its strength. 



The process is undoubtedly a wasteful one so far as ice and 

 salt are concerned, and could not be used unless ice can be 

 obtained at an extremely low price — the ice supplied to this factory 

 costs only 15 kroner per metric ton, equivalent to about Rs. Il'; if 

 artificial ice were to be used the cost probably would be prohi- 

 bitive. But under the conditions that prevail at Trondhjem, it is an 

 undoubted fact that the system is operated successfully and profit- 

 ably. As offsets to the great waste of ice and salt involved in the 

 practice of this system are the small capital required to fit up a 

 complete installation and the low running costs. The apparatus is 

 extremely simple and inexpensive. The reservoir for the brine 

 and ice may be made of wood, the circulatory system consists of a 

 comparatively short length of iron piping with branches and cocks, 

 and these with an ice-crusher complete the installation. The only 

 power requisite is to work the pump and the little ice lift; power 

 electricity is available everywhere in Norway — so this ofl'ers no 

 difficulty in regard to capital expenditure. 



The capacity of Mr. Dahl's Trondhjem plant is about 2,000 

 cases of frozen herrings per day, equivalent to 100 tons for the 24 

 hours. His plant can operate on 38 piles of three boxes each at one 

 time. The fr^^ezing process takes usually about lYz hour to com- 

 pletely freeze the contents of the boxes — rather less if the brine be 

 specially cold or longer when reduced in frigor strength. The bulk 

 of Mr. Dahl's frozen fish, herrings chiefly, goes to Germany, where it 

 commands, so he informs me, a price uniformly better than that 

 obtained for unfrozen fish despatched in broken ice. Usually the 

 journey to Germany takes five days; for the first 10 hours of this 

 period— as far as Hamar— the fish travels in ordinary covered 



