119 



absolutely fool-proof, and such that any person possessing 

 an oil-engine or spare power can set one up at once ; 

 they are not dear and are made in very small sizes. 

 For refrigerating or hard freezing they seem to be very 

 desirable where labour is unskilled. 



41. [s) Issue of bulletins. — Only one Bulletin, No. 8 

 was in active preparation during the year, and will 

 shortly be issued ; 13ulletin No. I — never issued— is also 

 in the Press, and Bulletin III (" Preservation and Cure 

 of Fish ") was partly revised for early re-issue. 



42. Besides the above miscellaneous items there was 

 constant ordinary work both experimental, clerical, and 

 account ; e.g., experiments with a small beam-trawl, live 

 cages, line fishing, the China net, net making, artificial 

 drying, smoking, etc., which need not be detailed but 

 which took up time, energy and money. One interesting 

 item was a visit to all the department's centres of 

 work by Mr. T. Southwell, a.r.c.sc, f.l.s., f.z.s.. Deputy 

 Director of Fisheries, Bengal. 



Among the correspondence may be noted letters 

 from and to the Salt department relative {a) to the 

 amount of salt that should be issued in the south-west 

 monsoon, (/;) the amount of salt for particular classes of 

 cure, (r) the propriety of issued duty free salt for the 

 Colombo pickle cure. 



Other important correspondence related to the 

 hardening of fish oils by hydrogenation, while a leading 

 Madras firm enquired as to the supply of fish on the 

 east coast in view to the possibility of obtaining a regular 

 supply of fish oil for soap making or edible purposes ; to 

 this firm 1 was unable to give much hope. Correspond- 

 ence was also held with the Salt department and with 

 the Geological Survey of India in hopes of obtaining 

 potash (for fish-oil soaps, etc.) from the bittern or from 

 possible potassic deposits, but there appears to be no 

 present available source in India of the potash so greatly 

 needed in the soap and other industries ; seaweed (kelp) 

 is not available on Madras coasts, and potash cannot, at 

 present, be commercially won from our abundant potash - 

 felspar (orthoclase, often used as road metal in Frode 

 and Namakkal taluks, etc.), though I note that the 

 United States Potash Company with a capital of ^50,000, 



