38 



imagined, and with these and with refrigerative and pre- 

 servative methods introduced, cheapened and improved 

 by modern science, there is opened up an early possi- 

 biHty of new, wholesome and cheap food supplies for the 

 million and of vast markets for the industry. As was 

 originally said of Novo Scotia forty years ago, fish could 

 be had for a song, and money could have been made in 

 piles by any one with a knowledge of curing, had there 

 been any means of communicating with the great mar- 

 kets of the world. Such an opportunity appears to me 

 to be opening up for the Indian fish trade especially on 

 the West Coast. 



40. These are few and of slight industrial import- 

 ance. Fish oils, for instance, seem 



by-products; oils. • 11 t 1 



practically to have disappeared 

 from the export market though I find it asserted in books 

 that as much as 150,000 cwt. of sardine oils were occa- 

 sionally exported in a single year from Cochin alone, 

 besides other oils such as " shark " and '' Malabar " oils, 

 while the average annual exports of all animal oils from 

 the whole Presidency in the three years ending 1904- 

 .1905 was only 7,270 gallons, most of which went to 

 Turkey in Asia. The reason for this disappearance is 

 under enquiry, but it is possible that former enquiries 

 did not sufficiently distinguish between vegetable and 

 fish oils and that the exports of the latter, though con- 

 siderable, were unintentionally exaggerated. If the 

 former figures were correct it can only be said that a 

 great industry and trade have been lost and should be 

 recovered, since the fish, always irregular in appearance 

 even in those days, are probably just as abundant as 

 then, while better plant and organization should secure 

 more continuous supplies and modern knowledge should 

 manufacture a better article. Probably the malodorous, 

 badly prepared product could not compete with the 

 better class of oils of other countries, while mineral oils 

 are known to have ousted much of it from use ; even on 

 the West Coast itself, mineral oil is already mixed with 

 fish oils for caulkino- and smearing boats, and an ao^ent 

 for thick Rangoon oil has recently been preaching its 

 superiority to the boatmen. The fish oils, as seen, are 

 disgusting in odour and wretched in appearance ; the 

 only method which I could find in actual use for the 

 preparation of the shark and sardine oil was the exposure 



