39 



of the shark liver, or refuse sardines and their offal, to 

 decomposition in pots or vessels ; three pots of shark 

 liver yield one pot of oil ; the resulting oil is skimmed 

 off, while the decomposed (sardine) " scrap " is used as 

 manure for tobacco and cocoanut trees, and provides a 

 smell which in sickening and penetrative capacity sur- 

 passes all that I have known in a wide experience of 

 smells. The business should be worth revival ; if oil 

 were properly prepared, not only should it find a good 

 market but the " scrap " will then form a valuable manure 

 especially in conjunction with the offal and bones which 

 are now thrown away and in many places render the 

 shore and sea margin noisome with decaying matter.* 

 On the Bombay and Sind coasts it appears that various 

 classes of very large sharks, saw-fish, and oil-bearing 

 skates are extensively caught for the sake of their oil 

 which, curiously enough, is or was classed in trade as 

 " Malabar " oil ; the vast abundance of sharks, though of 

 small size, on the West Coast should prove a great 

 source of fish oil. In passing, it may be noted that no 

 use is made of crocodile oil though the Indian crocodile 

 is said to yield large quantities, and is greatly in evidence 

 as a devourer of fish and otherwise in the West Coast 

 backwaters. Similarly the porpoise is seldom caught, at 

 least intentionally, though very abundant ; I saw three 

 only, which had been taken in so flimsy a net as a 

 mackerel net ; the porpoise had struck this in their career, 

 entangled themselves at first, and then in a flurry had 

 absolutely tied themselves up in it. The flesh of the 

 porpoise is eaten though not readily, but oil is not 

 extracted and the use and value of the hide are unknown. 

 41. Manure is only prepared, as stated above, in the 



crudest of ways, and vast quantities 

 of oft'al (guts and heads) are thrown 

 away ; it is difficult to utilize stuft" which, though bulking 

 large in the aggregate, is of no great quantity daily, and 

 is spread over a long line of coast ; the fishermen not 

 being agriculturists seldom apply it themselves and the 

 ryots do not often go to the trouble of fetching it away. 

 Manure as an article of regular manufacture awaits the 



* The method of boiling the fish, removing the oil by skimming and pressing 

 and the drying of the " scrap " as manure (fish guano) was introduced in 190S 

 with the result that in IQ14 there were 211 small private factories stretched in a 

 chain along the coasts of Malabar and 3outh Canara, in which this improved 

 process is carried out. 



