xx INTRODUCTION. 



increasing the food productiveness of Malabar than the State of Cochin has : this last, as will 

 be presently shown, has done more towards the trade of fish-oil, but it must be left for future 

 years to demonstrate whether the present increase of this fish-oil trade is a healthy or an 

 unhealthy stimulus due to present high prices ; for if the latter, the fisheries are being over- 

 worked, and the future loss will be great. The extreme violence of the S.W. monsoon of course 

 protects the fish from the commencement of June until September, but the periods of year at 

 which the various species spawn, more extended observations on their arrival and departure, and 

 a thorough examination into the fish captured as to whether the young are or are not used for 

 salting or fish-oil, are objects which it would be very important to ascertain. 



Captain Lloyd, on the Marine Survey of the Coasts of Bengal, Cantor remarks, in the Journal 

 of Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. V., " tried salting and drying fish, and the experiment turned 

 out so satisfactory that I feel convinced that the process of curing, salting, and drying fish may be 

 easily accomplished there during the N.E. monsoon." In Malabar, could the fisherman afford the 

 required outlay to salt his spoils, his market would commence in the S.W. monsoon, a period of 

 the year during which he is now unemployed. Whilst conceding that the amount salted is yearly 

 augmenting, it must be admitted that much is wasted owing to an inability to afford the outlay to 

 cure it, whilst the price is higher than there is any occasion for, because what is now wasted and 

 spoiled would find its way to market, and probably would reduce the price to all. 



The Indian Mackerel, Scomber kanagurta, which averages about seven and a half inches in 

 length, is one of the chief species which is salted, dried in the sun, and exported in bundles of 

 about 1000 each. They abound in shoals from January until May, and the process of curing is as 

 follows : — A coolie makes a cut with a sharp knife along the back bone, from the head to the 

 tail, and then a second along the abdominal surface, exposing the intestines. The fish is then 

 tossed over to a woman, who, having removed the entrails, throws it into a large basket which has 

 a handle on either side, this when half full is carried by two men to the sea shore, where the fish 

 are washed without being removed. Women and children rapidly put some black salt into each 

 cut, and then throw the fish into a boat close behind them on the shore — in which there is brine ; 

 in this last place they remain for a few hours, and are subsequently spread out in the sun, dried, 

 and packed in bundles. The various species of Trichiurus and the Chirocentrus dorab are also 

 extensively salted in the same way, and last, not least, the Spratella fimbriata. 



The Bombay salt is generally employed in salting large fish : for this purpose the Rays, 

 Skates, and Sharks are made use of, and these last are termed Pal sora, Mai., or milk producer, 

 referring to the powers attributed to its flesh, which when salted is considered especially good for 

 women who have young infants. The large fish are cut up into square pieces for salting, and 

 cured much in the same way as are the smaller fish. 



It is evident that along the coasts of Malabar shoals of fish come as regularly as do the crops 

 to the land, but the quantity is much more varied, for it is sometimes abundant, at other times 



