XTi INTRODUCTION. 



appear, in some years very abundant, in others they are comparatively rare : still it is certain that those which 

 come at particular seasons do so for breeding purposes, full of roe when they arrive, deficient in it prior to 

 their departure, and the young being found in abundance shortly after their arrival, while they were not 

 previously present, can lead us to no other conclusion. 



The sea fisheries of India ought to be exceedingly valuable as affording an inexhaustible supply 

 of animal food not only to those living in their vicinity, but also inland did means exist to transport the 

 fish either in a fresh or dried state. The distance these fishes can be conveyed fresh inland depends 

 on several causes :* the season may curtail this. In some places the captures are brought on shore in the 

 morning and have to be taken through the sun, but on the other hand if lauded in the evening coolies will 

 not convey them during the dark to distant places. Where water facilities or those by rail exist they may be 

 carried some distance. It is not uncommon to open and clean the fish and rub some salt earth inside 

 which keeps it fresher than it otherwise would be, but small or immature fish decay more rapidly than 

 larger ones. I think it may be safely assumed that fresh fish as a rule cannot be conveyed inland by 

 coolies above ten miles so as to be sanitarily fit for human consumption: but if tliey are opened, cleaned, 

 internally salted, and taken with care, by being shaded as much as possible from the sun's rays, they 

 may be carried considerably further. 



Seeing that fresh fish are obtainable only by the residents of or near the coasts while the sea is 

 swarming with the finny tribes, we have to inquire are they captui'ed in excess of local demands and if 

 so how are they disposed of ? 



Dried Jlsh are largely prepared along the coasts, which can be done with the smaller and thinner 

 species, as Equvla (p. 237), Trichiuriis (p. 200), many of the Herrings, the Bombay duck, Harpodon 

 nehereus (p. 605), and numerous others, but for the larger forms this is inappropriate unless in the form 

 of slices cut from them and sun-dried. Sun-dried fish are found wholesale in the Bombay Presidencj, 

 but " whether fish is dried as above in preference to being salted," remarks the Collector of Tanna, " I 

 have been unable to ascertain. It is very probable that it has been resorted to in the place of curing by 

 salt, consequent on the excise duty levied on salt." As we proceed down the coast (I am here speaking 

 from personal observations made in 1872-73), we find the people permitted to gather salt earth for this 

 purpose, and as a consequence they prepare their fish with it in preference to its being simply sun-dried. 

 But ascending the Coromandel coast we are told, " I believe that all the salting much of this so-called 

 cured fish gets is being buried in the sea sand, and thus getting slightly briny " (Collector of TricJdnopoli/). 

 Passing up the Easteim coast we find in Bengal drying in the sun the almost sole means employed for 

 curing fish. Whereas in Burma sun-dried fish is scarcely alluded to in the official reports. This brings us 

 face to face with the question of the reason for this, and whatever may be the cause the following are facts. 

 Wherever salt is expensive the natives have a preference (? due to cost) to sun-dried fish : where salt is 

 cheap,t this mode of preparation is but little employed. 



Salted fish are cured with (1) monopoly or excised salt, and (2) with salt earth or spontaneous but 

 untaxed salt. In Sind and India the best salt fish is prepared in the proportion of about 1 part of salt 

 to 3 of fish: if salt earth is made use of nearly 3 parts of it to 1 part of fish is required. 



The salt fish trade of Bombay is almost " exclusively the produce of neighbouring foreign ports," 

 observes the Deputy Commissioner of the Salt Revenue, and the reason is not far to seek, as the duty per 

 maund of .salt was 29 annas in Bombay : while the cost of the whole article in these foreign ports (as 

 Goa, Daumaun, and Diu) is " 2 annas a maund if as much," and where the salt is so cheap more can be 

 afibrded to be used, consequently the foreign article is superior. In the Madras Presidenc}' excised salt is 

 sometimes employed if the better class of salt fish is desired, as for export to Ceylon, to be taken far inland, or 

 for personal consumption. 



Salt earth or spontaneous salt is largely employed in places, as it is untaxed, at the same time 

 its use for this purpose is declared illegal. But in some localities the dwellers may employ it to prepare 

 fish for their own use, and subsequently there is no law to impede their disposing of their surplus stock. 

 "Of this salt earth," says the Collector of Malabar, "the people dislike it, asserting that it imparts a 

 bitter and unpleasant savour to food and brings on that common complaint in Malabar the itch." In 

 Tanjnre that fish so prepared soon becomes wormy and rotton. But the poor are unable to be too 

 particular as to the taste of their food, a far more important consideration being the coH. 



Speaking of the cost of salt as it was (it is raised now) a few figures will explain the foregoing. 

 About 82 lbs. weight of salt in Madras cost about 32 annas : with this desci'iption of salt about 

 246 lbs. of fish could be cured ; omitting wastage and the purchase of the fish we find over 4 maunds, 

 or 328 lbs., costing 32 annas. If untaxed salt earth is employed the cost is from 1/6 to 1/3 of an anna 

 a basket, which is less than 1/4 of an anna for 82 lbs. It requires, however, three times as much 



* Many civil officers object to doing anything in view of the good of fi.sheries. One Collector at Balasore observed 

 "the people of this district do not salt their fish, they dry it in the sun and eat it when quite putrid. They like it in this way, 

 and there is no rea.son v»hy they should be interfered with." Having persoually visited this locality, 1 may add as a commentary that 

 a native Zemindar's opinion was "chcjUra was made for these people." 



f Since my investigations were completed the .salt ta.x h.as been equalizea in India, or raised in the Madras Presidency, 

 and still more so in Sind. If my views are correct the returns of 1879 will show a great reduction of salted fish in Sind and a 

 considerable falling off of the article in Jladras. 



