90 



cLances of taint before reacLing the market or tlie curing yard. For 

 tlie inability to convey f resL fish far inland is at least partly dne to the 

 poor condition of the fish, to the approach or even access of taint, 

 when it reaches shore, and since taint, once started, cannot be got rid 

 of, though it may be arrested by curing, it follows that the uncured 

 fish taken inland can never be taken far, whilst even the cured fish 

 retains the traces of the original taint, even if it is not altogetliei 

 spoiled as wholesome food by the rapid progress of putrefaction during 

 the operation of curing. Mr. H. S. Thomas in South Canai a expressly 

 mentions the bad condition of much of the fish even when newly 

 landed, and speaks of seeing it " covered with maggots " on being 

 brought to shore, a condition common enough in the curing yard where 

 cm'ing often begins long after putrefaction has started. We require 

 then better treatment of the fish from the moment of capture, for 

 ranch of the liability to taint is due to want of care and knowledge ; 

 e.gr., the ungutted fish, flung pell-mell into the bottom of a boat, are 

 bruised and trodden on and, if alive, slowly exhaust themselves to 

 death, all of which aie conditions favouring early putrescence, whereas 

 a proper treatment would, if caught alive, keep them nlive in 

 basket or other receptacles in the sea or in the boat, and if dead 

 would treat them after modern fasliion {e.g., gutting and draiuing, 

 antiseptic washing, careful stowage, salting in the boat, etc.), to delay 

 the approach of taint. 



Again though much of the fish is, when taken out of the boats, 

 perfectly good and fresh, even alive in some cases, yet whether by 

 reason of unnecessary delays, of the rapidity of decomposition in the 

 tropics, of improper gutting and cleaning, of mixing with tainte ^ fish 

 in the salting tub, of ineffective methods of salting or of insufficient 

 salt, of imperfect methods of drying which are even provocative of 

 taint, the product though not always putrescent is always readily 

 putrescible, while in smell, colour, form, and appearance it is not only 

 inferior but would in general be absolutely barred from a European 

 market. 



191. The fourth present object of the station should be thfi more 

 rapid bringing of the fish into the factory or to shore. I have already 

 mentioned that amongst the first objects of a station will be the 

 experimenting in, and demonstrating, correct modern methods for the 

 general treatment of fish in the boat from the nnmient of capture till 

 brought ashore, so that it may have a better chance of arriving fresh ; 

 the object now under consideration is to teach the method of rapid 

 collection at sea and transport to shore. 



Dealing first with fish intended for canning when fresh ; it is 



obvious that for a factory it is absolutely necessary that the supply 



should be both regular and continuous, and that it should be perfectly 



fresh ; now since the shoals come irregularly to the several localities, 



the supply at any given point is not only irregular in time and 



