74. U. 8. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
sardines. These methods, therefore, will be given in detail, followed 
by a few general statements concerning the preparation of the fish by 
other processes. In this connection it is to be kept in mind that the 
methods given here are subject to considerable variation in the many 
canneries. These differences, however, are only different means of 
attaining the same end. 
Description of a process is generally made clearer if it is treated 
according to the steps into which it naturally divides itself. This 
plan is used here. 
Receiving.’ —The fish are shoveled from the boats into a mechanical 
hoist,!° which raises them to an elevated platform, where they are 

Fig. 2.—Scaling. ‘The fish are passing through a revolving drum, covered with coarse wire screen. 
They are also being washed. ‘The fish are next flumed to holding tanks in the plant. This view 
also shows the fish market wharf in Monterey and Monterey Bay in the background 
weighed. Water and gravity then carry the fish from the weighing 
vat into the cannery proper. 
Scaling.—The first operation in preparing sardines for canning is 
to scale them. This is accomplished by passing them through a 
large cylinder of heavy screening, which is rotated in a tilted posi- 
tion. Most of the scales are removed by the rubbing of the fish 
against each other and against the screen wall of the cylinder. 
Water is sprayed on the fish at the same time to help remove the 
scales and to wash the fish. The sardines next go to supply tanks, 

® Fora good description of fishing methods and gear see ‘‘Methods of Sardine Fishing in Southern Cali- 
fornia.”?’ By Elmer Higgins and Harlan B. Holmes. California Fish and Game, vol. 7, pp. 219-237. Sacra- 
mento,1921. Also ‘Purse Seines for California Sardines.’? By W.L.Scofield. Ibid, vol. 12 (1926), pp. 16-19. 
10 For a description of an improved method of removing the fish see ‘‘Speeding the discharge of bulk fish,” 
Anon. Fishing Gazette, review number, 1926, pp. 55-56, New York, 
