HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 387 



tbroa;ili from one to another until it is run through several, keeping it 

 hot all the while. After doing this the oil comes to the surface and the 

 Avater separates and goes to the bottom. Then the oil is run off into a 

 tank holding 4,000 or 5,000 gallons, called a settling-tank. After 

 remaining there a few hours it is pumped up and run off into bleaching 

 or drawiug-ofif tanks, of which we have five, holding 4,000 gallons each. 

 There it remains one to two weeks. Then it is put into kerosene-oil 

 barrels and shipped to New Bedford, New York, and Boston, and sold 

 to dealers in fish oil. In regard to pressing : After the fish are cooked 

 or steamed and drained, then they are put into round curbs holding 10 

 barrels each, made of iron one-half an inch thick, perforated with holes 

 one-eighth of an inch in diameter. These curbs are then put under a 

 steam hydraulic press of 150 tons pressure, when the water and oil all 

 come out together and are separated as before. Our capacity is 2,000 

 barrels per day, but we do not always get that amount ; sometimes more 

 and sometimes less. Oftentimes we do not have any fish for a week. 

 We average about four fish days in a week. They are employed in 

 Maine about sixteen weeks. First oil extracted from menhaden is said 

 to have been done by a woman in Frenchman's Bay, near Mount Desert, 

 Me. It was manufactured in the house on the cook-stove or fire-place, 

 tried out in a common wash-boiler. This oil was put up in bottles and 

 forwarded to E. B. Phillips, of Boston, and he gave the manufacturer 

 encouragement and furnished nets and try-kettles, set up outdoors in 

 brick, holding, say, 50 gallons. The fish were boiled and the oil skimmed 

 off the top, and the balance was thrown away. In this way they could 

 not get over two-thirds of the oil, and it was thought best to press the 

 refuse, but no one knew how to do it. The first process of pressing was 

 in tubs and barrels by making holes in them and putting rocks on top. 

 The scrap was thrown away. This was twenty-five to thirty years ago. 

 I do not think the porgie business will be increased any at present, as 

 there could be an overproduction of oil. The fish are not likely to di- 

 minish. We employ at the factory about thirty-five men. 



9. Statement of Mrs. B. HumpJirey, Tieeper of Monhegan Idand Light, Mon- 

 liegan Island, Me., February 4, 1874. 



1. Pogy. 



2. They are more numerous than other kinds of fish. 



3. Diminished. 

 5. It does. 



G. The first of June. The first are the smallest. 



7. The fish swim high and make a ripple on the water. 



8. They follow the shore along from the southwest to the northeast. 



9. The appearance of the fish on the coast is regular. 



10. It does. 



11. The fish play with the tide. 



