496 FISH-GUANO. [APPENDIX. 



long (65 feet 7j inches), and 5 metres (16 feet 5 inches, nearly) 

 wide ; it is divided lengthwise into five chambers, 85 centimetres 

 (2 feet 9J inches, nearly) wide. Each of these chambers contains 

 in its length twenty frames or trays, 1 metre (3 feet 3-1- inches) long, 

 and 85 centimetres (2 feet 9 J inches, nearly) wide, having a "bottom 

 of coarse linen. These trays rest upon two bars, which run the 

 whole length of the chamber. Five series of such trays are super- 

 imposed in each chamber, which makes one hundred in each 

 chamber, or five hundred in the whole stove. At each end of these 

 chambers is a number of openings, which can be closed by a door ; 

 each opening corresponds with a series of trays. 



" When the rasped fish-cake is put upon a frame, it is introduced 

 into the stove through one of the openings just mentioned ; a second 

 is then introduced, which causes the first to slide along the bars ; 

 then a third, and so on until twenty have been placed. The second 

 series of trays is then introduced in the same way by the opening 

 next above. The operation is proceeded with in this way until the 

 five series are introduced into each of the five chambers. It takes 

 about two hours to two hours and a half to fill the stove with the 

 five hundred trays which it is capable of receiving. 



" A current of air heated by the coccle-oven of Chaussenot to a 

 temperature of from 140 to 158 Fahr., circulates through the five 

 chambers, according as each is filled with the trays of fish, the 

 draft being maintained by a chimney. 



" As soon as the last tray is introduced into the stove, the first 

 is fit to be withdrawn. This is effected in the simplest manner ; a 

 child placed at one extremity of the stove introduces a tray freshly 

 charged, this pushes without any effort the whole series ranged 

 upon the bars, and causes the last in the series at the lower end of 

 the stove to slide out, where it is received by another child ; a fresh 

 tray is again introduced, and another is pushed out, and so on for 

 the whole stove. In this way the action of the stove is constant, 

 being filled as fast as it is emptied, without the workpeople being 

 exposed to the action of the heat, and without suffering in the least 

 from it, and being nevertheless able to communicate to one another 

 the details of the work, the chambers acting as conductors for the 

 voice. 



"This stove constitutes one of the most important features in 



