402 A Plea for Sea Fisheries. Chait. xxvi. 



that it does not ordinarily commence till after putrefaction has 

 sel in. Fish are also dried in the sun rather than cured with salt, 

 so that with the Least moisture In the atmosphere they smell most 

 offensively. And they will not travel far. 



Then, again, fish are cured so very dry and hard that they are 

 only eaten in very small quantities as a salt relish. Objections are 

 loudly raised to the insurmountable obstructiveness of the salt 

 monopoly. It is idle to run a tiltagainst that infinitesimal indirect 

 poll tax which, as such, has so much to commend it, and is far too 

 important a source ofrevenueto besacrificed. Let it lie a business 

 of the farm to show in practice that it is not an insurmountable 

 difficulty. The giving of salt cheap in curing yards has already 

 been conceded by Government. The difficulty is to bring the salt 

 to the fish out at sea immediately they are caught, for when caught 

 far out at sea, they must necessarily in this tropical clime be 

 putrid before tiny get ashore, and this difficulty prevents fishing 

 any distance from the shore. 1 have seen fish being brought in 

 covered with maggots. As fish are put into wells of waterand kept 

 alive, and into wells of ice and kept i'resh in England, so J believe 

 that they might !"■ put into wells of strong brine in this country, 

 and that brine may be given cheap under certain regulations with- 

 out any fear of salt smuggling. They could not evaporate il into 

 salt on board, ami it would be very nearly as difficult to make salt out 

 of it on shore as it is to make salt of the sea water or earth efflo- 

 rescence ; no that no new difficulty to the salt monopoly would lia\ e 

 been introduced. 



89. The curing of fish stands very greatly in need of fostering. 

 It should nol be forgotten that there was a time when English fish 

 salting suffered from like difficulties. Adam Smith Bays, thai 

 before the repeal of the Salt laws, although salt a ed for curing 

 was exempted from duty, yet, to protect the revenue, so many 

 Regulations were enacted that manj of the fishermen chose to use 

 taxed salt rather than comply with the tales. The character ofour 

 salt fish had also to lie maintained ly Government supervision, and 

 a Government brand. It should not surprise us, therefore, thai 

 Indian fish curing stands in need of encouragement, especially when 



i onsider the chronic depression firmly established by long years 

 of suppressive sail monopoly, and the very recentness of the one 

 concess made. It cannol be expected that an industry so long 



