CANNING SALMON 341 



away, but enough left on the beach to give the place a 

 decided odor of its own. 



The tray of cleaned fish is placed at the end of a long 

 machine, where a carrier belt, divided into compartments 

 about 18 inches square, by wooden partitions standing at 

 right angles to it, is constantly ascending at an angle of 

 about 40 to the top of the machine, which is ten or twelve 

 feet above the floor. This belt is formed of short boards 

 linked together. The board cross partitions are not con- 

 tinuous, but have two or three divisions wide enough to 

 permit heavy knives to pass down through them. Above 

 the belt, not far from the top, is a cam in which are set a 

 number of large knives, and this cam, revolving at the 

 same rate with the movement of the belt, sends down a 

 set of knives through each compartment as it moves along. 



As the belt moves on, a single fish is placed in each 

 compartment, is carried upward, is cut by the revolving 

 knives into one-pound pieces, and when the compartment 

 reaches the point where the belt turns to pass downward 

 again, the fragments of the fish are thrown out on a table. 

 All this machinery works automatically. 



From the elevated table where the pieces of the fish lie, 

 another carrier belt runs down toward another table. 

 This belt is just wide enough to hold the one-pound frag- 

 ments of fish, each of which is to fill a can. A man stand- 

 ing by the upper table keeps placing the pieces of fish 

 close to each other on the belt, and they are carried down- 

 ward to a point where there is a great rammer just large 

 enough to fit into a one-pound can. This rammer works 

 constantly back and forth across the belt carrying the fish. 

 Opposite the rammer is a horizontal belt carrying a row 

 of open empty cans, the mouths of which lie toward the 

 inclined belt which carries the fish. The tin cans move 

 at such a rate that the mouth of one is opposite the ram- 

 mer at each forward motion that it makes, and at each 



