408 EEPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [261 



freely, and the cured articles were preserved iu a superior manner 

 more wholesome to the consumer, and able to be carried farther inland! 

 In short, fisheries thrived along the Beloochistan coast and 'the Portu- 

 guese settlements, due to the excise on salt being not excessive or 

 entirely absent. In the Bombay Presidency the fisherman's market 

 became restricted to the sales for immediate consumption or else for 

 sun-drying, or, as the collector of Tanna observed, " Whether fish is 

 dried as above, in preference to its being salted, is a question I have 

 been unable to ascertain. It is very probable that it has been resorted 

 to in the place of curing by salt consequently on the excise duty lev- 

 ied on salt." . Wherever salt earth could be obtained free of duty along 

 the western coast of Madras there the fisheries thrive, the fish-curer 

 requiring a large supply of fish. Along the east coast of Madras the 

 collection of salt earth was more or less prohibited, and the fisherman's 

 trade, except near large town», is not very flourishing. But in Bengal 

 the fisheries are, or were, worst off, sun- drying being the only curing 

 which fish obtained. Lastly, in Burma, where salt is cheap, the fisheries 

 were thriving. Before concluding this portion of my subject, I would 

 observe that it is not to be supposed that fish cured with salt earth are 

 of the best quality,- on the contrary, it imparts a bitter and unpleas- 

 ant flavor, and is believed to engender disease. But the poor cannot 

 be particular respecting the taste or smell of their food ; the cost is the 

 important question. Salt earth costs about ^d. a basket of 144 pounds 

 weight, depending upon its quality; but, ns I have observed, it takes 

 three times the amount that it is necessary to employ if excised salt is 

 used. But 82| pounds of monopol;^' salt was taxed 3,9. 7^ d. at this 

 time ; now 4.9. ; whereas 246 pounds of salt earth cost fVom three- 

 fourths penny to Id., and this is the reason of the latter being preferred 

 by fish-curers for the purpose of preparing fish for the trade; for if 

 monopoly salt at its present rate was used, the article, at least to the 

 general public, would be simply unpurchasable. Fish are plentiful iu 

 the sea. The reason why the harvest remains uugathered is not due 

 to the apathy of the fisherman or the unwillingness of the general 

 public to be consumers of fish, but solely a result of the heavy cost of 

 salt, and that a consequence upon the Indian salt-tax. 



1.— Condition of fishermen. 



Having briefly enumerated the fish which stock the seas of India, 

 and how the fisherman's and fish-curer's occupations are injured by the 

 incidence of a heavy salt-tax, I pass on to the fishermen and their condi- 

 tion, as it was a few years since. Doubtless, should no suflScient mar- 

 ket exist for the produce of their industry, some of these people will 

 leave fishing and engage iu other pursuits; while those who remain 

 endeavoring to make a livelihood, as did their forefathers, will seek the 

 cheapest way and easiest method by which such may be accomplished. 

 A very little acquaintance with the habits of fish sufaces to teach the 



