116 ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. 



Sixty wagon loads, of at least 2,500 fish each, were 

 taken at one haul in Raritan Bay this season. 



Notwithstanding the large quantity of these fishes, their 

 quick decay, their bulk, and the large quantity of water 

 they contain, render it impossible to get the advantage of 

 them in their fresh state, far from the shore. About four- 

 fifths of their weight is water ; they yield about two per 

 eent. of oil; and analysis, it is said, shows them to contain 

 not far from two per cent, of nitrogen. 



The oil is supposed to be of no value to the farmer. If 

 they could be freed from it, and from the water, and then 

 pulverized, they would make a valuable manure, and one 

 which would bear the cost of transportation to considerable 

 distances. A good deal of attention has been directed to 

 this subject, and many experiments tried; some, appa- 

 rently, with success. 



S. B. Halliday, Esq., in a letter published in the 

 " Country Gentleman," Vol. 6, p. 250, describes the process 

 used in making fish-guano at an establishment near Bristol, 

 R. I. : " The oil is taken from the fish by cooking with 

 steam; and with some chemical combinations the remains 

 are converted into two varieties of guano. One kind is 

 prepared somewhat as follows : the remains, after cooking, 

 is a soft mass of flesh and bones, and after being chemically 

 treated and partially dried, it is put into an oven and tho- 

 roughly baked, and then ground fine. 



" The company have fixed its price lower, some ten dol- 

 lars a ton, than Peruvian guano is sold at." 



An article written for the " Country Gentleman," Vol. 8, 

 p. 43, by Prof. S. W. Johnson, of Yale College, contains 



