Fish Oils and the Fisheries connected therewith. 215 



advances the fish become perceptibly poorer, and it will 

 take 400 to 450 to fill a barrel, while on the sea-board 

 or western side of the Lofoden Islands from 600 to 700 

 livers are requisite. 



In Sweden the residue from fish which have been salted 

 are placed in large boilers, with waste herrings and others, 

 a small quantity of water, and boiled or frequently 

 steamed till the mass is dissolved; cold water is then intro- 

 duced, and the oil floats at the top. This is skimmed off", 

 clarified, and put into casks. It is of a brown colour, good 

 for burning and other uses, but is said to be too fluid for 

 the leather workers. 



The export of fish oils from Iceland (principally from 

 the shark) amounted in 1867 to 4,186,560 lbs. An 

 ordinary year's export, however, may be put down at 

 about 2,700,000 lbs. . 



One of the most important secondary products of the 

 fisheries in Russia is the oil obtained, of which the 

 quantity annually extracted represents a value exceeding 

 ;^7 1,500. This is either employed for medicinal use, for 

 food, or for technical purposes. The medicinal oil is 

 obtained from the liver of the cod, which is cut up when 

 it is quite fresh, and subjected to the action of steam heat. 

 The oil used for food is obtained from the fat surrounding 

 the intestines of the sturgeon and the sandre {Leiicoperca 

 sandre). It is washed, and in its fresh state melted in 

 steam boilers. The oil or fat is chiefly used to add to the 

 barrels of caviare, when the fish spawn is itself not suffi- 

 ciently fat. At the seat of production fish oil is also 

 largely used instead of vegetable oils. 



The common fish oil employed for technical uses in 

 soap factories, tanneries, for lighting workshops, etc., is 

 generally obtained by putrefaction, which decomposes the 



