270 THE COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS OF THE FISHERIES 



After the lac is brought from the jungle, it is converted into dye in 

 this country for leather, tusser, or common silk, and good silk at 

 Nagpore ; but the Nagpore country people do not understand the 

 use of it for dyeing cotton cloth and thread, and it is only used in a 

 rough way. 



The process of making lac-dye is as follows : the lac having been 

 carefully picked from the branches is reduced to a powder in a stone 

 hand-mill, then thrown into a cistern, covered with two inches of 

 water, and allowed to soak for sixteen hours, or say, from four p.m. 

 to six a.m. It is then trampled by men for four hours or so, until the 

 water appears well coloured, each person having a portion of about ten 

 pounds weight of lac to operate upon. The whole is then strained 

 through a cloth, boiling alum-water being poured on it during the pro- 

 cess, and the coloured water run off into another cistern, where it re- 

 mains for one day to settle. The water is then run into a second cistern, 

 and the day following into a third, and the water is then allowed to run 

 off as waste ; the colouring matter is then taken up in tin vessels from 

 the three cisterns and placed in a canvas strainer, where it is allowed to 

 remain from two to three clays, or until such time as all the water has 

 been strained off. It is then placed in a pressing machine, and all re- 

 maining moisture squeezed out. The square cakes of dye are then mad e 

 according to the mark of the manufacturer. The shell lac is made from 

 the lac which remains in the cloth alter the first straining. 



The branches contain the insects under the bark ; a removal of 

 which will exhibit them to the naked eye (red). To promote their in- 

 crease, all that is necessary is, to attach or bind a branch containing the 

 insect to the ordinary berry fruit (or Ellenda) tree ; but the Koosumba 

 tree yields the best lac. 



The Moorka tree yields lac largely, but very inferior in quality. 



THE COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS OF THE FISHERIES IN THE 

 INDIAN OCEAN AND THE EASTERN SEAS. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



Although the products obtained from the sea in the East are very 

 extensive, yet no collective estimate or description has ever been given 

 of them. Some of these have incidentaUy been noticed in our pages,* 

 and we now proceed to describe others. The Pearl oyster fishery, Tor- 

 toiseshell and Mother of Pearl, the Chank fishery, Trepang, or Beche de 

 Mer, and Cowries, are some of the many articles which commerce largely 



* Beche de Mer, Technologist, vol. 1, p. 40 ; Mother of Pearl and its uses, 

 Technologist, vol. 1, p. 219 ; The Tortoiseshell of Commerce, Technologist, 

 vol. 1, p. 375 ; Chanks and Bangles, Technologist, vol. 2, p. 185. 



