8 INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. 



to Ceylon ; but the amount of this condiment employed by 

 fish-curers cannot be great, as it makes no perceptible 

 figure in the quantity of salt disposed of. During the last 

 few years the system of bonded enclosures, within which 

 fish may be cured with free salt, has been tried at Madras, 

 and it appears to be working so successfully, that it is 

 hoped it will be found practicable to introduce it to all other 

 parts of British India. 



In Bengal, excised salt appeared never to have been 

 employed for fish-curing, and the fisheries were in a neg- 

 lected state ; or, as observed by the collector of Balasore, 

 " Fish sold in the markets are so stale that no European 

 would touch it, and most of it is putrid. . . . The people in 

 this district do not salt their fish, they dry it in the sun, 

 and eat it when it is quite putrid. They like it in this way, 

 and there is no reason why they should be interfered with." 

 Salt was then (1870) subject to a duty of ten shillings for 

 82f lb. weight. Further to the eastward, in Burmah, the salt 

 duty was one shilling for the same quantity, sun-dried fish 

 a rarity, the fisherman's trade flourishing, while salted fish or 

 Crustacea, in the form of nga pee, invariably formed part of 

 every meal among the indigenous population. 



The amount of salt which must be employed in order to 

 properly prepare a given quantity of fish is about as fol- 

 lows : — In Sind 20 lb. of monopoly salt is added to 82f lb. 

 of fish ; on the western coast of Madras, as Tellicherry, 

 28 lb. of salt is used to 82f lb. of small fish, as mackerel, 

 herrings, &c. It appears that, for the purposes of trade, 

 one part of monopoly salt is necessary to about three parts 

 of fish. However, at Gwadur, in Beloochistan, where this 

 condiment is very cheap, a larger proportion of it was used 

 than in either Sind or in India. Fish cured with salt-earth, 

 or spontaneous but untaxed salt, require a much larger 



