The Tunny Fishery, 



87 



The first " mataiiza " of the season generally takes place 

 about the loth of May, and the last on the 30th of June, 

 or thereabouts. To secure the high prices of an early 

 market, the first " matanza " is hastened as much as pos- 

 sible, and takes place if even 200, or only 150, tunny have 

 entered the corpo." 



The fish are killed and landed in the morning, and 

 allowed to drain until the evening, when they are cleaned 

 and cut up. The " scabeccio " — tunny preserved in oil — 

 is boiled for an hour, and then allowed to cool and dry, 

 when it is quickly packed in barrels already prepared for 

 its reception, and about a third of a "metal " of oil (if im- 

 perial gallon) is poured into each barrel, great care being 

 taken that it should permeate the whole contents, and that 

 no vacuum should exist when closed. The same process is 

 observed for the tunny preserved in tin cans, only that the 

 air is more thoroughly excluded and exhausted by steam 

 power. The operation of salting the fish is more expe- 

 ditious, for, whilst the " scabeccio " to be prepared requires 

 from four to five days, the salting takes but a day or a day 

 and a half. The oil extracted from tunny is much used by 

 curriers and in the tanning trade, and is extracted from the 

 heads, dorsal and other bones, and refuse, the whole being 

 placed in an immense cauldron, capable of holding 800 

 heads and 400 skeletons at a time, and allowed to boil for 

 24 hours. The bones after boiling are subjected to com- 

 pression in powerful presses, and thus but little of the oil 

 they contain is lost. 



In a good season the Sidi Daud fishery, Tunis, furnishes 

 from 10,000 to 14,000 tunny, but they vary considerably in 

 size from one year to another. In 1870 the fish were larger 

 than those of 1871, although some of the tunny caught 

 measured eight and a half feet in length, and four feet in 



