1 1 8 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



siderably, according to the size, supply, and demand, but at 

 Sfax a pair of them may cost, as circumstances rule, from 

 6d. to \s. 2id. ; however, the preparatory maceration, by 

 beating on a stone slab or rock, required before drying 

 entails a small additional expense, and brings the extremes 

 of low and high prices to 2^s. or 50^". per cwt. To the cost 

 price must be added an export duty of 5^. id., and the 

 purchaser ought to be careful to receive his merchandise 

 from the seller during dry weather, as a damp day will 

 add from four to five per cent, to the weight of every 

 cwt. 



From two to three public sales of dried polypi take 

 place in a season on the island of Karkenah ; these are 

 regulated according to the abundance of the fish. The 

 average price of the last six years has been — -during the 

 first sale, from 45^-. to 50^". per cwt. ; second sale, 3 5^-. to 

 45 ; third sale, 2^s. to 30^-. A few first parcels, in order 

 to secure an early market, have, however, occasionally been 

 sold for £^ the cwt. 



Polypi have hitherto been prepared for exportation by 

 simply salting and drying them, but it is now proposed to 

 carry out on a large scale an experiment, which appears to 

 have proved successful, of preserving them either in oil or 

 brine, after subjecting them to a preliminary scouring and 

 boiling process. 



Malta receives the largest share of the Tunisian polypi, 

 but they are only sent to that island for ultimate trans- 

 mission to Greece and other parts of the Levant. Portugal 

 is one of the few countries that competes with Tunis in 

 supplying the Greek markets with polypi. In Greece they 

 are either sold, after being pickled, at from £12 i6s. to 

 £1^ 9^". the cantar of 176 lbs., or in their original dried 

 state at from £12 to ^14, but these prices fluctuate ac- 



