“In the first place,” he explained, “a machine takes off the heads, tails and fins, splits the fish open, and removes the entrails, then brushes and washes the fish inside and out. One machine will deal with twenty-five thousand salmon in a day. Afterwards they go into another apparatus, where they are scraped thoroughly with a knife, while fresh, clean cold water is running on them. Next they go into a bath of water, where they are scrubbed thoroughly with a brush made to fit the fish. Afterwards they are deposited on a revolving frame and cut into slices, which exactly fit the tins, into which they are subsequently inserted with a small quantity of fine Liverpool salt. The filled tins travel on a belt to automatic scales, which throw out any that are light weight, the others proceeding on to a machine which, having closed each tin, cleans the outside with hot water and steam. The lids are now crimped to impart strength, and then the tins are run through a flux and rolled through the hot solder, which sets on a subsequent journey along a twenty-foot belt, the process being assisted by a jet of water. A stay in the coolers is followed by a hot-water test for defective soldering, after which the cans are conveyed to the retorts and cooked, under pressure of steam, for from half an hour to three-quarters. On leaving the retorts they are vented—that is, a hole is opened in the can to allow gases to escape. A drop of solder having been dropped on that hole, there is a second cooking process, to soften the bones and sterilise any air that may remain in the tin. Finally the tin is washed, lacquered (to prevent rusting), and labelled.” [Illustration: A SALMON CANNERY ON FRASER RIVER] [Illustration: CHINESE QUARTER, VANCOUVER. B.C.] “You have some very clever machinery,” I remarked. “Yes,” agreed Mr. Barker. “But it is all going to be altered in the near future. The new way of canning does away with soldering, the lids being fixed by crimping—that is, by overlapping the joined edges with such exactitude that the junction is absolutely airtight. This year” (1910) “much of the California fruit is being packed that way. Why the innovation affected that industry before it reached the salmon canneries is easily explained. The heat of the soldering copper was apt to candy the sugar in the syrup, making it dark and sometimes causing black specks, which looked like dirt, to settle on the fruit.” “Does soldering involve any similar disadvantage in the case of salmon?”