U.S. [perh. the same as prec.] A rectangular bin or box used for salting seal-skins; a box used in salting and packing fish.
1874. Scammon, Marine Mammals, 161. The [seal] skins are all taken to the salt-houses, and are salted in kenches, or square bins.
1887. Fisheries U.S., Sect. V. II. 370. Sliding planks, which are taken down and put up in the form of deep bins, or boxes—kenches, the sealers call them.
1897. R. Kipling, Captains Courageous, 122. The silvery-gray kenches of well-pressed fish mounted higher and higher in the hold.
