Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/269

 HERRING FISHERY.] The important system of curing herrings iu the wet state, or, as it is properly called, as &quot;white herrings,&quot; is more completely worked on the east coast than on the west. The whole process of curing is carried on under the supervision of the Board of British White Herring Fishery, which was established by the Act, 48 Geo. III. c. 110 (1808), and, with some slight changes in its organization and additions to its duties, has continued its labours to the present time. Its particular duties are to inspect the curing, and to see that the proper regulations are duly carried out ; to place the Government brand on the barrels when desired, according to the quality of the cure ; to see that the regulations for registering the li.shing boats are duly attended to ; to maintain order on the fishing grounds ; to lay out to the best advantage a special grant of money tor improving or building fishery harbours ; and to prepare accurate statistics of the fisheries. Many years ago curing according to this system was done at some of the English ports, hence the word British in the title of the board ; but for some little time past &quot; white herrings&quot; have practically only been prepared in Scotland, and the now ordinary name of &quot; Fishery Board, Scotland,&quot; fairly ex presses the geographical limits within which its duties are performed at the present day. The general out-door work of the board is performed by a body of meu who are well known by the title of fishery officers ; and it is essential that they should have been brought up as coopers, an important part of their duties being to see that barrels J of a proper size and make are used for the packing of the cured herrings, and that they are securely headed and driven before they are sent abroad. The various duties these officers have to perform, and the careful training they have had in them, have resulted in the board gradually obtaining a staff of men by whose intelligence and experience a vast store of information about every thing connected with the working of the Scotch fisheries has been collected. Each man is placed in charge of a district of the coast, and the detailed reports they make to the secretary form the basis of the valuable and instructive reports of the Commissioners of the Fishery Board annually presented to Parliament. The operation of curing the herrings begins as soon as they are landed, and the busy scene which is presented at the large curing stations when this work is going on is well described in the article &quot; Fisheries &quot; in the last edition of the present work : &quot; All along the inner harbour, and in almost every street and quay, of the town of Wick, as well as within many large inclosed yards and covered buildings, there are numerous square boxes as big as ordinary-sized rooms, the containing sides, however, being only two or three feet high. Into these huge troughs the herrings are carried from the boats as soon as possible after they arrive. There they are all tumbled in helter-skelter, in a long-continued stream of fish, until the boats are emptied or the troughs are filled. Then come troops of sturdy females of various ages and complexions, each armed with knife in hand, who range themselves around the fishery chambers ; the process of gutting immediately commences, and is carried on with such ceaseless and untiring activity that the unac customed eye can scarcely follow the quickness of their manipu lations. One woman will eviscerate about two dozen of herrings in a minute ; and when nearly 2000 of them are working at that rate, with but brief intermission from early morning till the close of day, the amount of disembowelment may be more easily imagined than described. This important process is effected in the following manner. The practitioner takes a herring in her left hand, its back lying in her palm, and inserts the point of her knife into the near side of the neck, bearing well down upon the backbone, and making the weapon protrude a little through the other side. She then gives the knife a turn, and pulling it outwards and upwards, with an opposing pressure of the thumb, she draws forth in the first place the gills, stomach, and intestinal canal, and tosses them into an adjoining barrel. She then inserts the knife a second time, and by a peculiar twitch removes what is called the crown gut or coecal appendages and liver. There are thus two actions performed, each of which seems to occupy about a second of time. This is the ordinary Scotch practice. The Dutch method is somewhat different. They leave in the crown gut, and so with them a single pull suffices to remove whatever is to be taken away. This latter method is partially followed in this country, as being best adapted for the Continental market, where it is believed that the crown gut has a powerful influence in improving the flavour of the fish, and where the appearance of the herring is held to be injured if it is removed. These fair gutters usually work together in little companies of two or three, so that while one is filling a measure with her gutted fish, another carries them off to be roused, as it is called, that is, cast into vats or barrels, then sprinkled with salt, then more herrings and more salt, and next a brawny arm plunged among them far above the elbow, thus mingling them together, and so on till the space is 259 filled. They may lie a longer or shorter time in this state, according to the supply of labour at command, and the immediate necessities of gutting and rousing ; but the next usual step in the routine is for a third hand to remove those herrings from the second vats or vessels, and re-salt and pack them carefully, every successive row crossing at right angles that which precedes it. Herrings intended for the foreign market are usually arranged with their backs down wards, while those for the Irish market are preferred when packed flat, or more upon their sides. Each row gets a fresh sprinkling of salt until the barrel is filled. The head of the cask is then laid loosely on, the contents being allowed to settle down, or pine, as it is called, for a time, which they soon do so considerably as to admit of each cask receiving another row or two, with additional salt, before being closed by the cooper. The barrels should then be headed up, tightened in the hoops, laid upon their sides, and placed under cover, so as to be shaded from the sun s rays, which are injurious to the fish. They should also be rolled half over every second or third day, until they are bung-packed ; which process, if the after intention is to receive the official brand of the Board of Fisheries, must not be sooner performed than after the lapse of ten free days from the date of capture.&quot; Sir Thomas Dick Lauder 2 thus describes the final operations: &quot; When the pickle has been sufficientfy poured off, a handful of salt, if required, should be thrown around the inside of the barrels, and the her rings should be pressed close to the inside of the casks, and addi tional fish, of the same description and date of cure, should be packed in until the barrel is properly filled ; after which it should lie flagged, headed, blown, and tightened, and the curing marks scratched upon the sides. The barrel may then have its pickle poured in, and be finally bunged up.&quot; The cured herrings are separated into four classes: &quot;Full,&quot; or Classes fish having large milt or roe in fact, those which are nearly or quite and ready to spawn ; &quot; Maties,&quot; 3 or fat fish, in which the milt or roe is brands, quite undeveloped ; &quot; Spent,&quot; or slu.ttcn, those which have recently spawned, and consequently are in very poor condition, having neither the fat of the maties nor the roe of the full fish; and &quot;Mixed,&quot; consisting of fish of all kinds, or unassorted. For these four classes the Board of Fisheries gives distinct brands, denoting the quality and description of fish in each barrel ; but the crown full brand, given only to &quot;full &quot; fish properly cured, is the one in special request. It denotes the finest production of the system of the British white herring cure. Branding is quite optional on the part of the curer ; but in any case this method of curing can only be carried on under inspection, and barrels of a particular size must be used for packing the fish in. It is one of the anomalies of the system, however, that although it is absolutely forbidden to use barrels of other than a certain specified size, there is not the slightest restriction as to the quality or condition of the fish to be packed in them, so long as the Government brand is not desired for them. Any refuse fish may be cured and packed, but the barrel must be of a certain size. The advantages or disadvantages of the branding system have been often discussed, and it has been frequently condemned as opposed to the general policy of making the sale of an article dependent on its merits alone ; it has been contended that the Government is not justified in giving a certificate of the quality of cured herrings more than of any other manufactured article, and in no other case would such a guarantee be given. To this it is replied that there is a de mand for &quot;white herrings &quot; in numerous and distant European mar kets ; that without the Government brand a barrel of herrings would in some places rarely be sold unless the contents were first examined ; and that the disturbance and exposure of the fish would lessen their value when they were ultimately unpacked at the end possibly of a distant journey. They may pass through many hands before they finally reach the consumer, and each person would be anxious to satisfy himself of their quality. There is no doubt that the brand facilitates the sale under such circumstances, but at the same time it cannot be disputed that thousands of barrels are sold on the Continent every year with no other guarantee than that of the curer s name. Up to the year 1859 no charge was made for branding ; but since then a fee of fourpence per barrel has been paid, and the proceeds practically count against the expense of the board. It was believed in some quarters that the alleged value of the brand was really not so great as to make the curers willing to pay for it, 2 Directions for taking and curing Herrings, and for the curing of Cod, Liny, Tusk, and Hake, by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Hurt., Edinburgh. IMS. . 3 - Maties&quot; is a corruption of the Dutch maatjes, the term applied to hen nig* in which the roe is small or undeveloped. Its &amp;lt;^^&amp;gt;%&quot;?$ and the nearest approach we can find to the word is maatje (kh-me waat) a sn all measure, which it seemed might possibly refer to the small size veloped milt or roe, as compared with the bulky proportions of those og ins n the full fish. But our inquiries on the subject from author ties both in, Lng an and the Netherlands, l.ave failed to elicit any definite explanation separate their herrings into three classes, as we do, according to the cond ton of the reproductive organs, vlz:-&quot;Voll,&quot; full of roc; &quot;Maatje.V with t e loe un developed; and &quot;Ylen,&quot; empty or shotten. Maatje, are gcnerall&amp;gt; fat fish, but herrings are in that condition only when the roe is very small. As the breeding season advances, the fat is gradually absorbed ami the fish become **;** when the spawn, then fully matured, is deposited, the herrings are called y en,oi empty.