METHODS OF INSHORE FISHERIES 253 



served by smoking, but they are not of enough importance 

 to be considered here. The process is an old one, and con- 

 sists in exposing the fish fresh or in a slightly salted con- 

 dition to the action of smoke that comes from a slowly 

 smoldering fire. In preparation for smoking, alewives 

 and small sea herring to be cured as hard herring are 

 usually not dressed at all ; bloater herring are usually split 

 down the belly and eviscerated; haddock and salmon are 

 split so as to lie open like cured codfish, and halibut are 

 cut into pieces before smoking. 1 



There are two products of the sea herring of New 

 England differing only in the preparation they receive in 

 the process of smoking the hard or red herring and 

 bloater herring. The hard herring are smoked for several 

 weeks until quite dry, the bloater herring are smoked for 

 a few hours only, consequently they will not keep so long 

 as the hard herring. The smoking of hard herring in 

 this country is confined largely to the eastern coast of 

 the State of Maine, about 95 per cent of the business being 

 carried on in Washington County in the vicinity of Lubec 

 and Eastport. Formerly the business prospered all along 

 the eastern coast when herring were secured in abundance 

 from the Magdalen Islands. After that source of supply 

 began to fail, the business was confined to those parts of 

 the coast where herring could be easily secured. The bulk 

 of herring smoked in eastern Maine to-day is secured from 

 the weirs of Passamaquoddy Bay, both American and Ca- 

 nadian sides. Other herring are received from the coast 

 farther west, from the Magdalen Islands and from New- 

 foundland. 



The smoke-house used for smoking herring is a frame 

 structure boarded and shingled, having no floor, little 

 chance for light to enter, and at the top an opening along 

 the ridge pole to allow the smoke to pass out slowly. The 



i Preservation of Fishery Products by Smoking, C. H. Stevenson. 



