BULLETIN OF TTIE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 1 1 



with a piece of iron placed across the area to be used as a more dura- 

 ble edge — lie forces the body of the fish forward with the right, and the 

 head downward with the left, thus tearing it from the body and separat- 

 ing the two ; the head and internal parts hanging to it drop to the tloor 

 and fall through a hole about a foot square into the water beneath the 

 stage-head. The fish then passes on to the splitter. The splitter tak- 

 ing it, lays it against a small stick nailed to the table, which simply acts 

 as a support to keep the fish from slipping, and with his knife, a long 

 broad and slightly concave blade, well sharpened on one side only, lays 

 the fish open from the end of the cut made by the throat-cutter com- 

 pletely or nearly to the tail ; with another stroke he cuts through the 

 flesh and ribs on the upper side of the bone to the top ; he then gashes 

 through the bone at a distance about two fifths from the end of the tail 

 toward the head, the fish lying meanwhile with its tail to the right, and 

 continues, with a scooping cut, to sever the flesh and ribs on this side 

 to the upper end ; then a peculiar lift of the bone and shake of the arm 

 sends the fish into a coarsely constructed wheelbarrow at the right, 

 while it sends the piece of backbone thus cut out, with the dark inside 

 lining of the belly, or "sound," as they call it, into a pile through a 

 hole at the left. This, then, is the process of cleaning. When the fish 

 have been taken in a net, a seine, or trap, and are unusually large and 

 nice, they are thrown into a tub of "water and washed carefully before 

 being salted down ; but this is done only in the case of extra nice ones. 

 It will thus be seen that the process of cleaning fish is a purely mechan- 

 ical one, and the number that these men will clean in a day quite large, 

 especially if they have nothing to do but this work, and the box is kept 

 full of fish. In a large establishment this is usually the case, m but iu a 

 small one the men are often obliged to keep their own box filled, -and 

 afterward to do the work of others. 



The barrow being full of fish they are wheeled to the stage to be 

 salted down. Here, also, a regular system is employed. The fish are 

 laid down in four rows upon the floor, from end to end of the building, 

 the heads alternating with the tails in every other row. This makes 

 an even row about 4 feet deep, and with a leugth corresponding to the 

 length of the building. The next process is that of salting. The salt 

 purchased of the trading vessels is the coarse, granular rock-salt, as it 

 is called, such as is bought in the States usually for ice-cream freezers 

 and other purposes. It comes in bags, barrels, or in bulk when large 

 quantities are purchased. It is deposited in large bins from whence 

 it is wheeled in barrows to the salting-room and shaken from large 

 wooden shovels upon the completed row of fish ready to receive it. 

 Upon this another layer is laid which receives a salting similar to that 

 of the one before it, and so on, a layer of fish, another of salt, until the 

 row is about 4 feet high, when another is begun iu front of that one, 

 and so on until the fish or salt are exhausted, or the room,, generally 

 low, is too full for more. In this exercise the days, and often the nights, 



