40 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



Would that our Government might be induced to fight the encroach- 

 ing sea in the manner indicated, and regain the hundreds of villages, 

 farms, and towns on the coasts of Pomerania aud Prussia, which have, 

 in the course of centuries, been buried in the sand or been washed away 

 by the waves. We possess ample guarantees in the facts stated above 

 that such a thing is possible. 



12.— NOTES ON THE ENGLISH HERRING AND 3IACKEREI. FISH- 

 ERIES, AND THE METHODS OF CURING. 



By Capt. J. W. COJLLINS. 



[From a letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



The following notes on the English herring and mackerel fisheries, 

 which I extract from a letter by Mr. Edward Jex, of London, aud dated 

 November 19, 1884, may prove of interest to you. I wish particularly 

 to call your attention to the fact that in England they are preparing 

 lippered mackerel as well as kippered herring. The latter are a most 

 delicious article of food, and I assume that mackerel would be still bet- 

 ter. It seems to me that in seasons when small mackerel are abundant 

 and cheap, as, for instance, they have been the past summer, a large and 

 profitable business might be done by putting them on the market cured 

 as kippers. And there also would appear to be great possibilities in 

 introducing in our markets the kippered herring, which, 1 believe, 

 would meet with a great demand and remunerative prices as soon as its 

 value was properly understood. 



Mr. Jex is the owner of a fleet of smacks sailing from Yarmouth, and 

 is a fish salesman at Billingsgate, where he has an opportunity for seeing 

 the various phases of the trade. He writes : 



il Since I wrote last the catches of herring have been very large at 

 Great Yarmouth. Some of the boats, for the season, have taken over 

 100 last, 'long tale,' 10,000, 152 fish to count as 100 fish, consequently a 

 last signifies 13,200 fish, long tale, as sold by the catcher. The take at 

 Yarmouth alone, up to date of last Friday, November 14, was 20,013 

 lasts, 7,000 fish, and the prices they have sold at average from £o to £10 

 per last. Our curers are very busy at this time in drying their herring, 

 and others are preparing them in their own brine, in barrels, for expor- 

 tation, particularly the high dried smoked ones, for the Spanish and 

 Italian markets. And I have no doubt [that] your salted mackerel, also 

 your dried cod, would sell well in those Catholic countries, also in South 

 America. * * * The catches of herring have been equally as large 

 at Lowestoft as at Yarmouth, and the take of mackerel this autumn has 

 been very large. But all have been sold fresh, or split and smoked — what 

 they call kippered here. There is a great demand for them when they 

 are full of fat and done this way." 



Washington, D. C, December 2, 1884. 



