FISHES AND MANKIND 397 



about 40 per cent, of our total export, it has suffered very 

 severely. The average pre-war export of pickled Herrings in 

 Great Britain was about 400,000 tons, and to-day this has 

 fallen to about 290,000 tons. This is in marked contrast to the 

 previous increase, which may be illustrated from the figures 

 of the Scottish cure, which grew from 89,934 barrels in 18 11 

 to 1,886,596 barrels in 191 3. 



The Dutch, French, and German fishermen cure their catches 

 of Herrings aboard the vessels, but in Great Britain the whole 

 process is carried out ashore. In Scotland alone some thirty to 

 forty thousand hands are employed in one capacity or another 

 connected with this industry, and nearly 25 per cent, of these 

 consist of women and girls whose sole duty it is to gut the catches 

 brought in by the drifters. Owing to the diflferent seasons at 

 which the shoals approach various parts of the coasts of the 

 British Isles to spawn, the drift fisheries tend to move gradually 

 southwards during the year, commencing on the west coast of 

 Scotland in the Hebrides in May, moving to the Orkneys and 

 Shetlands in June, reaching Shields during the same month, 

 Scarborough and Grimsby in July, Great Yarmouth and Lowe- 

 stoft in early October, and then moving on to such places as 

 Plymouth, where Herrings may be taken until the following 

 January. As the fishery moves south, many of the drifters 

 move round from port to port, and the great army of Scottish 

 fisher-girls follows the fleet on land. During the hohday season 

 the pickhng plots of Yarmouth and Lowestoft are quite deserted, 

 and only the growing stacks of wooden boxes forecast the coming 

 autumn activities, when these towns are invaded by the girls, 

 whose dexterity in wielding a sharp knife^ to split and clean 

 the fish almost at a single stroke is amazing to behold. All 

 day long they are employed in gutting the fish, while others 

 are concerned with the pickhng and packing for export. Ihe 

 process of pickling itself is quite simple: the fish are gutted by 

 removing the gills and intesdnes (but not the milt or roe), and 

 are then packed in water-Ught barrels with layers of salt, in 

 which they make their own pickling and are adequately cured 

 The smoking of fish consists of a combination of salting and 

 drying, and it is upon the degree to which either of these 

 procetses is used that the characteristic flavour depends. 

 Smoking is employed largely for Herrings, but Whitmg, Cod 

 Ling, Saithe, Haddock, Cat-fish, and Mackerel are also preserved 

 in this manner. The primitive savage>moked his fisk by hang- 

 ing them over open camp fires, just as many native races do 



