THE PRESERVATION OF FISH 195 



sion in sea-water or dilute brine. After washing, they 

 are laid on the stringing tables, where they are 

 allowed to drain. 



They are then strung on slender sticks by men, 

 women, girls, and boys who are very adept at this 

 work, some of them being able to string twenty-five 

 thousand herring a day. Holding the stick in his 

 right hand, the stringer raises the left gill cover of 

 the herring and inserts the pointed end of the stick 

 through the gill slit and then through the mouth, 

 at the same time shoving the fish to the opposite end 

 of the stick. The sticks, which are about three feet 

 four inches in length and three quarters of an inch 

 square, hold from twenty-five to thirty-five herring. 

 The average price paid for stringing is forty cents 

 per hundred sticks. 



After stringing, the herring are again washed by 

 dipping in a trough of sea-water; then they are 

 hung on rectangular frames called herring horses, 

 which hold about forty-five sticks, or one barrel of 

 fish. When filled, the herring horses are carried out 

 into the open air, where the fish are partially dried. 

 This preliminary drying hardens the gill covers, thus 

 strengthening them, so that the herring do not fall 

 off the sticks in the smoke-houses. 



When the herring have been sufficiently dried out- 

 doors, they are carried into the smoke-houses and 

 hung on scantlings, which are just far enough apart 

 so that either end of the sticks, on which the herring 

 are hung, rests on a scantling. The lower part of the 

 "bays," as the compartments of the smoke-house are 

 called, is filled first. After smoking for twelve or 



