PACIFIC COD FISHERIES 441 



fish have settled below the top of the butt, which they will do in a 

 few days, several layers of new fish are added. In Alaska the pickle 

 in the butts is kept at from 87° to 97°, salinometer test, the average 

 being about 90°. As the climate in Alaska is nearly always cold and 

 damp, there is but little danger of fish spoiling if ordinary care is 

 used. Fish will keep indefinitely in strong pickle so long as they are 

 covered with it. If kept for a long time the pickle must be replen- 

 ished occasionally to repair the losses, particularly from leakage. 

 At the stations the fish at the top of the butts are inspected every few 

 days. When the pickle begins to weaken the top layer is turned back 

 up and a few bags of salt laid on top. These press the fish down, and 

 the salt in the bags dissolves much more slowly than if it were thrown 

 loosely over the fish. 



At a few stations where the salinometer is not used the agent uses 

 a potato to determine when the pickle is strong enough. If the potato 

 floats at the surface the pickle is strong enough for curing cod. 



The pickle forms very rapidly in the early stages of the curing and 

 the surplus is allowed to escape at intervals through a bunghole in 

 the butt. 



Care must be taken to see that the roof does not leak during heavy 

 rains, as should fresh water drip into the butts the fish will become 

 siimy. 



Should the run vessel be delayed and a station become filled to its 

 butt capacity, a space is cleared in the salt house and the fish taken 

 from the first filled butts are kenched on the floor, a little salt being 

 sprinkled between the layers and over the top. Every effort is made 

 to hold them in the butts as long as practicable, as they retain their 

 natural white color much better when in pickle, kenched fish usually 

 acquiring a yellowish tinge. 



When the station vessel arrives the pickle is allowed to run off the 

 fish and they are pewed out into carts and wheeled along the dock to 

 a point opposite the vessel's hatch, where they are dumped into a 

 chute and pass thence into the hold. Here men receive and kench 

 them in the same manner as on the fishing vessels, almost no salt 

 being used, however, as the fish are already well cured and have a 

 considerable quantity of salt adhering to them. 



At stations where the vessels can not lie alongside the dock, owing 

 to shoal water, the vessel is anchored in the bay or harbor and the 

 fish are brought out to it in dories that are loaded from a chute rigged 

 up at the outer end of the dock. When a dory is full it is rowed out 

 alongside the vessel and the fish are pewed over the rail. As the 

 vessel's rail is a considerable height from the surface of the water 

 when she first begins loading, it is generally necessary to rig a stage 

 about midway between the surface of the water and the top of the 

 rail. The fish are then pewed onto this stage, whence one of the crew 

 pews them over the rail onto the deck, and another man then pews 

 them into the hold. This method is very expensive, as it requires a 

 large number of men, is quite slow, and also injures the fish through 

 excessive pewinjr. 



In 1912 one company had square rope nets made similar to those 

 used by cargo vessels in handling small packages. A small one is 

 placed in the forward end of the dory and a larger one in the after 

 end, space for the boatman to stand being left between the nets. The 

 fish drop from the chute into these nets. When the dory arrives 



