EMDEN JOINT-STOCK HERRING-FISHERY ASSOCIATION. 763 



caught in small quantities. They have a most delicious flavor, and are 

 not salted very much, because they are sold very rapidl^'. A barrel of 

 "maatjes" contains about 1,000 fish. 



"Full" herrings, first quality, are fish whose sexual organs are fully 

 developed, and are at the same time the fattest of all herrings. The 

 association have them sorted in " large " and " small " ones, and there 

 are generally three-fourths of the former to one-fourth of the latter. A 

 barrel of large " full " herrings contains about 700 fish, and a barrel of 

 small ones about 900. 



" Full " herrings, second quality, are those which in Holland are called 

 " knitziek", that is, ripe, and are not quite as fat as the before-mentioned 

 kind. 



All " full " herring must be well salted, and, if kept properly in brine, 

 retain their delicate flavor for years. Here it is where a mistake is 

 often made, especially by buyers of small quantities. As soon as a bar- 

 rel is opened and some of the fish taken out, an empty space is created. 

 This space ought to be kept filled with brine up to the lid, which ought 

 to be pressed down by some heavy weight. This brine is easily pro- 

 cured by dissolving coarse salt in hot water until the water is thor- 

 oughly saturated with the salt. This brine must, of course, not be 

 poured over the fish until it is quite cold. If this simple procedure is 

 omitted, there will invariably be some fish with an impure or oily flavor. 



" Ihlen" herring are those from whicb the milt or roe has been taken. 

 They have a pure flavor and a large size, but are mostly lean or dry. 

 This kind is well suited for pickling, and is always considerably cheaper 

 than the " full " herring. 



"Wreck" herring are those fish which have been a little damaged by 

 the leaking of the barrels. Whenever this is the case some of the brine 

 is lost, and as soon as herring is too long without brine it gets an im- 

 pure, oily flavor. On the arrival of the vessels every barrel is, there- 

 fore, carefully examined. While at sea, the barrels are filled up for the 

 first time a few days after the fish have been caught. This is done a 

 second time on shore, so that 17 barrels packed at sea are equal to 

 about 14 barrels of so called "merchants' packing." In packing the 

 barrels the men themselves exercise a strict mutual control, and on 

 shore there is a man specially appointed for superintending the pack- 

 ing. "Wreck-herring" is gladly bought by the poor inhabitants of the 

 coast on account of its cheap price, and because, as a general rule, a 

 large portion of the contents of a barrel consists of very good fish. 



The great advantage of the Emden, and also of the Dutch method, 

 over the Scotch method does not only lie in the more careful sorting of 

 the salt herring (the common name of all the above-mentioned kinds), 

 but also in the fact that the fish are killed as soon as they are taken 

 out of the net, and are immediately, on board the ship, salted down in 

 barrels, while in Scotland all this is done on shore. (The fish which 

 are caught during the night are piled up high in the middle part of 



