348 THE WORLD OF THE SEA. 
When the sardines are plentiful, a ton can be taken at one 
sweep of the net, and after one expedition, a boat will return with 
25,000 or 30,000 fish. The pilchard fishing continues five or six 
months, and in this time the Bretagne fishers have been known 
to take 7,500,000,000 of the fish, which when sold fresh, would 
realise £300,000. The Basque fishermen use a net of a different 
description, a sack net with a ring of horn, which is drawn through 
the water. 
Sardines are prepared in many ways; sometimes they are 
merely salted, sometimes they are packed in cases, and between 
each layer a quantity of salt is strewed, and in this way they are 
sent to the market. Or, again, after remaining packed in barrels 
for a month, they are then washed, and submitted to pressure, and 
by this means the oil and brine they contain are squeezed out. 
Sardines prepared with salt mixed with red ochre, are fre- 
quently sold for anchovies. 
Generally, however, sardines are preserved in oil. The mode 
in which they are thus prepared, is as follows :—When they come 
from the boats, they are packed in baskets, 200 or 300 in each, 
women receive them, and with a dexterity acquired by practice, 
they cut off the head, open the fish and clean out the interior with 
one cut ; they are then tossed into brine, where they are left for a 
few hours; and on being removed they are thoroughly washed and 
then laid on wicker panniers to dry, when dry they are plunged 
into boiling oil, where they cook for some minutes; they are then 
packed in the well-known tin boxes, filled with oil and the lid 
soldered down. In order to ensure perfect preservation, the 
boxes are boiled in water. In some of the Arabian countries, 
according to Marco Polo, the inhabitants dry the sardines, and 
after reducing them to powder, make them into cakes. 
But to enjoy the delicate flavour of the pilchard, it must be 
eaten a few hours after it has been caught. When quite fresh the 
skin easily peels off, and the flesh leaves the bones in two small 
y 
fillets. These are perhaps the most delicate eating of all fish. 
We cannot leave our subject without mentioning the Azchovy, 
a little fish of great eminence in the culinary science. The anchovy 
