838 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



ever, they must remain longer than 

 those intended for the common or 

 ■white salting, and at least four and 

 twenty hours, they arc hung by the 

 head in rows on wooden poles, in 

 stoves constru6led for the purpose, 

 each of which generally contains 

 12,000 herrings. But thus placed, 

 a fire is made under them with vine 

 stalks or any green faggot wood, that 

 affords much smoke and little flame.* 

 Here they remain till dried, and 

 properly smoked, which generally 

 Tequires twenty-four hours. 



Thus they become bicklings, or 

 xed-herrings ; when these are packed 

 in barrels, they are called barrelled 

 hicklings, and are much salted ; but, 

 if laid in straw, they are called 

 straw bicklings, and are somewhat 

 less salted. The excellence of the 

 bicklings principally consists in their 

 being large, fat, tender, fresh, pro- 

 perly salted, pliable, soft, of the 

 colour of gold, and not torn or 

 mangled. In Holland, the best fish 

 are chosen for this purpose ; but in 

 other places, the above described 

 slabbers only are used, or other in- 

 ferior herrings, deemed unfit for the 

 Tisual mode of salting. The best 

 and fattest smoked Dutch herrings 

 are called, in German, speck buck- 

 linge, or fat rcd-herrings ; in low 

 Saxon, flickh'aringe ; and in Ham- 



burgh fliikceringe. 

 open along the back +. 



They are cot 



On the Preparation, Culture, and 

 Vie of the Orchis Roof. By I. 

 Vercivat, M. D. 



Salep is a preparation of the root 

 of orchis, or dog-stones, of which 

 many species arc enumerated by 

 botanical Avriteis. The orchis mas.. 

 culaLinn. sp. pi. is the most valued, 

 although the roots of some of the 

 palmated sorts, particularly of the 

 orchis latifolia are found to answer 

 almost equally Avell. This plant 

 flourishes in various parts of Eu- 

 rope and Asia, and grows in our own 

 country spontaneously, and in great 

 abundance. It is assiduously culti- 

 vated in the east ; and the root of it 

 forms a considerable part of the 

 diet of the inhabitants of Turkey, 

 Persia, and Syria. A dry and not 

 very fertile soil is best adapted to its 

 growth. An ingenious friend of 

 mine, in order to collect the seed, 

 transplanted a number of the or- 

 chises into a meadow, where he had 

 prepared a bed well manured for 

 their reception. The next spring 

 few of them appeared, and not one 

 came to maturity, the roots being 

 black and half rotten. The same 



* At Bremen, the place most celebrated for smoking fish, and wliere no secret 

 is made, as in Ilolliind, of the process, they are hung in ovens of the size of a small 

 parlour, and strict attention is paid, not to use fir, or any wood, in which is any the 

 Itjast turpentine or resinous matter, which invariably g;ives a bad taste to the fish. 



t The act of parliament regulations, and many useful observations, may be seen 

 in two small tracts, 8vo. in possession of the society for the encouragement of 

 arts, manufactures, and commerce, the one entitled, " Observations on the Her- 

 ring Fishery, upon the North and East Coasts of Scotland, &c. with plain rules, pro-; 

 posed for curing, and for supplying the London market with white herrings, by 

 Lewis M'CuUoch, many years employed in furnishing the merchants of London 

 with herrings for exportation. London. Richardson. 1788." The other entitled, 

 "•The nest and most approved Method of curing white Herrings, and all kinds of 

 white fish, containing particular directions how to slit, gut, salt, dry, and barrel 

 them, fit for sale at home, or foreign markets, with directions for boiling of oil, by 

 a trader in Fish. London, J. Davidson. 1750." 



gentlemaA 



