a wa. 
PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 13) 
The sides are then taken to the salter, who lays them, skin side 
down, on a salting table, on which has been dumped a quantity of 
dairy salt, and gently rubs the flesh with the salt, lifts it up with 
only such salt as will adhere to it, and places it in the tierce. 
The tierces in which the salmon sides are packed are stout casks 
made of fir or spruce, bound with six strong galvanized hoops. They 
contain about 800 pounds of fish, but when full of pickle the gross 
weight of cask and content is between 1,100 and 1,200 pounds. A 
plug hole is bored in the head of the tierce. 
Two or three handfuls of salt are thrown over the bottom of the 
tierce, then a layer of salmon sides, skin down, and two or three hand- 
fuls of salt are sprinkled over them. In packing two sides of fish, 
crossed head and tail are packed close to opposite sides of the 
tierce, the back or thick part of each side being placed close up 
against the side of the tierce. Other sides of fish are packed from 
the sides toward the center of the tierce, napes and tails alternately, 
the back of each side being drawn halfway up and resting on the 
side already laid. When complete, the layer should be perfectly 
level, and this depends a good deal on how the last or center piece 
is laid. Salt is sprinkled between each layer in the manner and 
quantity noted above and the process continued until the tierce is 
full. The tiers should be crossed in packing. The top layer should 
be placed with the skin up and have extra salt put on. From 85 to 
100 pounds of salt are used to 800 pounds of fish. 
The tierce is then headed up, after which pickle is poured in until 
the tierce is quite full. This pickle may be made with the same 
salt as is used for rousing and sprinkling the fish. Perfectly clear 
water should be provided and broken ice should be added in liberal 
quantities, if the weather is warm. Before using, the pickle should 
be strained through a fine sieve or a clean cloth, to remove froth 
and sediment. <A centigrade saltmeter is used by most mild curers. 
The pickle is made to a strength of at least 90°, but it usually weakens 
to about 70° during the first 10 days of cure, whereas after re- 
packing it should not readily come below 85°, and it should retain 
that strength for a long time. 
When tierces have been filled with pickle they are rolled inside a 
cold-storage room, with a temperature of 35 to 38° F., where they 
may be tiered two tiers high. Very little variation in the temperature 
is allowable, as it would start the oil or fat in the flesh, allowing 
it to escape into the brine. 
Unless the tierces are kept quite full of pickle the sides of fish 
are apt to be broken when the cask is rolled about. The tierces 
must be examined frequently to see that they are full of brine, as 
there are always small leaks, while the staves absorb more or less 
moisture. Furthermore, if the tierces were allowed to leak, ugly 
yellow spots would show on the parts of the fish that were left dry. 
Thus it is of the utmost importance, both during the two or three 
weeks allowed for pining and also after repacking, to see that they 
are kept full of pickle. Several gallons of pickle may be absorbed 
by each cask during the first two or three weeks of cure. 
The actual shrinkage during the two or three weeks in which the 
fish lie in the first packing may be reckoned at 30 per cent. Fat, 
well-conditioned fish, especially those which are caught in the ocean, 
shrink less, but poor fish, especially those caught when well on their 
