132 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
way to the spawning grounds, shrink more—sometimes up to 35 
er cent. 
y After holding the fish in storage for at least 20 and not more 
than 90 days fhiey are taken out of the tierces. Each side of fish 
should be lifted out carefully, as described above, and sponged with 
a large sponge until all salt and slime are entirely removed, leaving 
only a alse red side of fish. Either pure ice water or ice pickle 
may be used for this washing, but it will depend entirely on the 
quality and condition of the fish. Soft, poor fish would require 
pickle, but good firm fish may be washed in clean ice water. 
The sides are then weighed and graded accordingly, 6 to 8 pounds, 
8 to 10 pounds, and so on, being the grades. Sides of 11 pounds 
and over are called large fish, and ‘‘L” 1s marked on the side of the 
tierce. Some curers grade their sides from 9 to 11 pounds and 
class them as mediwm and mark them ‘‘M;” smaller sides are termed 
small and are marked ‘‘S.”’ 
After the sides have been graded they should be counted and 
repacked, the defective sides, such as thin-bellied, torn or broken, 
being put by themselves. Fish which are considered perfect are 
called No. 1; those which do not come up to that standard are 
termed No. 2, and are marked accordingly; while fish that have 
any taint of sourness are marked “T.”’ In repacking, the sides of 
fish should be replaced as nearly as possible in tree original position, 
those curved in shape being placed against the sides of the cask and 
straight pieces laid in the center of the tier. No salt is used in repack- 
ing, but as soon as the tierce is filled, the head put in, and the air test ap- 
plied it is laid on its bilge and filled up with ice-cold pile made to a 
strength of 90° salometer (90 per cent saturation) that can be made 
from fresh or salt water, whichever is handiest and cleanest, half-ground 
salt being used. There will be about 830 pounds of fish on an average 
in the tierce after repacking, and some 14 gallons of pickle may be 
required to fill the cask up. They are then put back into cold storage 
and pickled at the bilge daily for at least a week. If kept for any 
length of time, they would, of course, have to be tested, regularly—a 
tap with a hammer would do—and any leakage promptly rectified. 
If properly cured, the fish should keep in good condition for months 
in cold storage, provided the casks are sound and kept full of pickle. 
On the head of each tierce are put the following marks: Initials of 
packer or packers; initials of place where packed; number of tierce 
(consecutive); number of sides in tierce, the tare, and the gross 
weight (weight of pickle not counted); quality of fish (I, I, or T); 
and size of fish (L, M, or 8S). 
If of first quality, no mark is necessary, but second-quality and 
tainted fish have to be noted. 
In the early days of the industry different preparations, which 
included salicylic and boracic acids, were used to help preserve the 
fish. This caused much complaint from the Germans, and finally 
their Government subjected our product to a rigid inspection, with 
most salutary results, as now it is one of the purest and best products 
put up on this coast, the use of acids being done away with entirely. 
The king salmon is almost invariably the species mild cured, being 
the only one large enough to answer the requirements of the trade. 
In 1907 a Ketchikan (Alaska) packer put up a quantity of coho, dog, 
and humpback salmon, but he found so much difficulty in disposing 
