164 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [74] 



splits tlie fish he tosses them into tTie tray of the "gibbers." The 

 "gibbers" protect their hands with gh)ves or mittens. As fast as 

 the "gibbers" remove the viscera, with a peculiar double motion of 

 the thumb and fingers of the right hand, they throw the fish into bar- 

 rels, which are partially filled with water; these are called "wash-bar- 

 rels." If the men have time they "plow" the fish before salting them, 

 making a gash in the abdominal cavity nearly to the skin with the 

 peculiar knife, " the jjIow," provided for the purpose. 



Before the fish are salted the dirty water is poured out and clean 

 water is added. About one barrel of salt is used for every four barrels 

 of mackerel. This is the first salting. When the fish have been salted 

 they are placed in unheaded barrels until the weather is unfit for fish- 

 ing, or the dec*k is filled with them, when they are carefully headed up 

 and stowed away below. 



The speed with which a large deck -load of mackerel can be disposed 

 of by the crew is something marvelous. A good splitter will handle 

 from forty-five to sixty mackerel a minute. In one well-authenticated 

 case a man split sixty-seven mackerel a minute for three consecutive 

 minutes.* A good "gibber" can handle a barrel of large mackerel in 

 from five to seven minutes. A smart crew of fourteen men can dispose 

 of a deck-load of large mackerel in from fifteen to eighteen hours, salt- 

 ing them away properly in the barrels. The smaller the mackerel the 

 longer it takes to dress a barrel of them, the time required to handle a 

 small or a large mackerel being precisely the same. 



When the fish are to be iced and carried fresh to market they can be 

 disposed of much more rapidly, it being simply necessary to stow them 

 away in the hold without splitting. They are usually washed before 

 being placed in ice, and occasionally gibbed without splitting, the vis- 

 cera being drawn through the gill openings.t The most rapid way of 

 caring for the fish is to place them in barrels of ice- water. This is done 

 for the most part in the spring or fall. 



* An expert can split mackerel nearly as fast in the darkest night as at any other 

 time. The sense of touch becomes so acute from long practice that the fisherman 

 can tell (without seeing it) when he grasps a mackerel whether its head is in the 

 right direction or not, and also which side should be laid to the board iu order to 

 bring the fish's back in proper position for the knife. The splitter holds the knife 

 with his fingers, letting the thumb slide down along the upper side of the fish, thus 

 guiding unerringly the keen and swiftly moving blade. Whether the fish be largo or 

 small it is almost invariably split with the utmost precision, the edge of the knife 

 glancing along on the left side of the vertebra, and scarcely a hair's breadth from it, 

 w^hile the point goes just deep enough and no farther. But one must witness th© 

 operation of splitting mackerel in order to fully appreciate the skillfulness of the 

 performance. 



tFresh mackerel are never gibbed for the New York market iu spring, but a law of 

 Massachusetts compels the fishermen to eviscerate all mackerel taken to Boston. In 

 the first named port the cargoes of fresh fish are sold by commission merchants, while 

 in Boston the captain sells directly to the dealers. 



