236 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [146] 



thus making a crease on each side, but if they are poor they will not 

 break. He then takes out the entrails and gills and throws the fish into 

 ^ barrel flesh down, and open ; if one or more should be put in shut up 

 the blood would not soak out. When the barrel is about level full he 

 fills it with water, and it is then left for the blood to soak out of the fish. 

 The gibber then fills another barrel in the same way, and so on until all 

 the fish are dressed. After washing the decks, the next thing is to 

 shift the fish into clean water, as that in which they have been soaking 

 has become very bloody. Taking an empty barrel and putting in it 

 two buckets of clean water, the fish are taken out one by one, and if 

 any of the entrails or gills have been left in by the gibber, it is removed, 

 so that the fish is thoroughly cleaned. At the same time that the fish 

 are examined and cleaned the rimmer is used, plowing deeper the 

 creases in them, which makes them look fatter, so that when the in- 

 spector culls them and puts them up ready for market they may have 

 a larger proportions of No. I's and and No. 2's, The rimmers are of va- 

 rious kinds and shapes; some are made wholly of wood; others have the 

 end tipped with pewter and fine teeth on the edge, so as to make the 

 crease look rough, as though it was broken naturally; others have a 

 knife in the end, which cuts them smoothly. There are other kinds of 

 rimmers and other ways of rimming too numerous to mention, but the 

 object is to make them look fatter than they really are, and thereby 

 gain in number of fat fish or in better quality, as this crease is an indi- 

 cation of their fatness. After the mackerel have been in the second 

 water a short time they are ready for salting. They are salted in tight 

 barrels, so as to hold the pickle, which keeps them from rusting, using 

 suit enough to preserve them well until the end of the voyage. 



"When the vessel arrives at port the fish are taken out of the barrels 

 and assorted or culled by an authorized inspector, agreeably to the 

 Massachusetts inspection law. The inspector puts them up with his 

 name on the barrels, and then he becomes res])onsible for their con- 

 flition and quality. The above is the whole process of curing mackerel, 

 and if so cured, and the barrels kept tight and full of pickle, they will 

 keep in good condition a long time. 



" While jigging was the principal way of catching mackerel they were 

 taken in such a way ard in such quantities that they could be dressed 

 before they became soft; but since seining has come into general use the 

 quality of mackerel is much inferior to what they were before. 



"The seining vessel may be on the fishing-ground and cruise for 

 weeks and not get a single fish, for they may keep down and not show 

 themselves on the top of the water. Then a day may come when mack- 

 erel will come up and large schools of them may be seen in every direc- 

 tion. The seiner then throws his seine around a school, and if he is 

 fortunate enough to inclose them, he hauls in the purse-lines, gathers 

 in the net so as to bring the fish into a comi)act body, and then com- 

 mences to bail them out on deck with his scoop-nets. In this way large 



