PACIFIC COD FISHERIES. 65 
The fish are spread out carefully on the flakes with the face side 
up and the drying is continued as long as may be necessary for the 
particular grade of fish. The full-pickle fish are dried for the short- 
est period, as they can not be skinned readily if too dry, and, further- 
more, the trade seems to desire fish which are moist and not too 
hard, and these retain practically 50 per cent of their water. If the 
sun is fairly warm and there is a good breeze, the drying can be ac- 
complished in about 10 hours as the minimum time, but this may be 
greatly increased with unfavorable weather conditions. Only one 
drying is usual for the full-cured fish. 
Fish intended for Porto Rico, or export, are usually kenched di- 
rectly from the vessel and not placed in butts. When needed they 
are dried for three days, “sweated” for two days, then again dried 
for two days. The object of the sweating is to bring the moisture 
out of the interior of the fish. The drying on the flakes removes the 
moisture from the surface and crystallizes the salt, but to get the 
moisture out of the center of the meat the fish must be piled in the 
kench, where the dry salt takes up some of the remaining moisture, 
so that the second drying on the flakes has a greater effect. The ex- 
port fish are usually dried sufficiently hard to withstand the pres- 
sure of the thumb in the thick part of the flesh without retaining 
the impression. The full-pickle fish lose about 9 per cent of their 
weight in drying on the flakes. When cured they retain about 50 
per cent of their moisture, and the hard-dried. from 25 to 30 per cent. 
The sanitary conditions around a flake yard must be carefully 
looked after, as otherwise flies will breed and cause fly-blowing on 
the slack-salted fish. 
Nearly all of the home stations on this coast have large artificial 
driers. These consist of inclosed rooms in which there are shelves 
of hot-water pipes, above which trays of fish are placed, and the air 
is made to circulate over them by means of a large fan. These dry 
kilns are used chiefly in the drying of export fish. During foggy 
and damp weather and in winter when sunlight is rare they are used 
frequently. 
After the fish have been dried they are carted to the storeroom 
and kenched until packed for shipment. 
If the fish are to be boned and skinned they are taken to a separate 
room. Here the operator first cuts off the dorsal and ventral fins, 
then starts the skin at the nape and pulls it in toward the middle 
of the back and then toward the tail. If the fish has been properly 
cured the skin can be stripped off clean without tearing the flesh. 
The tail is then cut off, after which the fish is turned over and the 
nape bones removed with a small iron gaff called a “bone hooker.” 
The remaining portion of the backbone is cut out and the pectoral 
