92 VISIT TO A CURING ESTABLISHMENT. 



house filled with smoke cannot be entered with 

 impunity. By means of long weights, which counter- 

 balance the windows, Messrs. Stacy- Watson's men 

 can walk round a curing-house and open all the 

 windows to a fixed point in the short space of time 

 in which they can hold their breath. The " ham- 

 cured " herring, having undergone a special process, 

 are subjected to the smoke for a considerable period. 

 When they are sufficiently cured, they are collected 

 and packed in barrels. These barrels are sold by 

 weight, not by the number of fish they contain. 

 Herring are pressed into the barrels by means of a 

 small circular screw-press till the requisite weight is 

 secured. Messrs. Stacy-Watson & Co. make their 

 own barrels, of well-seasoned material, and have at 

 the present time 6,000 in stock. This is done that 

 they may guarantee sound packages for their fish, 

 which they export in large quantities to Italy and the 

 Levant. When the barrels are duly weighed and 

 packed, they are branded according to the quality of 

 the fish. I found the coopers employed on the 

 establishments busily at work making barrels, to add 

 to the huge store which now nearly fill the several 

 chambers. There is another branch of the herring- 

 curing business to which my attention was directed. 

 In the floor of a long building I observed seven deep 

 cement-lined tanks or vats, which I learned were 

 pickling vats. These seven vats will hold 660,000 

 herring. After the herring have been kept in these 

 vats for a time, they are packed in barrels and sent 

 away, chiefly to the Emerald Isle, where they are 



