Good in Every Way 293 



Moreover there is no fish which lends itself so easily 

 to cheap curing, or which when cured has a flavour 

 greatly superior to that of the fresh fish. Salted 

 cod is good fish no doubt and has great value, but 

 compared with the fresh fish it is vastly inferior in 

 point of flavour. But delicious as is a fresh Herring 

 fried or grilled, a bloater or a kipper is certainly far 

 more savoury, although perhaps a trifle too rich for 

 delicate stomachs. And they have the advantage 

 of keeping for a long time if not allowed to dry. The 

 high dried Herring, ' ham-cured ' Herring, or ' Glasgow 

 Magistrate,' as irreverent people call it, is a great 

 favourite with the poor, but it is intensely salt, and 

 certainly has its demerits as a thirst provoker, leading 

 to an increased consumption of beer, which among the 

 class with whom it is a favourite is quite superfluous. 



The salt or pickled Herring is not at all in favour 

 in this country, but in America and on the continent 

 of Europe is greatly liked, especially in Holland and 

 Germany, where it is eaten raw. I well remember my 

 disgust when, while discharging a cargo of mahogany 

 in Rotterdam, the foreman of the stevedores stopped 

 a Herring vendor and purchasing half-a-dozen fish 

 from him, tendered one to me. I smiled and said 

 I had eaten my breakfast, and anyhow there was no 

 means of cooking the fish. ' Oh,' said Hendryk, 

 ' cooking would spoil them ; we eat them hke this.' 

 And taking one by each lobe of its tail, he ripped it 

 asunder lengthways, skilfully ejected the backbone, 

 and devoured the fish with great gusto. Prior to 

 that the only people I had ever seen eat raw fish were 

 the South Sea Islanders, and I had fancied it a savage 

 accomplishment. 



But whether salted, smoke-dried, or eaten fresh, the 

 Herring as an article of food fills a position quite out 



