THE PILCHARD THE STURGEON 



children of the fishermen, who will take home as many 

 fish as they can, for there is scarcely one of these in- 

 dustrious Cornishmen who does not do a certain amount 

 of curing on his own account in his spare time. 



Let us now take a glance at one of these curing-yards, 

 where almost all the work is in the hands of women. 

 In the first place the pilchards have to be sorted, the 

 larger ones to be exported to the West Indies or sold 

 for local consumption, the smaller to be sent to the 

 Mediterranean to be made into sardines. Then a large 

 square space on the stone floor is covered with a stratum 

 of the fish, and over it is sprinkled a generous supply 

 of coarse salt; then other layers of fish and salt alter- 

 nately, till a pile five or six feet high is made. The 

 heaps are left in this condition for a month, the oil, 

 water, and salt gradually draining out of them into 

 gutters communicating with tanks. 



By this time the fish are " cured " ; they have now to 

 be carefully washed, after which only the packing remains 

 to be done ; the latter is the most important and lengthy 

 part of the business, for improperly packed fish and bad 

 fish mean the same thing. The pilchards must be placed 

 in layers in barrels, and, when each barrel will hold no 

 more, a weight is placed on the top of it and the bulk 

 is steadily reduced by gradual pressure till the tub is 

 only two-thirds full, the oil thus squeezed from the fish 

 oozing out of the seams. When the barrel has been 

 filled up once more, the pressure is repeated ; and so on, 

 till it will hold no more, and the fish are ready for 

 export. The liquor drained and squeezed from the 



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