254 HERRING COMMERCE. [CHAP. vi. 



posure of the box in a steam-chest for such a period as the 

 curer deems necessary. According to my informant, a thorough 

 cure is effected when the box appears convex on the two 

 sides, only it is necessary that this convexity should disappear 

 as the box becomes cool. Ten millions of boxes are annually 

 sent away from the coast of Brittany, and these are widely 

 distributed, not only in Europe, but in Australia and America 

 as well. I have elsewhere mentioned the use of cod-roe in the 

 French sprat-fishery. The quantity used costs about 80,000 

 annually, and is brought from Norway. Each boat engaged 

 in the sprat-fishery will use from twelve to twenty barrels ! 

 Will not the consumption of such a quantity of roe tell by 

 and by on the cod-fishery ? 



Sprats, whether they be young herrings or no, are very 

 plentiful in the winter months, and afford a supply of whole- 

 some food of the fish kind to many who are unable to procure 

 more expensive kinds. When the fishing for garvies (sprats) 

 was stopped a few years ago by order of the Board of White 

 Fisheries, there was quite a sensation in Edinburgh ; and an 

 agitation was got up that has resulted in a partial resumption 

 of the fishing, which is of considerable value about 50,000 

 in the Firth of Forth alone. 



Commerce in herring is entirely different from commerce in 

 any other article, particularly in Scotland. In fact the fishery, 

 as at present conducted, is just another way of gambling. The 

 home "curers" and foreign buyers are the persons who at present 

 keep the herring-fishery from stagnating, and the goods (i.e. the 

 fish) are generally all bought and sold long before they are 

 captured. The way of dealing in herring is pretty much as 

 follows : Owners of boats are engaged to fish by curers, the 

 bargains being usually that the curer will take two hundred 

 crans of herring and a cran, it may be stated, is forty-five 

 gallons of ungutted fish ; for these two hundred crans a certain 

 sum per cran is paid according to arrangement, the bargain 



