CHAP, vr.] YARMOUTH. 271 



slightly smoked, being prepared for immediate sale ; but the 

 herrings brought into Yarmouth are cured in various ways : 

 the bloaters are for quick sale and speedy consumption ; then 

 there is a special cure for fish sent to the Mediterranean 

 " Straits-men" I think these are called ; then there are the 

 black herrings, which have a really fine flavour. In fact the 

 Yarmouth herrings are so cured as to be suitable to particular 

 markets. It may interest the general reader to know that 

 the name of " bloater" is derived from the herring beginning 

 to swell or bloat during the process of curing. Small logs of 

 oak are burned to produce the smoke, and the fish are all put 

 on " spits" which are run through the gills. The " spitters" 

 of Yarmouth are quite as dexterous as the gutters of Wick, a 

 woman being able to spit a last per day. Like the gutters 

 and packers of Wick, the spitters of Yarmouth work in gangs. 

 The fish, after being hung and smoked, are packed in barrels, 

 each containing seven hundred and fifty fish. 



The Yarmouth boats do not return to harbour every 

 morning, like the Scotch boats ; being decked vessels of 

 some size, from fifty to eighty tons, costing about 1000, 

 and having stowage for about fifty lasts of herrings, they 

 are enabled to remain at sea for some days, usually from three 

 to six, and of course they are able to use their small boats in 

 the fishery, a man or two being left in charge of the large 

 vessel, while the majority of the hands are out in the boats 

 fishing. There has always been a busy herring-fishery at the 

 port of Yarmouth. A century ago upwards of two hundred 

 vessels were fitted out for the herring-fishery, and these afforded 

 employment to a large number of people as many as six 

 thousand being employed in one way or the other in connec- 

 tion with the fishery. The Yarmouth boats or busses are 

 not unlike the boats once used in Scotland, which have been 

 already described. They carry from fifteen to twenty lasts of 

 herrings (a last, counted fisherwise, is more than 13,000 her- 



