232 FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



" gutters " looked on with gathering excitement 

 to learn the result of the night's toil. Up came 

 the fleet amid a pandemonium of inquiries, replies, 

 and shouts of welcome in broadest northern 

 Doric. 



Evidently they had been lucky, for the boats 

 were full to the gunwales with fish that glittered 

 like polished silver in the bright sunlight ; and, 

 not for the first time, I realised the beauty of a 

 newly-caught herring. 



Not a moment was lost. As soon as the whole- 

 sale dealers concluded their bargaining on board 

 the boats, hundreds of eager helpers carried the 

 fish in baskets to long, open sheds at the rear of 

 the quay, where scores of women of all ages, clad 

 in long rough blue flannel overalls and armed with 

 formidable sharp knives, stood waiting behind big 

 gutting-troughs. With lightning rapidity and 

 with a dexterous and peculiar turn of the wrist 

 they eviscerated fish after fish, casting the entrails 

 behind them, and the fish into the trough, to be 

 subsequently converted into bloaters, varying in 

 saltness from that of the mild "breakfast" to the 

 intensity of the " Glasgow magistrate." Very soon 

 the " gutters " presented a hideous appearance 

 aprons, arms, and even their faces, being covered 

 with blood and slime. But they did not mind it, 



