62 THE FISHING INDUSTRY 



The fish are gutted and salted by Scottish girls many 

 of them from the Hebrides who come to Yarmouth 

 and other places in the season for this purpose. These 

 girls are all brought up in Scottish villages, and are 

 extraordinarily expert in all the operations connected 

 with the cleaning and salting of the fish. They work in 

 crews of three, and take very good care that each 

 member of the crew is a good worker, as they are paid 

 according to the amount of work they do. 



Each girl receives 25s. a week as a kind of subsistence 

 allowance, and is paid Is. a barrel for the work she does. 



As the fish are delivered into the gutting trough, they 

 are liberally sprinkled with salt, thus enabling the women 

 to grasp the fish easily, as otherwise the fish are too 

 slippery for quick handling. 



The women work standing in a row beside the trough. 

 They pick up a fish, gut it by inserting a sharp knife 

 just below and behind the gills, and with a quick, upward 

 cut, bring away the gut. The guts drop into small 

 tubs placed in front of each worker, and are collected 

 periodically and sold to manufacturers of manure. 

 Behind each woman are three shallow tubs or baskets, 

 and after she has gutted a fish, she throws it behind her 

 into one of the three tubs, according to its quality and 

 size. In this way, the two operations of gutting and 

 selecting the fish are combined. As the tubs of gutted 

 fish become filled, they are taken away by other girls 

 to the barrel packers, and are packed in separate barrels, 

 according to quality or size. The barrels are arranged 

 in long rows, generally parallel to, and at some distance 

 behind, the gutting trough. A girl will pack about 

 three barrels in an hour. 



The gutted fish are first of all emptied into large, 

 shallow tubs called " rousing tubs," placed just behind 

 the row of barrels, and are again sprinkled with salt. 



