64 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



How preserved by the Scotch. 



they are all tanned ; for an account of which 

 operation, see the article Turbot. 



When the fishermen on the Scotch coast have 1 

 plenty of salt, herrings sell for about six shillings 

 a barrel. As their salt is expended, the price 

 falls to five, four, three, two, and one shilling pel- 

 barrel, sometimes even to six-pence or eight- 

 pence ; below which prices the men will seldom 

 shoot their nets, as a less price is not sufficient 

 to indemnify them for the trouble of catching 

 them ; but it sometimes happens that a barrel of 

 fine fresh herrings may be purchased for a single 

 chew of tobacco. A barrel contains from six 

 hundred to sixteen hundred fish, according to 

 their size. After the nets are hauled, the fish are 

 thrown upon the deck of the vessel, and each of 

 the crew has a certain task assigned to him. 

 One part is employed in opening and gutting 

 them, another in salting, and a third in packing 

 them in the barrels in layers of salt. The red 

 herrings lie twenty-four hours in the brine; they 

 are then taken out, strung by the head on little 

 wooden spits, and hung in a chimney formed to 

 receive them ; after which a fire of brush-wood, 

 which yields much smoke, but no flame is kindled 

 under them, and they remain there till sufficiently 

 smoked and dried, when they are put into bar- 

 rels for carriage. 



Herrings become very soon tainted after they 

 are dead; in summer they are insensibly worse 

 for being out of the water only a few hours; and 



