ABOUT THE SPRAT. 



181 



THE SPRAT. 



fish, though sadly undervalued by our cooks and house- 

 wives, abound on the coasts of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, 

 and Kent in the winter _ . . 



months, and are also 

 very plentiful in the 

 Firth of Forth, where 

 they are known as 

 (jarvies. The net used 

 for taking them has 

 smaller meshes than the 

 herring-net. Drift-net 

 fishing is practised, and 

 also stow-boat fishing 

 that is, a large bag-net is suspended from two horizontal 

 beams beneath the boat, at an elevation of six or seven 

 feet from the bottom, the fishermen being able to keep 

 the mouth of the net always open by means of ropes from 

 the ends of the upper beam. When the net is full, the 

 ends are drawn together, and the booty hauled on board. 



Fresh sprats find a ready sale in London, Edinburgh, 

 and Glasgow ; and there is also a good demand for dried 

 or smoked sprats. They do duty, too, as sardines, in the 

 tin cases imported in such quantities from the west of 

 France ; and the kilkies brought from Riga, and other 

 Baltic ports, are sprats cured with spices. 



The sprat-fishery for sardine-making finds employment 

 for a number of hands on the coast of Brittany. The 

 process of curing them may be thus described : After 

 the fish have been well washed in sea-water, they are 

 sprinkled with clean salt. The heads are then cut off, 

 and the intestines removed ; they are again rinsed in sea- 

 water, and hung up or laid out on willow branches or 



