180 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



upon the upturned edge of the plank forming the checker-boards. As a rule, most of the dories 

 reached the vessel at about the same time, and unloaded their cargoes as fast as there was a place 

 for them to haul alongside. In some instances, however, one dory, or two, might be unusually 

 delayed by a larger haul, or missing the buoy, or various other causes of detention. When a dory 

 was unloaded it was allowed to float astern, being made fast by a hitch of the painter around the 

 davit. 



APPARATUS. The operation of dressing began after all the men had returned to the vessel, 

 excepting, occasionally, when one dory might be unusually delayed. In dressing the fish the crew 

 were divided into two parts, each of which performed similar operations. Their apparatus was 

 extremely simple, consisting of a large tub and a table; also the requisite supply of knives to be 

 used in cutting up the fish. The tub was a large hogshead sawed off somewhat above the middle. 

 The table, which was capable of being removed at any time, was composed of several boards hold 

 together by cleats upon the lower side. This table, as well as the tub, was placed by the vessel's 

 side. At one end it was supported by the rail of the vessel, confined there by a piece of joist nailed 

 to the rail and fitting between two flat pieces of board securely fastened to the table, and sepa- 

 rated from one another by the width of the joist. The inner end of this table was supported by a 

 board which ran from its under side to the angle of the deck and the vessel's bulwark. On the side 

 of the table on which the tub was placed was a cleat, standing two inches high, which served to 

 prevent the fish and the viscera from falling while the dressing was being performed, and in the cen- 

 ter, toward the inner end, was a second cleat used to hold the fish during the work of the splitter. 



In order to escape the inconvenience of left-handed movements the relative positions of the 

 tub and table, and positions of the men in splitting, were on one side the reverse of those on the 

 other. On the starboard side the two stood between the house and the bulwarks, the table just 

 aft the main rigging. On the port side the table occupied the same position, and the tub stood 

 just under the main rigging. 



Two kinds of knives were used for the different operations. The throater was provided with 

 a sharp-pointed and strong keen-edged knife of fine steel. The splitter had a knife rounded on 

 tho end with curved blade and of very fine steel. These knives were different from the bait-knives, 

 the latter being of more varying kinds. 



THE PROCESS OF SPLITTING. When all hands are in readiness to dress the fish, the splitting 

 tables are taken from their perch on the liver-butts and fastened up in their places. The tub is 

 also put in its place ready for the header. One man, called the ''idler," now fills the tubs, and then 

 active work begins. The " throater," standing by the side of the tub farthest from the table, now 

 takes a cod from the tub, seizing the fish's jaw in his left hand. He lifts the fish up to the edge 

 of the tub and poises him there, belly upward, on the supra-occipital bone. With the well sharp- 

 ened and pointed knife in his right hand, he makes a transverse cut across the throat, just behind 

 the gills. Introducing the knife at this opening he cuts down the belly, laying open the abdominal 

 cavity, and making also one cut on each side downward he separates the head from the sides, and, 

 with another, separates all the viscera of the belly from those of the head. Finally, still holding 

 the fish thus poised, he presses with his right hand upon the fish's belly, and breaks off the body 

 from the head at the first vertebra. The fish then falls into the tub, and the fisherman cuts the skin 

 of the head through, when it does not break off of itself, and then throws it into the sea. The first 

 is followed by a second and a third, till all the fish in the tub have been beheaded and opened. 



On the opposite side of the tub, between it and the table and close to the vessel's side, stands 

 the "gutter." He, taking the headless fi.sh from the tub, hauls them upon the splitting-table. With 

 his left hand he opens the abdominal cavity and with the other tears loose all the organs contained 



