298 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



others who pack the ice and fish into the barrels in alternate 

 layers. When such a cargo reaches market the fish are 

 counted out into baskets to be hoisted or carried on to the 

 wharf or to the near-by stand. 



The process of salting mackerel aboard ship requires 

 more work and more handling of the fish. The fish are 

 first scooped by small dip nets from the deck into gib- 

 keelers, square boxes about four feet on a side and eight 

 inches deep, placed on top of empty barrels. The fish 

 are seized by the "splitters" who lay the fish on a board, 

 and with a quick motion draw the splitting knife down 

 through the entire length of the fish from the head to the 

 tail, laying it open from its back to the inner ventral wall. 

 The "gibber" receives the split fish from the splitter, 

 seizes it in the left hand by the head and with the right 

 pulls away the gills and viscera, casting the fish into a 

 barrel. When all the fish have been split and gibbed the 

 crew begin "plowing" them. This operation is done by 

 an instrument fitted with a sharp-cutting edge. The in- 

 strument is grasped by its curved handle and the edge 

 drawn twice across the inner ventral wall of the mackerel 

 lightly and quickly, the object being to cut enough of the 

 membrane to show how fat the fish may be. The process 

 of "plowing" mackerel is not always resorted to. The 

 final work remains to put the fish loosely in barrels and fill 

 the barrels with water. There the fish are allowed to re- 

 main for ten or twelve hours in order that the blood may 

 be soaked out of them. 



All the work of catching a school of mackerel that has 

 been described thus far, from the setting of the seine to 

 the last act, must be done without any rest on the part of 

 the fishermen. If a large school of fish, perhaps several 

 hundred barrels, is taken towards night the crew work 

 without stopping until the fish are taken care of. It may 

 be daylight again before their work has been finished. 



