144 THE HERRING FISHERY 



Section IV.— The Question of Preserva- 

 tives. 



Ice was not used generally in England as a 

 preservative for keeping uncured fish in a fresh 

 state till 1 780, a Scotsman named Dempster being 

 the first to use it for preserving salmon. Its 

 use for packing fresh herrings enables the fish 

 to be converted into bloaters in inland towns, 

 as well as at sea-ports, and thereby greatly 

 enlarges the area in which the preservation 

 of fish can be carried on. Before the eighteenth 

 century the salt question had been a subject 

 for pamphlets and discussion, but the question 

 became a national one when in the year 1784 

 Lord Dundonald published a pamphlet on 

 the manufacture of salt and its relation to the 

 herring industry. He complained of the little 

 attention paid in Britain to the purity of the 

 salt used — though the regulations, as we have 

 seen, were strict — and of the slipshod way in 

 which the fish were caught and cured. Even 

 now the manner in which herrings in their 

 various forms are offered to the public leaves 

 much to be desired, and, without the fish being 

 unfit for human food, the varieties of qualities 

 and conditions are so marked that the general 

 public is probably hindered from purchasing 

 herrings as freely as is to be wished. Much, 

 however, could be done by insisting that every 

 box of bloaters should be marked with the date 

 of catch, and by educating the public to refuse 



