108 DIFFERENT MODES OF FISHING THE HERRING. 



men stand to see that the counting is correct. At every 

 salting station may be seen piles of thousands of empty 

 barrels, and two persons can prepare twenty-four barrels 

 of herrings per day in gutting, salting, and packing. A 

 barrel will hold about twenty score ; but after remaining 

 in salt eight or ten days they subside, and the barrel 

 then requires three or four score more to fill it, after 

 which it is headed up for sale. On the other side of the 

 Sound we saw what is termed a ' lock,' — that is, several 

 nets joined together, forming a bar before a small bay, 

 into which the herrings were crowded. In this place 

 there were several thousand barrels of herrings, so com- 

 pactly confined together that an oar could stand in the 

 mass. There were in the neighbourhood of Hitteroe 

 altogether about 4000 or 6000 nets, and about 2000 boats 

 and vessels ; and there were caught, according to the 

 opinion of several intelligent persons, this day not less 

 than 10,000 barrels." 



7. PRUSSIAN METHOD. 



On the Prussian shores there are two modes of 

 fishing, which are as follows : After the ice departs in 

 the spring, and from February until June, they fish 

 herrings principally by means of seine-nets ; and the 

 seining is always carried on at night. The shores being 

 generally a fine sandy beach, are well fitted for this 

 operation. There are eight men attached to each net, 

 which is of a very large size, being from 150 to 200 

 fathoms in length, and from 2 to 4 fathoms in depth, 

 with a deep bay in the centre, the whole buoyed by 

 corks ; the sinkers are generally of stone. The men 

 make signals by means of lights, while tlie boat is pro- 



