FISHERIES 



11 



A few words must be sixicl hero ab-Ait the mimifticture of 

 blitatHrs and red hurriiigs, wliicli iia8 iiiiide Yariiiuuth famous 

 all over tlie world. 'I'he Siime incidB m' cutiiig berriiigs is 

 now adopted in many other parts uf Eiigl >iid and in tScut- 

 land, but the tin" . spent ou the oporutiou is not in all cases 

 the same. 



As soon as the heiTinm are brought to the cnrins? houses at 

 Yaintoiitb, the fish iiru all wiislieil to get rid of the siilt they were 

 sprinkled with ou board tlie fishing iioats, and then, without bi'iiig 

 L'utted, or any other iirei>aration, tliuy are again put into aalt, which 

 18 giMiiTally brought from Liveriwol. Their Bubsocjuent treatment 

 depends on whether they are to be made into ivd herrings or 

 blc>at«rs. The latter — Yavniouth bloaters, ,mr excellence — are gene- 

 rally selected fish, full-itted and of the best <iuiility. The finest are 

 in iilo in October and p;irt of November, when the home tisliery is 

 going on, and they should be cured as soon as possilile after they 

 are tJiken out of the water. Strictly speaking, a bloiitcr is nothing 

 •nore, than a herring that has been only slightly cured ; it is kept in 

 salt friinj twelve to eighteen hours, and then smoked 'or about 

 twenty-four hours. But as any herring can be made into what may 

 1)6 called a bloater, and there being always a demand for them, 

 their manufacture is carried on throughout the season with tht best 

 fish that can be obtained ; and we need hardly say that bloatet i are 

 to l)e had all over the country, and cured iu various places, which 

 cone far short in excellence of the selected Yarmouth fish. A 

 properly cured bloater is ready for the market at once, and the 

 sooner it appears on the breakfast table the better it is likely to 

 taste. In the last few years some bloaters have been prepared at 

 Yarmouth with even less curing than that we have spouen of, but 

 they vill not bear keeping very long. It ia the praot:je at Yar- 

 mouth to keep the fish in salt for fourteen days if they are to be 

 made into "red, well-cured, or high-dried herrings" ; they are then 

 waslied luid hung iu wood-smoke tor another fortnight. The curing 

 is mainly dune by women, and after the fish have been taken 

 out of tlie salt and washed, they '..e "rived" or Strang in 

 "spits," or thin sticks, about 4i feet long, which are thrust 

 under one gill-cover and out at the mouth. Twenty-five fish are 

 put on eaciv stick. The spits are then taken to the smoke-room, — 

 a lofty chamlK'T, perhaps about 16 feet stiuare, having a series of 

 wooden frai.ies reaching from floor to roof, with small transverse 

 beams, callec " loves," beginning at a distance of six or seven feet 

 from the groiiid, and running, one above the other, from one side 

 of the room to the other. The frames are four feet apart, and the 

 spits are placed iu rows between them, the ends of the spits resting 

 oil opposite loves. The roof is made of tiles, unccmented, so as to 

 allow a g'lod draught through the room, which when filled contains 

 three lasts of tibh. About sixteen fires are made on the stone floor 

 of this room, the fuel generally being oak billets, which give a high 

 colour to the fish. Ash timber, producing a different colour, is 

 used iu some ca.sc3, to suit the fancies of particular foreign markets. 

 When the room has been thus filled with spits of fish, the fires are 

 lijjhttd and kept \)urning for two days ; they are then let out, and 

 the fish alloweil to drip lor a day ; the fires are again kept alight 

 for two days, and the process of alternately drying and dripping 

 js continued for a foi tni^di^, when the herrings are considered 

 thoroughly cured, or high-dried, and are fit for packing. For the 

 export trade they are packed in barrels, each of which sliould hold 

 650 good-slzid fisli, or a larger number of smaller ones. The 

 manutacturer's name and the number of fish are marked ou each 

 barrel. The expoit traile is to Italy, the Greek islands, and the 

 Levant. The time employed in curing these herrings is longer than 

 is given in Scotland, but iu some ca.ses only half tlie usual time is 

 allowed, and such fish are sent by steamer to the Mediterranean, 

 where they are soon disposed off; but it is not considered safe 

 generally to consign any but " well-cured " herrings to the foreign 

 -uarkets, especially in warm climates. For the home market both 

 bloater.'! and " reds" are packed as a rule in fiat boxes. 



The drift fishery for herrings is carried on more or less 

 along the whole east coast of England, throughout the 

 Englisii Channel, and to a small extent on the Welsh and 

 western side of England. The seasons for this fishery 

 differ, however, on different parts of the coast. It com- 

 mences on the Northumberland coast in the latter part of 

 July, becoming later as we go southward; at Yarnumt . 

 and Lowestoft the home fishery is in October and Novem- 

 'ber ; but a spring fishing has been made for some years 

 past at Lowestoft, beginning at some distance from the 

 laud,^and gradually coming nearer as the season advances. 

 It is a fishery that has given rise to much complaint on 

 account uf the generally small size of the fish then caught. 

 la the Chauuei herring fishing goes on during November 



and December, and at the extreme west in the early part 

 of the year. It is nut a vury iniportunt fi.sliery there, 

 however, and the attention of the fishermen is soon entirely 

 given to the mure lucrative lisiiing for nmckerel, which may 

 be said to have it.' headquarters at the mouth of the 

 Channel, although the fish gradually advance eastward as 

 the summer goes on. 



The mackerel drift fishery is worked practically in the 

 same manner as that for herrings, but a larger mesh is of 

 course required, and about an inch and a half square has 

 been found most suitable. That, however, is not the only 

 difference between mackerel and herring nets. It is the 

 special habit of mackerel to keep near the top of the water, 

 and the nets are consequently so well corked as to 

 fi(m,t at the surfaca It is also unnecessary to have the 

 same depth ^l netting as when herring fishing, and what ia 

 saved in this direction is added to the length A full train 

 of mackerel nets as used by the large Yarmouth drift-boats 

 is as much as 2^ miles long, or double that of a herring 

 ficet. Twine was lung used in their manufacture, but 

 cotton has taken its place generally whenever new nets 

 were required. Mackerel fii-st appear in deep water south 

 and south-west of the British Islands, and are sometimes 

 caught as early as January many miles west of Scilly, but 

 the general Cornish fishery does not usually begin till 

 towards the end of February, and it extends into June. 

 May, June, and July are the months in which the mackerel 

 drift fishery is carried on farther up the Channel, and at 

 the later part of that season in the southern portion of the 

 North Sea. The important fishery for mackerel is, however, 

 on the Cornish coast, and thither resort fishing boats from 

 Yarmouth, Lowestoft, and the various Channel ports, and, 

 in company with the famous Mounts Bay luggers, devote 

 themselves to the ingathering of this great harvest of the 

 sea. Many thousands of tons of mackerel are landed at 

 the western ports during the season, particularly at 

 Plymouth and Penzance, and are sent away by rail to the 

 London and other markets. 



The pilchard drift fishery is worked in the same manner 

 as that for herrings, but rather a smaller mesh is used, and 

 herring nets which have shrunk too much for their original 

 purpose are often usefully employed for the capture of 

 pilchards. This fishery begins in July and continues till 

 September. It is mostly worked on the coast of Cornwall, 

 but during the last few years a great many of these fit>h 

 have been taken along almost every part of the south coast 

 of Devon. Pilchards may be regarded in England as 

 essentially Cornish fish ; there is very little sale for them 

 out of their proper county, but there they are looked upon 

 almost as one of the necessaries of life, and every house- 

 hold likes to have a store of salted pilchards for winter use. 

 These are all the produce of the drift nets, the fish taken 

 by the sens being cured for export to the Mediterranean. 

 A new industry in connexion with the pilchard fishery has 

 been recently established at Newlyn in Mounts Bay, and 

 at Iilovagissey, further to the eastward. This is the manu- 

 facture of "sardines" in precisely the same manner as has 

 long been carried out on the French coast. The so-called 

 " sardines," canght so h'.rgely in the Bay of Biscay, being 

 nothing but young pilchards, there seemed no reason wiiy 

 the Cornish fish if treated in the same way as the French 

 should not turn out as good. Curing establishments were 

 therefore set up at the two places named, and measures 

 having been taken to ensure a thorough knowledge of the 

 French mode of curing, "Cornish sardines," or "pilchards 

 in oil," were prepared, and with so much success that orders 

 for them are now r reived for more than the present limited 

 means of manufacture can supply. 



Sean Fuheries. — Sean or eeiite nets are used on the 

 Engliah coasts chiefly for tbs capture of macket«l and 



