Modern^ Yarmouth . 2 9 



Ieonoclas't with a household- god, and it would ill become me 

 to skake the British nation's faith in her savoury bloater. But 

 it is said that numbers of the so-called Yarmouth B. come 

 from Ireland and Scotland, and are doctored and palmed off 

 to confiding breakfast-tables as the real original article. 

 When every purchaser of a herring insists upon its being a 

 bloater, a Yarmouth bloater, and a hard-roed Yarmouth 

 bloater, it is clear something must be done to keep up the 

 supply. However, let us confine ourselves to what is being 

 done under our own observations. 



The " herring office," where the fish are converted into 

 bloaters, is a very singular place. Upon the ground floor the 

 herrings recently arrived from the wharf are shot out of the 

 Swills upon the stones, transferred by great wooden shovels 

 into a huge tub, thoroughly washed, and passed : on to 

 women — a much better type than those working about the 

 wharf and in the ruder sheds — who thread them through one 

 of the gill covers upon a long slender lath called a ".spit,' ; 

 which accommodates five-and-twenty fish. The spits are then 

 taken up into the smoke-room, a lofty, barn-like apartment, 

 •full of dark-coloured frames and beams from floor to roof. 

 The spits, charged with herrings, are placed horizontally in 

 -niches which receive the ends of the stick, the tiers extend- 

 ing to the ceiling overhead. The only aperture in this dusky 

 room is in the centre of the roof, the great object being, when 

 the drying process begins, to "draw " the smoke. The 

 room being filled with tiers, containing sometimes as many 

 as a hundred -thousand fish; small wood fires — of oak, if 

 possible — are kindled over the stone floor, and maintained 

 without- flame. The uncemented tiles above, and the one 

 opening in the roof, promote a free draught, while the smoke 

 from the oaken logs -gives a fine colour to the fish. For 

 certain markets where a particular colour is demanded, ash 



