30 By Stream and Sea. 



billets are substituted for oak. A few hours in the smoke- 

 room are sufficient for a bloater, and the lower spits are 

 used for that description of article. The fish higher up are 

 left to dry according to the will of the curer, the last to 

 be removed coming down as veritable red herrings. 



We have now seen the fresh herring sold and despatched, 

 the pickled herring lightly salted and barreled, the bloater 

 and red herring cured to a turn in the smoke-room, but 

 there yet remain the kippers. The veteran boatman and 

 fisherman pretend to know nothing about this process of 

 kippering, which they regard as a new-fangled notion that 

 will ruin the country if persisted in. Probably they would 

 think more kindly of it had it not been of Scotch origin. But 

 there it is, increasing in importance every year. It employs 

 large numbers of thrifty, homely women, mostly Scotch. 

 The best quality of fish must be selected for kippering; no salt 

 is used; the herrings are most carefully cleansed, and deli- 

 cately and artistically smoked. Mr. Buckland, in a recent 

 Report on our East Coast Fisheries, estimates that a thousand 

 lasts of herring per year are now required for kippering. 



Yarmouth, however, does not live by herrings alone. 

 Trawling is an equally important branch of the local trade. 

 When the bloom is gone from the herring season the boats 

 refit, and, under the generic name of smacks, spend the 

 winter in trawling, a much more hazardous occupation than 

 drifting, and altogether different in its nature. The drift- 

 net entangles the shoal swimming near the surface; the 

 trawl sweeps the bottom. The one captures herrings, with 

 a very occasional mackerel or cod in the meshes ; the other 

 brings up the more remunerative sole, haddock, plaice, 

 turbot, brill, and whiting. It is stated in Mr. Buckland's 

 interesting little Blue-book that the North Sea trawling- 

 ground covers, according to Yarmouth calculation, 50,000, 



