THE PICKLED-HERRING TRADE. 465 
6. METHODS OF PRESERVING THE FISH. 
SALTING IN BULK AND IN BARRELS —Various methods have been adopted by differert parties 
in the same and different localities for salting the fish and stowing them in the hold of the vessel. 
A common method, known to the fishermen as “ salting in bulk,” is often employed. By it the fish 
are thrown upon the vessel’s deck as they come from the water, and a quantity of salt is sprinkled 
upon them, after which they are thoroughly stirred with large wooden shovels, made expressly for 
the purpose, that the two may be thoroughly mixed. From 4 to 5 pecks of salt are required for 
each barrel of fish. When properly salted the herring are shoveled into the vessel’s hold, a wooden 
shoot being usually arranged in the hatchway to carry them in any direction desired. They are 
then shoveled against the bulkheads and sides of the hold until it hay been completely filled, or 
till a sufficient quantity have been secured. 
The “‘salters” are men detailed expressly for the work, and it is their duty to see that proper 
care is taken in mixing the salt evenly among the fish, and that a sufficient quantity is used to 
properly cure them. These frequently prefer to salt the fish in the hold, in which case the herring 
are shoveled down the hatchway, a few at a time, and the salters add the requisite amount of salt 
as the work goes on. The fish are then thrown to one side and stowed loose as before. 
The method of salting in bulk, although extensively adopted, is very crude, and the work is 
generally done in a hurried and careless manner; the result being that the fish often reach the 
market in poor condition, and are sometimes even unfit for food. This more frequently occurs 
with the fish taken at the Magdalens, where the fishermen are obliged to work very rapidly in 
order to care for the fish as fast as they are secured. At Newfoundland and other places, however, 
the catch is not so large, and the salters have ample to cure them properly. 
Even when carefully salted, the bulk herring, when transferred to barrels and covered with 
brine, are said to be inferior, both in color and flavor, to those that have been put in pickle while 
fresh; for smoking purposes they are, however, as good as those prepared in other ways, and dur- 
ing the height of the Magdalen trade the greater part of the bulk herring were sold to the smokers. 
On account of the difficulty of making good pickled fish out of the bulk herring many of the ves- 
sels were formerly provided with a quantity of barrels and hogsheads, which were arranged in the 
bottom of the hold 89 that the fish would fall in and around them as the hold was being filled. 
The barrels thus served to retain the moisture that drained from the fish above, and those con- 
tained within were in this way kept constantly covered with pickle, and when the cargo was 
landed they were sold as pickled fish, while the others were used for smoking. 
There are several advantages in the method of salting in bulk, the principal one being the 
saving of the cost of the barrels required for holding the fish. Again, the quantity that a vessel 
will carry is greatly increased by this method; for though the vessel may be loaded “scupper 
deep” in the water before starting, the moisture soon begins to drain from the fish, and can be 
pumped out in sufficient quantities to lighten the vessel sufficiently for the voyage. Some time 
is also saved on the voyage, as the fish can be handled so much more rapidly. 
Herring are also salted in barrels in the ordinary way, each package being filled with pickle 
before it is stowed in the hold. This method has been frequently employed in the Magdalen fisheries, 
but it is much more common among the fleet visiting Bonne Bay and the Bay of Islands. 
Nearly all of the herring brought by this fleet are known to the trade as “round herring”; 
that is, they are fish that have been salted just as they came from the water, without even being 
cut open. A few, however, more particularly of the Newfoundland fish, are cut or torn open and 
the gills and entrails are removed before salting. These are called “ split,” or gibbed, herring. The 
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