THE MULLET FISHERY. 573 
the giller, after performing his work, passes the fish to the spawner, that the roe-bags may be 
removed before it goes to the scraper. When the dressing process is complete the fish are thrown 
into a trough of clean salt water, in which they are allowed to remain and soak until all are split, 
after which they are thoroughly washed before salting. Much of the blood is taken out in this 
way, and the fish thus become lighter and of a more desirable color. Usually all the fish are dressed 
before the salting begins, but when the catch is large the dressing and salting are carried on at the 
same time, several additional men being employed for the work. As the salting requires care, 
the captain usually superintends the work in person, seeing that all are properly treated. After 
they have been washed they are rubbed in salt, and if they are to be pickle-cured they are at once 
placed in pork-barrels or other tight packages, with the fleshy side up, an additional quantity 
of salt being sprinkled between the alternate layers, the fish in each layer being placed at right 
angles to those in the layer next above and below. They are allowed to remain in this con- 
dition for several days, until they have been thoroughly struck and the moisture which they 
contain has passed out of the flesh to form a pickle, which nearly or quite covers them. They are 
then taken out, and the pickle, which contains considerable blood and dirt, is placed in large kettles 
and boiled, after which it is allowed to cool and carefully strained. The fish are then again placed 
in barrels with additional salt, and the clarified brine is poured over them. After a barrel has been 
headed an additional amount of brine is added through the bung-hole, so that the barrel may be 
entirely filled. In many localities the heads of the mullet are removed before the fish are split, 
but in a majority of cases they are left on. This latter method is commonly employed in prepar- 
ing fish for the’ Cuban market, as the people of that island prefer mullet dressed in this way. 
Some of the fishermen have the habit of scaling their mullet and removing both head and back- 
bone before salting them. Fish prepared in this way bring a little higher price than the others. 
The kenching process, as already stated, is more extensively employed in Southwestern 
Florida than elsewhere. The fish are dry-salted and packed in boxes or tied up in bun- 
dles for shipment. They are dressed and salted in the ordinary manner, after which they are 
corded up in piles, an additional quantity of salt being introduced between each layer. The scaly 
surface of the fish is placed downward, to retain the salt that is dissolved by the moisture of the 
body. In some cases, after the fish have been split, they are covered with salt and the sides are 
again brought together, so that the body cavity is entirely filled. Mr. Stearns, in describing 
the kench-curing at the Hunter’s Point fishery, says that the fish, after being cleaned, pass to 
“the salting-tables, where they are rubbed with Liverpool salt, after which the insides are filled 
with it and closed up, leaving the natural shape of the fish. Men or boys are employed in pack- 
ing the fish away as soon as they have been salted. They are packed in rows or tiers, heads out, 
in one corner of the house, and when the pile becomes large they present a most peculiar appear- 
ance, resembling a work of masonry more than anything else. * * * The first fish thus care- 
fully put up,” he continues, ‘‘are in a first-class condition for any market; it is only in the warmest 
weather of August or September that the mullet are known to rust or turn red.” 
No uniform size or style of package has been generally adopted by the mullet fishermen, and 
considerable annoyance is experienéed by the dealers from this source. In many places ordinary 
pork-barrels are used, while in others barrels, or in fact any water-tight packages, regardless of 
size, are utilized for packing and marketing the pickled tish. In North Carolina all kinds and 
sizes of barrels were formerly used indiscriminately, but the quantity of fish contained in them 
varied 80 much that no uniform standard of price could be adopted, and much hard feeling arose 
between the fishermen and the merchants. This led to the passage by the legislature of that 
State in 1879 of a law requiring that mullet should be put up in barrels having a stave 25 inches 
