108 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
highly-salted and smoked, in which condition they “kept” 
for many months (like red herrings or dried salted cod). They 
could be eaten (head, bones, skin and all) in this condition, or 
hghtly de-salted in warm water for a few minutes and then 
eaten. Doubtless, there were also many ways in which they 
could have been prepared. Given adequate mechanical dryimg 
and smoking apparatus—an easy enough thing to elaborate, 
it would appear—there seems to have been no reason why 
enormous quantities of sprats could not have gone into trade 
in this form. | 
In the highly-salted and highly-smoked cure of the red 
herring the fish would generally have lost about one-third of 
its weight in drying. Thus :— 
Brightlingsea Fresh Sprats. 
Water, 69; Fat, 12; Proteid, 17; Ash, 2 = 100% 
Brightlingsea Highly-smoked Sprats. 
Water, 35; Fat, 24; Proteid, 30; Ash, 10 = 99 % * 
Thus about one half of the water in the fish is lost in the 
drying and smoking process, so that roughly, about 14 lbs. of 
fresh sprats were required to produce | lb. of smoked sprats. In 
the smoking and drying process there was also a considerable 
amount of labour, and this was relatively greater the smaller 
the fish handled. Obviously, more labour was involved in 
drying and smoking 100 sprats than the same weight of herrings 
(say 100 sprats weigh 2 lbs., roughly, and 8 herrings weigh 
2 Ibs.). 
Now, ‘‘ the Fish (Prices) Order” of 16th January, 1918, 
fixed 6d. as the maximum price per lb. of fresh sprats, and 8d. 
as the maximum price per lb. of smoked sprats. The price. 
of 1 lb. of fresh herrings was fixed at 8d., and the price of 1 lb. 
of kippered herrings at 1s. Say there are about 5 to 7 kippered 
herrmgs in 1 lb. The labour-cost of producing 1 lb. of kippered 
* See pp. 121-127. 
