FISH AND FISHERIES OF EAST SUFFOLK. 



373 



a single boat has brought into the roads, at one time, twelve or 

 fourteen lasts." 



In these days of steam and feverish haste the boats, in- 

 dependent of winds and tides, hurry to the more convenient 

 dock-quays, often laden to an inconvenient degree with a single 

 night's catch. 



The "spitting," hanging, and smoking of Herrings still goes 

 on as formerly, but the bulk of the catches are nowadays merely 

 gutted and packed in brine in barrels, the deft-fingered Scotch 

 lasses in their hundreds and even thousands, as in Yarmouth, 

 altering the whole complexion of the curing industry. The 

 exports now consist principally of salted Herrings ; the bulk of 

 these go to the Baltic ports, Germany and Russia absorbing the 

 greater proportion of them. 



In the early days competition and trickery evidently occurred, 

 and frauds were even practised in the packing of smoked Her- 

 rings ; bad quality and meagre-sized fishes then went to the 

 bottom of the barrel, a trick that the workman, I will warrant, 

 was not wholly responsible for. A complaint was made to the 

 Government in the days of Charles II., praying that this 

 grievance might be redressed. The purport of this complaint 

 showed that even the barrels' cubic inches were not always above 

 suspicion. It was decreed : " That from and after the first day 

 of August, 1664, no white, or red herring of English catching 

 shall be put up to sale in England, Wales, or towne of Berwick- 

 upon-Tweed but shall be packed in lawful barrels or vessels, and 

 what shall be well, truly, and justly laid and packed ; and shall 

 be of one time of taking, salting, saveing, or drying, and equally 

 well packed in the midst, and every part of the barrel or vessel ; 

 and by a sworn packer," &c. 



The oath was as follows : — " You shall well and truly doe, 

 execute, and perform the office and duty of packer of herrings 

 ... so help me God." 



In its palmiest days the Mackerel fishery at Lowestoft did 

 not i each very large dimensions. " The principal advantages 

 which the merchants receive from the fishery," as Gillingwater 

 points out, " is that of employing the fishermen and keeping 

 them at home for the Herring season, more than emolument to 

 themselves." The same reasons were assigned by the Yarmouth 



