BRITTANY: THE LAND OF THE SARDINE 



555 



^'dangerous, icy regions, whose summers 

 know no nights" and their return in 

 early autumn are the most important 

 events in the current history of the fish- 

 ing towns. 



Another important industry connected 

 with the water is the gathering of sea- 

 weeds. At certain seasons, after storms, 

 immense quantities of algae are washed 

 on the shores, and thousands of Breton 

 fishermen, farmers, peasants, and labor- 

 ers then abandon their business and for 

 a time collect the algae. They enter the 

 surf with rakes and pitchforks and make 

 great piles of the weed on shore beyond 

 the reach of the waves. The algae are 

 taken inland and either spread on the 

 land as a fertilizer or dried and burned 

 for the soda and iodine contained in 

 them. The value of the marine vegeta- 

 bles obtained on the coast of Brittany 

 has amounted to as much as $1,000,000 

 in some years, and that sum would doubt- 

 less have been largely increased did the 

 government not restrict the gathering to 

 particular periods, in the belief that at 

 other times damage might be done to 

 fishes and shrimps whose eggs and 

 young are among the algae. 



The manufacture of sea salt by solar 

 evaporation is carried on at various 

 places on the west Breton coast, but is 

 particularly extensive at Le Croisic, 

 where from numerous flooded fields vast 

 quantities of crude salt are gathered an- 

 nually. This salt is much used in the 

 cod and other fisheries and for general 

 domestic purposes. 



THE SIIvVERY SARDINE 



But the leading product of the waters 

 of Brittany is the sardine. This country 

 has its own peculiar attractions for the 

 artist, the archeologist, the linguist, and 

 other specialists, and even ordinary tour- 

 ists are often impelled to extend their 

 travels thither ; but the feature which ap- 

 peals most strongly to the greatest num- 

 ber of Americans affects not their es- 

 thetic, artistic, or scientific tastes, but 

 their gastronomic, through the medium 

 of the canned sardine. Other countries 

 and other parts of France produce sar- 



dines, but the sardine par excellence 

 comes from Brittany. 



Brittany is the center of the sardine 

 fishery, and has all of the numerous es- 

 tablishments for the canning of the fish. 

 In an average season the Brittany sar- 

 dine fishermen number 25,000 to 30,000 

 and catch 100,000,000 to 150,000,000 

 pounds of sardines, for which they re- 

 ceive $1,500,000 to $3,000,000, while the 

 shore industries dependent on the fishery 

 give employment to 20,000 other persons, 

 mostly women and girls. So important 

 is the sardine that in many communities 

 in Brittany every person is directly or 

 indirectly supported by it, and the failure 

 of the fish to come means ruin, starva- 

 tion, and death to many people in the 

 more isolated places. 



The sardine fishery dates back many 

 years, and even in the early part of the 

 fifteenth century it was quite extensive, 

 but it attained its greatest importance as 

 a result of the perfecting of canning 

 methods and the advent of the railroad 

 in the fishing districts. 



A great deal of unnecessary uncer- 

 tainty and misinformation has existed 

 and still exists with regard to the French 

 sardine. It has long been known that 

 the little fish canned in France is not a 

 species per se, but is simply the young 

 of the pilchard, which is one of the most 

 valuable and abundant fishes of the south 

 coast of England. The range extends 

 from Sweden to the Madeira Islands and 

 includes the Mediterranean Sea. The 

 name "sardine," as you have no doubt 

 surmised, has reference to the island of 

 Sardinia, about whose shores the fish is 

 abundant. 



Sardines are found on the coasts of 

 Brittany throughout the year, but occur 

 in greatest abundance in summer and 

 autumn. The small fish, in demand for 

 canning purposes, have been hatched 

 from eggs laid in the previous summer 

 at a considerable distance from the land, 

 and go in schools at or near the surface. 

 As many as 100,000 have been taken at 

 one time in one net from one school, but 

 the usual size of the schools is not re- 

 markably large. 



