168 
Part III. — Tenth Annual Beport 
from those of Scotland used for herring. They are specially made some- 
what open to permit the escape of the brine and the oil. They are 
broader, squatter and have a greater range of sizes ; while, owing to the ab- 
sence of any necessity for being absolutely water-tight, they are of inferior 
manufacture generally to our well-made barrels. While this openness in 
the barrel is undoubtedly useful for the purpose intended, it is not advan- 
tageous when it goes into the market, as the air gets more readily even 
at the best-packed fish, and cannot fail to facilitate putrefaction. We be- 
lieve that well-packed, well-cured Scotch herring of medium size would 
compete satisfactorily with those Spanish fish, and yet these latter are too 
small to enter into competition with our own in our principal markets. 
These Spanish barrels are of various sizes, and it may be of some 
utility to know exactly what these are, so that the custom of the country 
may be so far met by the merchants who may wish to take advantage of the 
Spanish market. The sizes are : 
1st, 20 in. deep, 2 ft. 2 in. diameter, holding 262 kilos. 
2nd, 15 „ 2 2 „ „ 196 „ 
3rd, 11J ,,18 „ „ 70 „ 
4th, 7 „ 1 8 „ „ 45 „ 
5th, 6f „ 1 4 „ „ 24 „ 
The prices of course vary with the season, but when No. 4 contains 1000 
fish it fetches roughly 16 pesetas, and if containing 1300 fish — it brings 12 
pesetas or 10s. Sterling. 
While there are distinct advantages in the Spanish mode of packing, 
requiring less skill in the making of barrels, less space, consequently saving 
cost of transit, and less weight, as the brine and the oil are removed, 
yet the counterbalancing disadvantages are also evident. Thus the open 
chinks admit air and do away with much of the advantage of close 
packing ; the absence of brine demands heavy previous salting ; and the 
fish have neither the appearance nor the fresh smack of our own best- 
cured fish. At the same time the same class of fish as that for the Baltic 
would require better salting for the Spanish market, and it is pro- 
bable that mattie herring would, on the whole, be better suited for this 
market than the larger classes. 
The largest casks are called 2 to a pipe — next 3 to a pipe, while the 
smallest tubs are for America. 
Sometimes for special markets they are not pressed, but put in tight 
barrels : even then however, the barrels are not headed, but only covered. 
The firm of Maristany Brothers, Coruna, alone can press 300,000 fish at 
one time. The establishments in general are well-aired and very extensive, 
so as to push through a heavy fishing. 
Besides the large full-grown sardines this firm prepares the small fish 
in tins, which sell at 40 pesetas per 100, or 4d. each wholesale. The Noya 
factory sells a smaller tin wholesale at 2d. each ; but either the oil used, or 
the mode of preparation of the latter was distinctly inferior to that of the 
French. We cannot believe that the fish are inferior in any way, as all 
we partook of were remarkable for delicacy of flavour. 
It is now practically accepted that the pilchard and sardine are de facto 
the same species, nor can we note any specific difference between them as 
taken simultaneously off Coruna and off Looe in Cornwall. The discussion 
that has arisen as to the pelagic or demersal character of the ova of the 
sardine must be consideredin the latest light of the investigations made by 
Mr Cunningham at Plymouth, for we have no reason to separate the sardine 
from the pilchard in this connection. In 'Reproduction and Development 
of Teleostean Fishes,' Mr Cunningham found the pilchards' eggs to float 
on expulsion. He found the pilchard to spawn far out at sea, — some 20 
