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Part 111. — Tenth Annual Report 
The sardine, whether in Cornwall or Galicia, or the Biscay coast of 
France, while never quite deserting the region, has shown all the 
uncertainty of the herring. But the reason for its movements given by 
Mr Cornish is quite in support of our views so long persisted in, as to the 
local character of the herring. The pilchard, he considers, like the herring, 
is not properly migratory, but merely moves seaward and shoreward 
according to season. But if the young are taken wholesale, year after 
year, as on the French coast, they must perforce get fished down to a 
degree that only an exceptionally favourable season or seasons can re- 
cover them from. No doubt, modification of currents, temperature, 
and salinity within the Bay of Biscay may influence the French catch, in 
a way that the Galician can scarcely be influenced, impinging as it does 
directly on the outer Atlantic. But human agency, by the destruction of 
the young in myriads, must have a very great deal to do with the scarcity. 
Fortunately, the poor condition and valueless character of the ripe sardine 
of mature size will prove a certain security ; while the difficulty of getting 
a market for an indefinite quantity of the tinned article will prove an 
additional commercial safeguard. 
As it is, the fine large Scotch herring, thoroughly well-cured and well- 
packed in sound barrels, to meet the Spanish market, if properly intro- 
duced, should find itself without any real competitor. But it must stand 
carriage and keep through the hot weather. 
We may here also allude to the decay of our trade with Spain in dried 
cod-fish, which under the name of bacalao was long an important export 
from this country. It has been almost entirely replaced by the poor 
Norwegian article from the Lofodens. These, too, are sold as Scotch, 
Bacalao de Escocia, which is always asked for by the conservative people 
of these lands. It is, therefore, not a new conquest, but the regaining of 
an old market that is wanted, and to do this our fish must be more 
carefully prepared for the market. For, although it is acknowledged that 
our fish are far superior for immediate use, they do not keep like the 
hard dry Norwegian article, which stands the heat and moisture better 
than ours. We require to choose proper fish — the agreeably flavoured 
but soft article from Barra will not do — and to salt them with proper salt, 
as well as dry them better than we do now, when they are never under 
cover, and are subjected to the constant damp of some districts in the West. 
If dried properly under the very simplest sheds the fish would keep better. 
The salt employed is also a matter of consequence; those cured with 
Bay salt are commonly condemned from being covered with 'red spots.' * 
The Spaniards require far more fish than even their prolific coasts supply, 
and if we could place a proportion of our herring catch in their market, in 
suitable condition, at a reasonable price, we might ease the Baltic markets, 
and improve our position at home. We can supply the finest fish and the 
best-cured fish of any country in the w T orld, and it remains with our 
merchants to see that they are not thrown away through negligence, or 
ignorance of the conditions of the markets to be supplied. Our herrings 
have no equal, and in place of being hurled en masse into one or two 
markets, they should be judiciously divided amongst foreign markets, 
and made the most of. At present we have all our eggs in one basket, 
and one not difficult to upset. And it was mainly that an opening 
should be sought in this great Roman Catholic fish-eating country, that 
we undertook the mission of ascertaining exactly how the Spanish fish 
was made up for the native consumer. They are made up to keep and to 
carry. Fish that will not keep in that climate are of no value to them. 
* See our article on Curing Salt in last year's Report. 
