HERRING FISHERIES OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND HOLLAND. 
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catch at sea, and store it in the hold in compartments. A vessel may leave port, 
set nets, make a catch, and be back the same day, or it may be out two weeks. 
There has never been a failure of the Yarmouth herring fishery; although fish 
are less abundant some years, they have never been so scarce as to make fishing 
unprofitable. Some of the Yarmouth fishermen think that the herring frequenting 
that part of the English coast constitute a distinct body which spawn and remain off 
that coast, and do not come down from the North. Herring are taken much earlier 
in Scotland and northern England than here. 
When a vessel arrives in port the fish are lifted out cf the hold in baskets and 
spread on deck, where they are counted into baskets by hand, 100 fish to a basket. 
These baskets are then passed over the rail to the dock and emptied into large, 
peculiarly shaped baskets holding 500 fish, arranged on the dock in lines or tiers of 
20 baskets each. The fish are heaped in 10 piles over the edges of adjoining baskets 
to facilitate counting. A line of the large baskets constitutes a last, which is the 
unit of measure in the herring trade. A last represents about 1-J tons of herring, 
or, theoretically, 10,000 fish; but, as a matter of fact, 13,200 fish of any size, as 132 
fish are called 100 in counting. 
Herring are sold at public auction by lasts. The buyer puts his card or tag on 
the first basket of the tier, and his drayman comes shortly afterwards and takes the 
fish to the pickling-liouse or smoke-house. Sometimes, at the height of the fishery, 
1,000 lasts (or 3,000,000 pounds) are landed and sold daily in Yarmouth, and the 
wharves present scenes of great activity and excitement. 
The Scotch herring fishery is rather uncertain. In 1900 it was poor on the 
Scotch coasts, except about the Shetland Islands, where there was a phenomenally 
large run. A number of years ago, after expensive curing establishments had been 
built in those islands, the fish disappeared, fishing had to be abandoned, and the 
packers lost all they had invested. 
Different races of herring are recognized as frequenting different parts of the 
Scotch seaboard. Thus, according to Mr. W. C. Robertson, of the fishery board, the 
best herring are those taken near Barra and Loch Fyne, on the west coast. These 
are fine, fat fish, which have brought as much as £6 per barrel. 
The different kinds of cured herring to which reference may be made are 
ordinary pickled fish, kippered herring, bloaters, and red herring. 
BLOATERS. 
A favorite form of preserved herring for local consumption is the bloater. In 
the United States this term has come to mean a large, lightly smoked herring, but 
in Great Britain a herring of any size may be a bloater, which may be defined 
as a round herring, lightly salted and lightly smoked, and intended for immediate 
consumption. 
The extensive trade in Yarmouth bloaters which formerly existed with London 
and other cities away from the coast has to a great extent died out, owing to the 
fact that the smoking is now done at the place of consumption. The fish bear 
the rail shipment better before smoking than after, so that the bloater trade now 
consists largely in shipping lightly salted fish to cities where there are smoke-houses. 
Bloaters remain in good condition for two or three days, but are regarded as being 
best when smoked and eaten the day after being caught. 
