12 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
WHARF SCENES. 
When the fishing floats begin to arrive, the wharves, which have practically been 
deserted, assume a very busy and animated appearance, and as the arrivals increase 
in number the bustle among the different classes of people becomes intense, although 
good nature and good order prevail. The foreign visitor here witnesses some 
exceedingly interesting and picturesque fishing scenes — thousands of fishermen in 
their coarse blouses and flat cloth caps, with trousers rolled up and their feet bare 
or in the huge wooden shoes of the country, unloading their fish and carrying them 
to the canneries; hundreds of women and girls in short dark skirts, white caps and 
collars, and wooden shoes, negotiating for sardines, receiving the fish from the fish- 
ermen, and dispatching them to the canneries; sardine boats, either rowed or sailed, 
entering the harbor in groups or. singty and coming up to the already congested 
docks; fish wagons going to and from the factories, and a mixed crowd of merchants, 
sight-seers, artists, and idlers. The commingled noise of waves, boats, wagons, and 
tongues is underlain by the incessant rattle of wooden shoes on the stony pavements. 
At Concarneau and other places the sardine canners have on the water front 
Washing Sardines on the Beach. 
