436 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
but require that it shall contain between 29 and 30 gallons. Each cask must be made 
in a workmanlike manner so as to hold pickle, and be branded on its side near the 
bung with the name of the maker. 
Most of the barrels used for pickling mackerel are manufactured in Bangor, Me., 
but a few are made in various other parts of New England. The price is generally 
from $40 to $55 per 100, but when an unexpectedly large demand for them exists they 
sometimes sell as high as $1 each at the fishing j^ort. Barrels once used are sometimes 
repaired and used over again, but this practice is not commendable. 
For convenience in marketing, brine-salted mackerel are frequently placed in half, 
quarter, eighth, and sixteenth barrels, after they have been prepared in the regulation- 
size barrels. In recent years a considerable market has been developed for much 
smaller packages, and when the fish are sufficiently cheap, they are frequently put up 
in 5-j)ound and 3-pound tin cans, for a description of which see page 520. 
The following summary, compiled from the files of the Gloucester papers, shows 
the fishermen’s i>rice per barrel of the principal grades of mackerel during the first 
week of September in each year from 1830 to 1898, representing generally the average 
for the year : 
BRINE-SALTED HERRING. 
Several different species of the ClupeidcC family are known locally in the United 
States as herring. The ijrincipal ones are the sea herring {Clupea harengus), so 
abundant in the Gulf of Maine; two kinds of alewife [Pomolohus pseudoharengiis and 
P. (vstivalis)^ known on many parts of the coast as river herring, and the herring of 
the Great Lakes (Arggrosomus artedi). The sea herring occurs north of Mon tank, 
while the alewife inhabits the rivers and bays all along the Atlantic seaboard, the 
fishery being of the greatest imi^ortance in the tributaries of Chesapeake Bay and 
Albemarle Sound. The herring of northern Europe are of the same species as those 
of the New England coast. 
In this report the name “herring” refers to the Clupea harengiis, the other species 
being known as alewives or river herring and lake herring. 
It is imi)ossible to assign even an approximate date for the first salting or pickling 
