408 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
salt. They generally reckon on using 100 tons of salt (Mediterranean) to 2,000 hundredweight of lish, 
inclndiug the salt which is used in preserving their bait. While all other nations either nse rock 
beaches, or ditt'erent kinds of Hakes to cure their fish on, the Frenchnien in Bordeaux nse scaftblds, on 
which the fish is hung by the tail. This is held to be the most practical in France, because in this 
way the fish is cured exceedingly quick (from two to six days) with a minimum of labor expenses, 
and gives a real good article, although, as before mentioned, not so durable. These scaffolds are made 
in the following way: A number of sticks are driven down perpendicular in the ground about 1^ 
yards apart in a straight line from west to east, across which are fastened a row of two laths, far 
enough apart to admit the tail of the fish to be i)ushed through. About seven-eighths of a yard 
above this first row of laths another row is fixed in the same manner. These laths are from three- 
eighths to five-eighths of an inch thick and from to 2 inches wide. The arrangements of these 
scaffolds vary a little ; some are fixed in square compartments with laths fastened alternately on the 
north and south sides of the posts, and with a gangwaj' about 2 feet wide between each row of 
compartments. On others, again, the laths are all fastened on the north side of the posts and each row 
of scaffolds about 3 yards apart, in order to prevent the shade from the row in front reaching the one 
behind. Small cleats of wood are fastened across each pair of laths, for the purpose of keeping them 
together. The tail of the fish is pushed in between the laths from the north side, with the back of 
the fish turned upward; by its own weight it will bend down, and the face of the fish show toward 
the sun, while the tail is jammed between the laths. When the fish is getting a little dry it will hang 
this way even in a strong breeze of wind. Some have a roof covered with straw over their scaffolds 
when the sun gets rather hot; others again use no covering, but when the sun threatens to burn their 
fish they only twist it a little, so that the edge of the fish shows toward the sun instead of the face. 
In heavy rain, or when the sun is too hot, the fi.sh have to be taken down and put in the stores. In 
France no pressing of the fish is used; as a rule it is taken down from the scaffolds and shipped to 
markets after being hung there from two to six days. 
SCOTCH METHOD. 
In Scotland nearly all of the fish is pickled, very little of it is keuch-cured fish. As soon as the 
fish is caught and unhooked it is bled and gutted. Some of the fishermen bring with them boxes in 
which to keep the fish; but if boxes are not used the fish is covered up in order to prevent the sun 
and air from affecting it. When brought to the shore it is headed and cleansed with brushes in fresh 
water, and split. The backbone is cut slantwise, 20 to 22 joint.s from the tail, so that the cut extends 
over two joints, in order to give the fish a better look and strengthen it. A cut is made along the 
bone which is left, thus allowing the blood that remains in the veins about that part of the fish to 
escai)e or be extracted. When split, the fish is again washed in sea water and the black membrane 
removed. After the fish is cleansed it is pickle salted in tight-covered vessels. To 100 pounds of 
dry-cured fish is used 45 to 50 pounds of Liverpool salt. If less salt is used the fish is left in the 
pickle a couple of days more. 
In regard to the amount of salt used, the board of fisheries remark that many of the curers 
salt their fish very heavily in order to increase the weight; ^ut this is a great mistake, because not 
only is the juice of the fish extracted thereby and the weight reduced, but also, as the drying advances, 
incrustation of salt forms on the face of the fish, or, in other words, the fish gets salt-burned, and 
this debases the value of the fish very much. Lately, however, this wrong method of salting fish too 
heavily is abandoned in Scotland, because the curers find it to be in their own interest not to use too 
much. The fish is as a rule left in the salt for three days. The salting of the fish is a difficult work 
when the climate is damp. If the fish under such circumstances gets too little salt it will soon 
become dun. Whether the fish has taken sufficient salt or not, and whether it has got the required 
stiffness before being taken from the brine, the curer must be able to judge himself. Quite fresh fish 
never take more than just the proper amount of salt they claipi, no matter how much salt is put on 
it; whereas old fish very soon get salt-burnt, if too much salt is used. 
When the fish has taken a sufficient quantity of salt it is taken up and washed out again in sea 
water and placed in piles that slope a little for a day or two, in order to give the water a chance to 
run off before the drying commences. The fish, as a rule, is dried on flakesS feethigh and 4 feet wide, 
the to]) of which is formed of wooden laths 6 inches apart, something like the American flakes. 
On these flakes the fish is put out the first time with the back or skin side turned down. Toward 
evening it is turned over, skin side up, and before sunset it is gathered in small heaps, always bearing 
