PRESERVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
409 
in mind lo leave the hack side of the lish turned up. The lish is turned more I'requeutly as the drying 
advances. The lieapsare also made larger every time the lish is spread, and weights are put on top of 
each heap in order to give the lish a little pressing and a smooth face. The heaps are always covered 
with mats or canvas. The Scottish curers are also of the opinion that the fish gets fraugihle or 
brittle and presents a had appearance if it is dried too rapidly in the beginning of the cure. When 
the fish is half-dry, one is able to tell whether it is salt-burnt or not. If the fish is salt-burnt they 
turn it back up in the middle of the day when the sun has the most power, by means of which the salt 
gets extracted from the face of the fish. Mr. Ross, inspector of fisheries, recommends always to dry 
the fish with the skin side turned up from the time it is half dry. After it has been dried a fortnight 
it is put in large piles for ten days in order to allow the fish to sweat. The piles are covered 
well. After being taken from these i)iles it is spread out to dry for one week, after which it is again 
put in large piles for another four to six days. When after this it gets two or three days’ drying it 
is considered to be properly cured and ready for shipment. Tlie average time for making fish is 
reckoned to be from six to eight weeks. 
ICELAND METHOD. 
The cod fishery in Iceland is conducted by the natives in small open boats in the bays, and in 
some places a short distance from the shore. The gear employed by them consists of hand-line and 
bultows. As soon as the fish is caught it is bled; brought inshore, it is split in this way, that the 
remainder of the backbone is left on the ojiposite side to what is usual in Newfoundland and many 
other countries. The Icelanders split their fish very deep. After being split, the fish is washed with 
brushes in clean sea water, the black membrane and all blood being carefully removed. A few also 
used to wash their fish in fresh water. The backbone is cut slantwise, over two joints, and 18 to 22 
joints from the tail, according to the size of the fish. The salting of the fish takes place in sheds as 
soon as the water has run off it, and it is salted in keuches M’ith one barrel of Liverpool salt to about 
350 pounds of large dry fish; if the fish is small less salt is used. After the fish has remained two or 
three days in this salt it is resalted in new kenches; very little salt (about one-eighth of a barrel of 
salt to 350 pounds of fish) is used. In this salt it remains for five or six days, and is then ready to be 
washed out and made, if the weather and the season of the year are suitable. The fish that is caught 
.so late in the fall that it can not be made before the next year, is salted in kenches so heavily that 
one fish does not touch the other. This fish, they claim, will then, in the spring, be of about the 
same quality as if it was caught the same year, provided it is washed or cleaned properly and all 
blood carefully removed. 
After the fish has remained a sufficient time in salt it is washed out and laid in small heaps, until 
the water has run off and a little stiffness is felt in the fish, which generally is so the next day, and 
if the weather then is fair the fish is spread out to dry ; if not, it is relaid in square piles, from 100 to 
1.50 fish in each. If the weather should continue to be wet the fish is piled over in new piles every 
day, as long as the bad weather lasts, or until it can be spread. When the fish has been spread and 
got two good days’ sun, it is put in pressing piles and the pressing is increased according as the 
making of the fish proceeds. When the cure is so far advanced that the fish is what they call three- 
parts dry, it is put in largo piles, about 7,000 pounds of fish in each. These piles are covered with 
mats or boards in shape of a roof, and a weight of stones, which corresponds with the M'eight of the 
fish in the pile, is placed on toj) of the mats or boards. In this state the fish is allowed to remain five 
to six days, after which time it is spread again, if the weather permits, and the same weight applied 
every time it is gathered and put back into the piles. In case the weather does not allow the fish to 
be spread, after it has been put in the first large pressing pile, it is repilcd every day and the same 
weight applied to each pile every time until it is considered cured. 
The fish is cured on beaches, which in most places are made of round rocks. The reasons why the 
Icelanders use such a heavy pressing in their cure of fish are: (1) That the climate is damp and 
not very warm (as a rule the sun is seldom hot enough to burn the fish, although this may happen 
occasionally) and that the weather is mostly cloudy or foggy; (2) that their fish is heavily salted; 
(3) that their fish is rich and thick, and stands a good deal of pressing. On account of the climate 
being chilly and damp, the pressing is therefore the principal part in their cure, and by frequently 
pressing and repiling tlie fish the cure is also accelerated. The Iceland fish is a fine, white-looking, 
good-eating and durable article which commands good prices in the markets of the Mediterranean. 
Although it always is a little tillable, or not cured as hard as the Newfoundland and Norway fish, still 
