The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-13 00:00:00

Four ran.

EGLINTON STAKES.
The EGLINGTON STAKES of 10 sovs each, 5 ft, with ,
100 added ; two year olds, 7st ; three, 9st; f and g
allowed 31b; the winner of a 2,000 sovs stake in 1865
or 1866, 71b; of a 1,000 sovs stake, 51b; of a 500 soya
stake, 31b extra ; maiden horses at starting, if they have
run twice, allowed 31b ; if thrice, 51b; if four times; 71b;
the second to receive 25 sovs. (7 fur. 211
yards.) 26 subs.
Knight of the Garter
Buinblekite
Marine ,

3
Seven ran.

CESAREWITCH STAKES.
Bto 1 agst Thalia (taken freely)
15 to 1 agst Lothario (taken freely)

NOTES

TRAINING DISTRICTS

(THIS DAY.)

In consequence of most of the trainers being at
Doncaster the majority of their horses left behind
are doing very little amount of exercise ; hence our
reports from training quarters are scant of interest-
ing information just now ; but next week we shall
be in a position to give acceptable details as to the
work done by the leading Cesarewitch aud Cam-
bridgeshire candidates.

TILE FOOD FISHERIES OF. FRANCE.

(From the Times.)

The object of the two fishery exhibitions now
open in France—one at Arcachon, another at
Boulogne—is, according to French opinion, to
teach the nations how to fish, and to show ocularly

the science of the sea, and the technological value of

such other marine industries as are not connected
with the supply of food, as the sea-weed, shell,
sponge, and coral fisheries. The promoters of the
exhibitions entertain the hope of bringing into a
focus the accumulated knowledge of all who are en-
gaged in fishing enterprises, or who take an interest
in the scientific culture of the waters. It is but fair
to state that both of these " expositions," as they
are locally designated; are exceedingly interesting,
although it has been found nearly impossible to
carry out the exact programme of either, the design
of both having been much too elaborate and ambi-
tious. Could the two exhibitions have been fused
into one perfect show of fishery mechanism and phi-
losophy their utility wouldthen have passed unques-
tioned. In such a case it would have been desirable
to keep up the classified arrangement observed at
Arcachon, and to retain that picturesque aquarium
now being finished at Boulogne, , which is much
more like the home of the fish than the 22 glass-
fronted square boxes which have been constructed at
the former place. It is, perhaps, a little premature,
or at least over-severe 'criticism, to say, as has been
said, that both of the exhibitions are a failure,
without waiting for the results. Only two exhibi-
tions of the kind, precedent to those now under
notice, have ever been held, one in Holland and the
other in. Norway, both of which were' useful, and
afforded to all interested an opportunity of com-
paring notes and of judging materials and appa-
ratus, which could not otherwise be obtained.
Amsterdam is said to have been founded on herring-
bones, and we know that the Dutch had set their
mark on the seas before any other nation, but, from
what is set forth at Arcachon and Boulogne, it is'
questionable if they are at present more industrious
on the high seas than the French. As fishers they
are more plodding, but not so ingenious. What is
most emphatically taught at both of the French ex-
positions is the death-dealing quality and great ex-
tent of the apparatus now employed by all civilised
nations, and especially the French, for the capture
of fish and crustaceans. In one corner may be seen
curious tongs for the purpose of taking eels. Long
stretches; of netting for the sardine fishery are fes-
tooned over a division of the building ; these are
woven with thread so fine that it might be used for
the manufacture of ladies' hose. At another place
the invention is an act of humanity—there is shown
a leech-lifter; and near it may be seen deadly traps
for the taking of crabs and lobsters, while from the
roof depend a few stretches of Scotch-made herring
nets, by far the best of their kind ; and with such a
wall of meshes floating in the sea as these nets pre-
sent to the fish, each stretch being about a mile long,
andwith a fleet of a few hundred boats nightly cen-
tred on some well-known fishing-ground, the wonder
is, not that fish are scarce and dear, but that a single
herring escapes to repeat the story of its birth or
form a nucleus for future shoals. In these exhibi-
tions there is shown an array of fishing machinery
that is truly wonderful in its ingenuity of construc-
tion and power of capture. Judging from what is
exhibited, men will in future leave the fish to cap-
ture themselves, for among the gear there are traps
that are self-acting, and give almost no trouble ex-
cept to the captives. With the invention of a leech-net
men will not in future require to expose their limbs
in the unhealthy marshes of the Sologne, or to keep
cattle to drive through the shallow waters, in order
that the leeches may cling to their bloodless legs.
Lord Lovat's salmon-kettle used to be a sight when
the leaping fish, jumping the falls, sprang into the
boiling cauldron placed by the water side for their
capture ; but in France there are salmon nets float-
ing in some of the rivers having fanners, or wings,
driven by the current, which capture and bag the
fish while the fisherman is asleep.
In some respects the French are entitled to set
themselves up as Mentors both in the art and the
science of fishing. So far, at least, as the mecanique
of a fishery is concerned, they are, with one or two
exceptional points, in advance of most nations, and
in pisciculture, as is well known, theyare unrivalled.
It would, however, be an act of injustice to the
hardy fishermen of the British islands to say that the
French sea fisheries are free from anomalies, or any
thing like perfect; for in some of their fishing indus-
tries they annually continue to perpetrate the most
grave blunders. Thus, at Cbncarneau, a fishing place
in Brittany (Finisterre), may be seen the two oppo-
sites of fishing economy. On the one hand there has
been erected at a considerable expense what we
might have in England— a marine observatory for
the scientific and economic study, as regards age of
reproduction and rate of growth, of the various sea
fishes, as also for the observation and breeding of
various crustaceans. Men of science watch over and
report from time to time on the experiments, which
are so carefully conducted that in another year or so
many of the mysteries of fish life, and particularly
that mystery the understanding of which is the key-
note to the prosperity of a fishery—the date at
which a fish becomes able to perpetuate its kind—
will be known to the observers. On the other
band, and so to speak, in the very presence of the
savans who are at work in the adjoining laboratory,
is carried on a branch of the great French sardine
fielery, which is conducted in a way that is quite
remarkable for the extravagance it involves. The
sprat fisheries on the British coast—indeed, all the
net fisheries of our coasts—are carried on iu the
most primitive way, and with very great success.
The French sardine fishery is conducted in a way
altogether different from ours; it presents this
anomaly—namely, that the French have made it a
bait fishery, requiring the annual expenditure of an
enormous sum of money for a substance with which
to entice the fish, this substance being the roe of
the cod—a figurative whale to catch a sprat. On
the shores of the North Sea fisheries have been esta-
blished solely for the purpose of providing the eggs
of the cod fish as bait for the sardine catchers of
Concarneau. This roe, which is prepared, costs 50f.
per barrel; each boat employed in the sardine fishery
will use about 15 barrels every season, and, as there
are about three thousand sardine boats on thQ coast
of Brittany, the moneypaid for bait cannot be much
under £lOO,OOO per annum. The number of cod fish
which must be killed, or at least are killed, for the
purpose of obtaining this ground bait is therefore
enormous, and if the fishery exhibitions now open in
France achieve nothing more than the teaching of the
men of Concarneau to catch their sardines as the
British fishermen catch their sprats they will indeed
be a great success.
The capture and cure of the sardine is a great
business in France, and especially at Concarneau,
where as many as 13,000 men aid in the fishery.
It is not easy to obtain accurate statistics of the
business done in sardines. In the first place, there
is a large quantity sold fresh—that is, packed in dry
salt, in little baskets made of rushes, and sent
wherever there is a mode of outlet. Then there is
an enormous quantity sold in those familiar tins.
It is said that besides the quantity exported, which
is large, there are as many as 4,000,000 boxes cured
. in oil and prepared for tha home market ; then,
besides these, a large number are sold loose in bar-
rels, and also pressed in barrels. Ris an interesting
sight to witness the arrival of the boats, and to see
the rush to the curing establishments of the men,
women, and children interested
in the sales. How
their sabots do clatter as they prance over the stones
The curers just buy from day to day what sardines
they require, and no more ; generally speaking, they
do not, as in the Scottish herring fishery,
make con-
tracts with boats, and only one or two firms have
boats of their own. When the curers arc in want
of a supply of fish they put up a flag at their
curing establishment, and the lishertnen hurry to
supply them, the price varying from clay to day ac-
cording as the fishery has been abundant or the
reverse. As soon as the boats arrive the fish are
put in train for the cure by being gutted, beheaded,
sorted into sizes, and washed in sea water, chiefly
by women, who can earn from 12f. to 20f. a week at
these curing establishments. The cure is begun by
drying
the fish on nets or willows, generally in the
Open air, but sometimes from stress of weather it
must be
. done under cover, At ter being dried they

ra ready for the process of the pan, which is kept
over a furnace, and is filled with boiling oil. Into
the cauldron the fish are plunged, two lows deep,
arranged on wire gratings. In this pan of oil (the
very finest olive oil) they remain for a brief period,
till, in the judgment of the cook, they are done
sufficiently. Then they are placed to drip, the
drippings of oil being, of course, carefully collected;
after which they are packed by women and girls
into the nice little clean boxes in which they are
sold. Again they are allowed to drip by the boxes
being sloped ; then each box, by means of a tap, is
filled carefully up to its lip with pure olive oil, when
it is ready for the next process, which is the solder-
ing on of the lids, or, as it may be called, the her-
metical sealing up of the box, a most particular
patt of the process, at which the men can earn very
large wages, with this drawback, that they have to
buy all the fish that are spoilt. After the soldering
has been accomplished the boxes have to be boiled in
a steam-chest. Those that do not bulge out after the
boiling are condemned as." dead;" for when the
process is thoroughly gone through the perfection of
the cure is known by the bulging out of the boxes,
which are of various sizes, according to the purpose
for which they are designed. There are boxes of Gib.
weight and 21b. weight, as also half and quarter
boxes, with from about 24 to 12 fish in them, ac-
cording to size. Little kegs are also filled with
sardines cured as anchovies. The finishing process
of the sardine cure is to stamp the boxes and affix
the thin brass labels which are always found upon
them. There are little incidental industries con-
nectdd with the cure which may be noticed. The
debris is sold for agricultural purposes, as is the case
at home here, where the curers get a few pounds
annually for their offal ; then a large quantity of
oil is exuded from the sprat during the process of
the cure, and on the total fishery this oil is of con-
siderable value. The " dead" fish, as we have said,
are sold to the men, but the success of the cure is
usually so great that the " dead" form but a very
small percentage of the total number of boxes sub-
mitted to the test.