The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-08-19
Herring Fishing at Lewes.

Thanks TO the courtesy of one of the
tsA-curers, We were able to learn some
details Of the herring fishery, now in
full swing. AS the day wears on, the
multitude of boats make sail, and leave
tie harbor in magnificent and pictur-
esque confusion and the evening glow
Of the setting sun lights up and gilds
The dark.sailed luggers of the west, and
he yellow, white-canvased, half-decked
BEATS from the east coast, as, guided by
the signs they watch for, they gain the
herrinc-cround and shoot their miles on
niles of nets. With early morning
comes their harvest /; and then, some
lines gunwale-deep, they crowd all sail,
and hasten back, like warns of homing
pigeons, to tie curers, who, ready at all
polnts, wait to turn the work OF other
men to profit. Measured by the ran
a circular tub holding from 500 to 1900
herring, according to their, bulk-the
1resh-caught fish are sold at prices which
vary, like the other barometers Of wealth
and weather. In the beginning Of the
season &c a Gran were paid. The day
besore we came half a pound per Gran
was taken. And one poor man with GO
Grams, coming in too late for market,
vas told they were not worth a shilling.
But, nothing daUnted, he bought some
casks and salt, and vowed he would not
throw away his fish or labor. Lee us hope
bis self-reliance would be rewarded. On
lie other hand, by means of bounty and
other arrangements, each curer secures
the services OF certain boats, whose catch
he takes. \ proportion is dispatched at
once, quite fresh, in boxes, by one Of the
small squadron Of steamers waiting for
hire. Some are cured in brine and
oasked, packed in a box or basket con-
ta:n.ng 20, and find their way quickly
to our breakfast tables, under the deli
ciousy-sugges1ive name Of 'kippers."
TIE curers Of late have erected a num-
Ter Of buildings where companies of O.
meh wait with sharpened knives the
,34..n- henings. With a slit down the
haoz and a turn OF the wrist, the fish is
s-vsat o'eh and ready FOR the man who
hooks ;5'on 4 stick containing perhaps a
s.orp. These sticks are ranged one
above the other in the smoking cham
hers, until their walls are covered with
tie fish, heads, up and insides exposed to
the fumes Of pungent smoke produced
10y fragrant chlps and sawdust. For 10
hours or SO they are thus enclosed, and
then are packed and dispatched at once
to market. The Russian and North
German eat their behring's raw, and,
b-ing dainty in the matter, take them
only when they are in their prime.
But competition has its evils as well as
It's merits, and it is feared by those who
look more ahead than the old established
custom, that the new system will result
in greater harm than is yet foreseen by
many. The herring are easily brighten
ed; and if they are met too far from the
haunts to which they come in countless
shoals, the Loeb Fyne experience may
he renewed to an infinitely greater
scale, to the ruin, if not starvation, of
thousands who depend upon. Besides,
the Continental markets get glutted by
cheap, inferior early fish, for the herring
of May is to that of June and later
months as IS the STRIPPING to the Alder
nan.