Morning journal and courier., 1880-07-27
Herring Fishing at Leyyes. TT1-z,.,


 1 Thanks to the courtesy of one of the fish curers, were able to learn some details of the herring fishery, now in full swing. As the days wear on, the multitude of boats make sale and leave the harbor in magnifi- cent and picturesque confusion; and the evening glow of the setting sun lights up and gi1ds the dark-sailed luggers of the west, and the yellow, white canvassed half-decked boats from the east coast as, guided by the signs ] they watch for, they gain the herring-ground, and shoot their miles on miles of nets With early morning comes their harvest; and then, sometimes gunwale deep, they crowd all sail, and hasten back like swarms of homing pig cons, to the curers, ready at all points, wait to turn the work of other men to profit. Measured by the cran-a circular tub holding from 800 to 1,500 herring, according to their bulk-the fresh-caught fish are sold at prices that vary, like the other barometers of wealth and weather. In the beginning of the season e6 cran were paid. The day before we came half crown per cran was taken. And one poor man with 60 crans, coming in too late for market, was told they were not worth a shilling. But nothing daunted, he bought some casks and vowed he would not throw away his fish or labor. Let us hope his self reliance would be rewarded. On the other hand, by means of bounty and other arrange ments, leach curer secures the services of cer- tain boats, whose catch he takes. A propor- tion is dispatched at once, quite fresh, in DON0S, Dy one or the small SQuQrOn or SC6anl- CTS waiting for hire. Some are cured in brine and casked, while the rest are gutted, smoked, packed in a box or basket containing 50, and find their way quickly to our breakfast tables, under the delciously suggestive name of 'tkppers." The curers of late have erect ed a number of buildings, where companies of women wait with sharpened knives the coming herrings. With 8 slit down the back, and a turn of the wrist, the fish is spread open and ready for the man who hooks it on a stick containing perhaps score. These sticks are ranged one above the other in the smoking chambers until their walls are GOV cred with the fish, heads up and insides ex- posed to the fumes of pungent smoke pro- duced by fragrant chips and saw-dust For 10 hours or so they are thus inclosed, and then are packed and dispatched at once to market. The Russian and North German eat their herrings raw, and, being dainty in that matter, take them only when they are in their prime. But competition has it's evils as well as its merits; and it is feared by those who look more ahead than the old-established GUS tom that the new system will result in greater harm than is yet foreseen by many. The herring are easily frightened :; and if they are met too far from the haunts to which they come in shoals, the Loch Fyne expert enee may be renewed on an infinitely greater scale to the ruin, if not starvation, of thou sands who depend upon them. 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 striphng to the Alderman