St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-07-24

French ~ sardines. l think there are
eighteen of these factories here and in
the busy season they consume daily
two hundred hogsheads of small her
ring and have a weekly payroll of
Slo,OOO. A visit to a factory was much
anticipated and description of their
manufacture may be interesting.
The fish are first beheaded and at
the same time hastily cleaned. Then
they are thoroughly baked on a revOlv-
ing cylinder in huge oven and then
packed in the familiar tin boxes. The
sealers then take the boxes, pour in
cOtton-seed oil, seal them and cook
them again, this time in boiling oil.
After being Theoretically sealed they
are packed in cases, and go to the
market bearing their French trade
mark.
Eastport people are much prejudiced
against their domestic sardines, but a
visit to one of the factories did not
change my opinion of this delicate
fish. AT present the market for them
is dull, and herring are quite scarce,
so the principal industry of this town
is almost at a standstill.
OF course politics are lively in this
state, and friends of the independent
party are quite scarce here. EastpOrt
is a strong republican town because
the people want their industry ''pro-
tected." Otherwise the French sar-
dimes, better quality of fish because
prepared in olive oil, would soon drive
out allsdomestic sardines.
One amusing incident occurred at
the recent't bag raising, where the
speaker cried as the flag dropped,
"NOw three cheers for James "a. Gar
field" The crowd, largely composed
of small boys, cheered vociferously,
and repeated the demonstration when
the name of Blaine was proposed.
At present writing our party are on
one of the small islands in the Bay of
Fundy, just opposite the large island
of Grand Manan. This bay possesses
two characteristics. 1t is one of the
toughest bodies of water on the globe,
excepting, perhaps, the English chan
mel. Secondly its bottom is covered
with marine animals, some of which
are rarely found outside of this bay.
The numerous islands are the breed
ing places of land and shore birds, but
both are being gradually driven off by
the Indians and collectors. Here are
the homes of the warblers and snow
bird, the elder duck and other varie-
ties of ducks; gulls and terms are
plenty, and even the bald eagle nests
on the inaccessible cliffs.
| have already limited at the work of
our party in this region. We are dredg-
ing for marine animals for the college
cabinets. This region has been dredged
for over twenty years, both by our
government and by naturalists, but
Most of our dredging is conducted on
the sea bottom at the depth of 20 to
81 fathOms, or in inland parlance, 100
to $50 feet. We have already secured
many specimens of the star fish family,
numerous shells, and many deep sea
specimens bearing only long Latin
names which are equally valuable.
Among the rarer specimens may men
ton small cuttle-iish, species of red
coral and the beautiful basket star fish.
| might continue with an account of
the weather, but rs that is the only
drawback to the enjoyment of our trip
will say that we are either drenched
by showers or enveloped in a heavy
fog every day. AIS.