The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-01
SARDINE FISHING AND CANNING.

Curious Features-No One Ever Saw A Live Sardine Out of Water-A Hint to Gourmets.
 The peddlers in the streets of Paris are now crying out. "Sardines de Nantes!" and the grocers display the little vanished boxes labelled "Sard- lines Phuile, fabrication 1S9S" But where do the sardines come from?Cer- tainly not from Nantes. They come from Quiberon. Douarnenez, Concar- neau,, Croisic and especially from Bele Isle.
 The sardine fishing season commences at the beginning of June. As soon as the fishermen of the coast of Brittany notice shoals of porpoises or fiocks of seagulls off shore in great numbers they immediately make sail, for the sardine is there. The birds and porpoises locate him. The building and repairing of the sardine fishing boats during what is called the dead season give
 
 As a rule, they are 10-tonners, with crew of from six to ten men, The cap- tain and the mate are the only pro- fessional fisherman on board; the others are men of all trades The outfit con- sists exclusively of nets with very small meshes, and their length is from 100 to 500 metres. The upper parts of the nets are kept upon the surface of the water by corks and the entire
 machine is held right by pieces of lead at the bottom. The nets are all stained a sort of sea green color, to render l them less visible.
 When the first school of sardines is noticed the boats all run to the fishing | grounds. The exact presence of the | fish is determined by an oily substance on the surface of the water and also | by 8 considerable quantity of little | scales, which give the water a metallic | appearance. In calm weather, as soon | as the captain has his boat immediate | ly over the shoal he lowers his nets, and two men of the crew, with great oars, work steadily to keep the boat stationary, while the others lower the H the captain throws the chum over board. This chum is a bait made of | the eggs of the codfish, and it keeps | the fish in the desired place. A spot
 that is well baited in this way is called | harden in French, and the casting of | the chum is called bailler. In @ few moments, if the fish are
 plentiful, new quantities of scales float upon the surface and the net itself is
 agitated by the struggles of the im-
 mense number of fish. Then 1t is lifted
 and while the sails are again hoisted
 and the boat pointed for shore the men
 of the crew shake the nets and toss the fish upon the deck.
 l A curious thing about this kind of | fishing is that one rarely sees a living | sardine out of the water. The fish make a little squeak when taken from | the water and die instantly. Of the l 250 or 300 fishing boats fitted out at
 Belle Isle about 200 belong to Palais and the others to Sauzon. It is in these | two ports that the fisherman sell their l fish. An ordinary catch of sardines | gives to each boat from 5000 to 0000 | fish, and the price Is regulated by the | quantity brought in by the first corners. | Upon the docks the representatives of | the great preserving establishments
 hail the fishermen, who tell them that they alone caught enough worth
 mentioning. Then they enter into a discussion regarding the price. | How many thousand have you, 1 Jannic?"
 ! About S,O00''
 "Then I will give you seven francs
 thousand
 l "Oh. no, that is not enough. I can- | not sell at that price"
 But as the rest of the f1otilla appear | all the first corners consent to sell their fish at seven francs per 1000, and in an hour afterward the later arrivals
 can get only 50 centimes per 1000, and {. sometimes they can get no sale what | ever for their catches and are obliged to throw the sardines overheard, be- cause the little fish remain fresh for ] only two or three hours at most.