The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1903-02-09

YAxmouth, the centef Of the Indus-
try, Resolves 5o,ooO,ooo Fish IN
Day'G Catch.

1 One of the most interesting seaport
OF England is Yarmouth, perhaps tn
chief fishing town of the kingdom, an
certainly the great herring center. o.
1 November IL the high water mark TO
arrivals was registered when $4,000,
900 of these fishes were landed on thu
wharyes of the port. This one day
catch sold for $125 700, SO it can be seen
| that the fisher fohk have an abundanc'
Of shillings--a at least, in the fishing sea
SON. On this day the feet spread fo'
three miles along the harbor, says the
Philadelphia Press.
1t is said that the herring season this
year has never been equaled. Certain
it is that the twin towns OF Yarmouth
and Lowestoft present busy and ami
mated scene. The port at this time is
as much Scotch as English, for scores
Of the boats come from north of the
Tweed. The streets are full of broad.
shoulderd, rudhy faced girls who ap-
peared with the fleet. They are not
the least of the picturesque sights, as,
stripped of superfuous clothing, bare
headed and bare-armed. they dress and
cure the fish.
These girls are mostly Scotch. and
have a peculiar dialect OF the Tweed
fisher folk. They are CHEEKY and sing
at their work, and are always ready for
fun when work is over. They are the
heroines or the objects of many stories
that never get into print There are
probably 5000 Of these lassies in town,
and they are experts, for they follow
the feet in its migratory quest Like
gulls follow d school OF fish.
When the feet looms up in the har-
Dor the girls repair to heworkhouses
and get ready for work. The girls
work in crews of three, two quitting
the fish with small knife, which they
use with wonderful deftness, and the
third packing the fish in barrels of
salt. These girls receive their railway
fares and a guarantee of $3.50 week,
and bonus of 10 cents for every bar
rel filed
The work is hard, and when once
the fish are in hand it has to be car
ried on to finish, however late the
hour, for the herring is very perish
able article, and any delay in the proc
ess OF cutting and sailing would be
ruinous. The girls often cut their
hands badly, and the salt with which
they have to- work makes the wounds
exceedingly painful. But brighter,
healthier set of workers will not cas-
lily be found anywhere than in these
curing yards, where theymay be heard \
singing to one another, and where even
in their spare time they are not idle,
for you never see a fisher girl with
out her knitting needles. n
Herrings are cured in several other
ways, the work in most cases being
done by women. A kipper, than which |
there are few greater delicacies, is
. herring split down the back, gut
ted, picked in brine for half an hour
or 80 and then smoked for few
hours, a bloater is an unsplit her.
ring and is kept in salt for the bet
ter part Of q day before being |
smoked. while the red herring is redi
because 1T is first salted for some
weeks on end and then smoked for
rs long, the result being that it is
7ery highly cured.
The net profits of each boat are
iiyided into 16 shares, Of which |
even go to the owners and the other
line are split up among the hands
n proportion to their standing.
Thus the master will take cne and a
lalf or one and three-quarters share,
he mate one and a quarter or one
md half, and so on down to- the /
ast-joined boy, who gets quarter
II even one-eighth of share. al
hare in a lucky boat may run to
lose on $1,000 for two months fishing.
The new stream drifters are fine
'oats, about so tons, so feet in
ength by IS feet in the beam. In
he old days the nets were not more
han two miles long. But now |
very steamer has at least ITO or
so, or even 200 nets 80 yards wide
" IS or 20 score" deep. A ''score"
score of meshes, so that taking
mesh as an inch the depth is some
feet, with an aggregate length of
hree miles. The nets are fastened
Dgether to form continuous sur
ace, and are fioated by buoys. There
re, in addition to the Yarmouth
oats, over 500 Scotch sailing craft
nd about so Scotch steamers. The
ulls betray the whereabouts of the
sh by day, lovely phosphorescence
y night. Hither come the boats
ith their millions of meshes, and
hen night has fallen the nets are
aid out, the lights lit and the vast
eet lies quietly drifting with the
de, twinkling red, green and white,
Ike multitudinous fragments of
ome dismembered rainbow. II
A good catch is ten lasts, though
and is have been taken in a night.
must be remembered that though {
last is nominally only 10000 fish it
really 13,200, for hundred counts
p. Twelve and fifteen hundred lasts
re sometimes landed at Yarmouth