The Coolidge examiner., 1935-02-15

! trWs are chiefly, though not entire
ly. concerned with this latter ac-
tiyity. which accounts In part for
the large stan OF men and women
who come from all over Scotland
for the curing season.
The yards in which they work
are scattered extensively along the
water front and on the Denes. at
the lower end of the town. AS soon
as the lots Of herring have fallen
| under the auctioneer's hammer,
carters truck the swllls of fish 10
the yards and dump them into
troughs, where they are clipped"
or Quilted and graded.
Working In teams of three, two
for clipping and one for packing,
the Scottish lassies dispose of the
fish with incredible rapldity. A
lightning flash of a knife and the
herring is tossed back into one of
the three grading tubs. Although
small matte is nine inches In
length, n matte nine and One-fourth,
n matfull nine and one-half. and
full herring ten inches. seldom are
the girls In error In grading them
simply by sight. as they swiftly
handle them. Salted first In the
clipping troughs and again when
they are carefully corded into their
proper barrels, the fish make their
own brine.
Kippers and 5ioaters.
The kippering rooms present
similar scenes of activity, except
that in preparing the fish each one
Is "speeted" or slit through the
back, and spread ont for brief
salting and smoking. From the
brine tubs the speets are put on
racks and hung In the smoking
rooms on narrow racking parti-
tlons. called "louvres.' Kippers re-
ceive only brief sailing and
smoking; reds require longer
treatment.
The famous Yarmouth blOater Is
n lightly salted, briefly smoked.
whole herring prepared for imme-
diate consumption.
When they are not busy with
knives In the curing yards, the
girls are industrlOusly occupied
with the knitting needles. AS they
walk up and down along the water
| front. sit In knots on the packing
barrels. or ride to and from their
rOoming houses knitting needles
are always active.
How many brlght-cOlored Jerseys
| and scarfs they knit to replace the
| ones that become worn and smeared
| with fish scales; how many sweat
| ers are knitted for husbands and
brothers of the drifters, only an
untiring statistlcian could contem-
| plate. Even in the town social
rooms you see the women knitting.
Great Yarmouth's all-time peak
in herring fishing came in 1913,
when more than $4,000 Grams. or
somewhere about one billion fish,
were unloaded on her piers,
In 1892 the landings Of herring
In all of Great Britain's ports came
to an aggregate of 1.459,9SS Grams,
valued at about S10,0O0,OO0. Add
to these already stupendous figures
the countless billions caught by
Dutch, French, German, and other
fleets, not only full-grown herrings,
out as whitehall and sardines, and
one asks, "How soon will the her
ring shoals be depleted"
Supply Seems Inexhaustible.
For more than a thousand years,
however, fishing has gone on over
these same grounds without ap-
parent diminution. Although it IL
estimated that from 5000 to 10,OW
miles of British nets are fishing in
the North sea at one time, yet but
a fraction of the fish ever become
! ensnared.
During the years of the World
war, when practically all the fish
ing boats were on patrol or mine
trawling duty, the herring shoals
had further opportunity to increase.
Lack of markets, not lack of fish,
will continue to be the chief source
of worry of the herring fishing in
dustry.
So, year after year, despite un-
stable markets and fiuctuating
prices, many of the hardy Scottish
and English fishermen will 20 to
sea. Now they ship aboard the
| Ocean Angler, Busy Bee, United
Friends, Braes o'Enzie, Ocean
Sprite, Children's Trust, Green Pas
lures, Violet and Rose, and other
steam drifters rapidly becoming OBJ
| solete. In the near future, perhaps,
they may be hauling their nets over
the gunwales Of new Diesel-engined
ships bearing equally whimsical
names.