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boat, and again shoot it; by this method of working there is no time lost, and a wholesome rivalry exists between the crews; in fact the scene is most exciting as the men sing in wild chorus, when shooting and also while they are running round the capstan. Then comes the leaping and plunging of the captive fish, the wild chorus is changed into yells and shouts, the fish master grows excited and objurgates freely, the culmination being when they dash in and seize the fish by their tails, slinging them into the fish boat where they flap and flop, dance and gape and make a pretty splashing. The man in charge of the boat now poles her to the landing stage, which projects over the river, is guarded by old pieces of net, and slopes in shore; he throws the fish on the stage, they flap down the slope and are seized by the cleaners—two dexterous cuts with a sharp knife and out drop the gills, a slit up the belly, two cuts inside, and out drop the whole of the contents, when behold the fish is cleaned and is ready for the curers.
The fish roe is now taken and placed in a bucket, which, when filled, will be carefully taken into the curing sheds, the roe placed in clean mats on wicker shelves and then well salted. Salmon roe is considered a great delicacy by Japanese epicures, and it accordingly fetches a high price.
The fish are carried from the stage into the shed; each fish is placed in the salter’s basket; he throws three handfuls of salt inside, then dusts the outside with salt and throws it on the stack where the fish are placed in layers, on the completion of each layer, it is heavily dredged with salt, one picul (13312 lbs.) of which is used for every 40 or 45 fish. A stack complete generally contains 10,000 fish. After some time, the fish having been sufficiently cured, the stacks are unpacked and the fish hung up to dry: when dry they are ready for export.
The livers contain much oil, but they are not utilised.
The estimated value of each fish cured is five cents, the cost of one picul of salt is two boos=50 cents, all the fishing gear &c. is brought up from the southern ports, mostly from Ôzaka and Yedo.
