The fish swim against the nets, push their heads through, and then, owing to their gill openings, find that they cannot withdraw their heads, and in this way are caught in enormous numbers. Generally, fishing goes on all night, and in the morning the nets are hauled in, and, together with the attached fish, are thrown into the hold situated amidships. The drifters then return with all possible speed to the fish wharf. While the boats are returning to port, the men draw the nets from the hold and shake them free from any entangled fish. When the drifter reaches port, she moors alongside the fish wharf, bow on, and unloads her cargo of fish, using her derrick mast. The fish are unloaded in a round basket which is stamped by the Fishery Board’s officer as holding a quarter of a “cran.” The word “cran” is derived from the “crown” branded by the Fishery Board’s officer on each of the two wooden shafts in the basket. The cran is the measure which is universally used in the trade. At Yarmouth and Lowestoft originally herrings were counted out and sold by the “last.” A cran averages from 900 to 1,000 herrings and weighs approximately 3 cwts. A “last” equals ten crans, and originally consisted of 13,200 herrings, counted out. This method, of course, was too slow and has now been abandoned. [Illustration: FIG. 13 CURING YARD AT YARMOUTH] The herrings, as they are removed from the ship, are put into special baskets called “swills,” each swill holding half a cran. The swills containing the day’s catch are arranged in rows on the fish wharf, opposite each drifter. It is a great sight to see about four or five hundred drifters lying, bow on, alongside the fish wharf for about 2-1/2 miles, all unloading fish as fast as they can. A good day’s catch would consist of about 90 crans. A good catch, therefore, would average about 100,000 herrings, and would weigh about 13 tons. Some boats come in with as many as 160 crans of fish, and the total “cranage” for a day may exceed 30,000. The total catch for Yarmouth on a good day would be about 30,000,000 herrings, weighing about 4,000 tons. Sometimes when the catch has been poor, the drifters remain out on the fishing grounds for another day, rather than come home with a small catch. In this case, the two catches are kept separate, the first catch being called “overdays.” Overdays are worth about half the price of fresh fish and are, of course, less suitable for high grade curing.