After it has been purchased by the curer, the fresh herring may develop into a salted herring, a red herring, a bloater, or a kipper, depending upon the degree of salting and smoking to which it is subjected. Herrings are sometimes put into cold storage, to be withdrawn subsequently as occasion demands, either to be salted or, more frequently, to be consumed fresh. Cold storage affords a convenient method of preserving herrings when there is a glut, for at such times it is often impossible to deal with the herrings adequately in the ordinary curing yards. =Salted Herrings.= The fresh herrings are delivered to the curer’s yards. Here, the fish are emptied into broad, shallow troughs, which generally run from end to end of the yard. The troughs are about 4 ft. wide, and are generally made of wood and arranged at a convenient working height. Usually, the trough is situated just inside the boundary wall, and the fish are delivered into it through large openings in the wall. [Illustration: FIG. 14 SCOTTISH FISHER GIRLS] The fish are gutted and salted by Scottish girls—many of them from the Hebrides—who come to Yarmouth and other places in the season for this purpose. These girls are all brought up in Scottish villages, and are extraordinarily expert in all the operations connected with the cleaning and salting of the fish. They work in crews of three, and take very good care that each member of the crew is a good worker, as they are paid according to the amount of work they do. Each girl receives 25s. a week as a kind of subsistence allowance, and is paid 1s. a barrel for the work she does. As the fish are delivered into the gutting trough, they are liberally sprinkled with salt, thus enabling the women to grasp the fish easily, as otherwise the fish are too slippery for quick handling. The women work standing in a row beside the trough. They pick up a fish, gut it by inserting a sharp knife just below and behind the gills, and with a quick, upward cut, bring away the gut. The guts drop into small tubs placed in front of each worker, and are collected periodically and sold to manufacturers of manure. Behind each woman are three shallow tubs or baskets, and after she has gutted a fish, she throws it behind her into one of the three tubs, according to its quality and size. In this way, the two operations of gutting and selecting the fish are combined. As the tubs of gutted fish become filled, they are taken away by other girls to the barrel packers, and are packed in separate barrels, according to quality or size. The barrels are arranged in long rows, generally parallel to, and at some distance behind, the gutting trough. A girl will pack about three barrels in an hour. The gutted fish are first of all emptied into large, shallow tubs called “rousing tubs,” placed just behind the row of barrels, and are again sprinkled with salt.