The packer takes an armful of fish from the rousing tub and drops them into the barrel. Each time the fish are taken from the rousing tub the contents of the tub are well stirred up. The fish are then packed in the barrel in layers, bellies upward, and each layer is liberally sprinkled with salt. In this way each individual fish is first of all thickly coated with salt in the rousing tub, and adjacent layers of fish in the barrel are also separated by a layer of salt. In this packing process, it is important that the fishery salt used should be coarse, reasonably hard, slow in dissolving and present in considerable excess. It should be coarse enough to prevent the fish from touching each other, thus enabling the brine to penetrate to every part. It should be hard enough to withstand the pressure of the fish in the barrel. It should dissolve slowly, so that the salting process takes place gradually, enough salt remaining undissolved throughout the process to keep the fish from touching. Altogether, about 1 cwt. of salt is used for each barrel of herrings cured. The barrel, when fully packed, is covered over and left for about eight days. During this time, the salt extracts water from the fish and dissolves in it to form a saturated brine. The efficiency of this salting process necessarily depends upon the salt being present in considerable excess, so that the brine formed is kept saturated, and consequently continues to withdraw water from the fish. At the end of eight days, the barrels are opened, an inch hole is drilled in the side at the bilge, and the pickle allowed to run out. It is found that, owing to the withdrawal of water from them, the herrings have shrunk considerably, and some more salted herrings are added to the barrel, until it is full again. It is then fastened down permanently, turned over on its side and filled with brine pickle, and corked up. The brine pickle which is formed during the eight days is not allowed to run to waste, but is used for filling up the barrels after they have been repacked. This brine pickle contains amino bases, together with small quantities of coagulable proteids, and is of distinct nutritive value. The Poles and Russians, who are great consumers of these salted herrings, actually use the pickle as a kind of sauce or gravy, dipping their bread in it. This, together with the general demand for salted herrings in these two countries, may very largely be due to the comparative scarcity and high price of salt there.