RUSSIAN FISHERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1890, 10 February 1888, Page 31

RUSSIAN FISHERIES.

Astrakhan, the principal Caspian port, is one of the most important fishing-stations in the world. From this region alone the Russian revenue nets about a million sterling for fishery licenses ; and during the fishing season 20,000 strangers, ranging in degree from simple labourers to gigantic capitalists come in to compete with the .regular in* habitants for the profits from the fish industries.

The fishery trades are systematically pursued in Russia, since so much of the national life depends on these industries. As a general rule, a company of capitalists begins by forming a fishing station (utschiug); and here they make a dam ; they catch the fish ; they manufacture nets, harpoons, traps, and lures ; they convert fish refuse — heads, bones, scales, entrails, and sounds — into glue, gelatine, and isinglass, or even into manure; they split, clean, salt, smoke, or freeze the fish ; and they distribute them through the country to their agents for sale, much of this latter work being done by sledges in winter, to save freight. They also pursue the more lucrative fish industries, such as manufacturing the finest kinds of isinglass and gelatine, as well as that curious fish product known as caviare. " Twas caviare to the genexal," wrote Shakespere, when the Russian Company of London introduced it to this country; and unless men train themselves to like it, just as they train themselves to eat olives, they are still likely enough to splutter when they get a mouthful of it. Caviare is the roe of the sturgeon tribe of fish ; but salmon and pike roes are usually added, to assist in increasing the bulk.

Every known method of fish capture is probably pursued in Russia, from the spear to the hook, and from the net to the trap ; but as the Russian fishes for commerce, and not for sport, the sanity of a man who prefers a " fly " to a dragging net would be strongly questioned. In other words, "legitimate sport " is a consideration which never enter a Russian's head. The fishery is the best harvest, and the best man is he who boasts the biggest take. The fishing season is a time of joy, for then each man knows he is laying in a stock for the winter, or is earning his best wages. At the fishing season, there fore, the villages are full of life and merriment. Bonfires are lighted on the shore to prepare food for the fishermen, and carts are held in readiness to take the monsters off at once to the cleaning houses, where men and women are busily engaged in the variou, processes.

Night expeditions are preferred by the villagers. Beyond the prow of the boat hangs an iron cage, in which burns a fire of pine logs. The fish come in shoals towards the light, and a man standing in the boat harpoons them with a spear of three prongs. Now and again, down goes the spear ; and when it is drawn in, a finny monster is wriggling on its prongs. This is drawn into the boat by means of hooks, and the men immediately row to the shore with their prize. It is a weird sight to see the immense expanse of water dotted with these moving fires, and surrounded by the stationary fires of the encampment, with the dark pine forests for a background ; it is weird to hear the shouts from boat to boat, and the loud merriment of those on shore.

The capitalists who fish for a season go to work more systematically. They first of all construct an utschiug or " fish dam." Stout poles long enough to project a foot out of the water are driven into the bed of the river until they reach right across. A strong rail joins the tops of these posts ; and to this are fastened constructions of basket work whick do not touch the bottom. On this arrangement, against the stream, are placed a number of chambers or compartments of basket work with a swing flap or door. When the fish comes against the flap, it opens, admits the fish into the compartment, and then closes. Occasionally, such a chamber is lowered into the water by itself by means of a number of ropes. In these compartments are arranged several strings, attached to floats in such a way that by watching the floats it is eaßy to see when a capture is made. In winter, one of theso compartments is let down through a hole in the ice, and a hut is erected olose by for the watchers. Sometimes, especially in winter, the tell-tales, instead of being attached to floats, are fastened to bells, so that the attendants may remain on shore by their fire until they hear the fish ringing his deathknell.

Occasionally, a cable is sunk into the water ; to this are attached a certain number of nightlincs baited with a kind of fish known as an obla. Whenever the compartments or nightlines are examined, a man stands' ready with a strong gaff, which ho plunges smartly into the gills of the fish as soon as it appears on the surface. A rope is immediately fixed to the gaff, and the boat makes for the shore, where the fish is more readily despatched. The cleansers commence operations by beheading their fish; they then open it and carefully remove the roe, which is placed by itself in a tub, and sent off to the caviare works. The sounds are next taken out and hung up on a long line to dry in the sun . The inner fat is now scraped out, and sent away, to be clarified and made into a kind of fish butter. The flesh is last of all cut up into convenient slices, and salted or smoked as the case may be, or preserved in ice, to be sent all over Russia as fresh fish. -■■■

Some years back the entrails and refuse were thrown away, and were at once seized by cormorants, which came in great num bers ; but in the best regulated fish villages, the modern economic chemist has set to woik to convert a]] this refuse into isinglass, glue, or

manure. He acknowledges nothing as <( waste," and has not only banished the word from his vocabulary, but has actually shown that some of the most solid profits of a fishery are realised by " gathering up the fragments."—" Chambers' Journal."