As is well-known, immediately the herring leaves the water it dies; hence the phrase, "dead as a herring."  To preserve the fish, salt is immediately thrown upon them in the boats; they are carried to the fish-house in open wicker baskets, called swills, where they are delivered over to a man called a "tower," when they are placed on the salting floor.  If they are to be used at home, they remain for only twenty-four hours; but if for the foreign markets, for several days. They are afterwards washed in fresh water, and strung up by splits passed through their gills, one tier below another, to about seven feet from the ground.  Oak-wood fires are then kindled under them for fourteen days, if intended for the foreign market; but if for home use, only twenty-four hours.  The first are called red-herrings, and the latter are known as bloaters.  When sufficiently cured, they are packed in barrels, each containing about seven hundred fish.  Between thirty and forty thousand barrels are sent to the Mediterranean, but a far larger quantity is used at home.  Upwards of two hundred boats, carrying two thousand men, are employed in the herring fishery; but many more are engaged on shore in curing the fish.