The curing establishment we found was much more extensive than we had expected it to be.  It consists of a circular court, called a cellar, inside which the fish are piled up on the slabs running round the court. First, a layer of salt is spread, then a layer of pilchards, and so on--layers of pilchards and salt alternating until a vast mound is raised.  Below the slabs are gutters which convey the brine and oil oozing out of the fish into a large pit in the centre of the court. Upwards of three hundredweight of salt are used for each hogshead. After the pilchards have remained about a month, they are cleansed from the salt, and packed in hogsheads, each of which contains two thousand four hundred fish, weighing four hundred and seventy-six pounds. Pilchards when thus cured are called "fair maids"--a corruption of _fumado_--the Spanish for smoked.  Originally they were cured by smoking, but salt preserves them much better.