left in the net too long they are killed by the confinement and close pressure, and sink. In such a case the only alternative offered the fishermen is to cut open their seine. Sometimes the dead fish carry the net with them to the bottom. When there are more than enough fish in the seine to fill the vessel to which it belongs, and there is danger that they may be lost, other vessels which are near often take the surplus fish. In such a case, writes Mr. Babson, one-half the value of the fish is paid to the captors.

In calm or moderate weather, fishing is carried on from dawn till dark, though morning and evening seem most favorable. In rough weather the nets are not easily set, while the fish usually swim farther from the surface and cannot be seen. Cold northerly and easterly winds seem to affect the fish, causing them to sink toward the bottom. Southerly winds seem the most propitious.

Mr. Dudley states that in the fall, during the southward migration, the fish play at the surface with a northwest wind.

The best time for seining.

173. The early morning is apt to be the stillest part of the day, and a large part of the fish are taken at that time.

So far as I can learn, the motions of the fish are not particularly affected by the tides, except that, like other Clupeidæ, they prefer to swim against strong tides and winds. An impression seems to hold among the fishermen that rather better success attends fishing on the flood-tide. This is no doubt the case where gill-nets are in use, for in localities where the fish have not been frightened off shore by constant fishing they like to play up into coves and bays with the rising tide, and are then easily taken by the gill-nets and the pounds or weirs.

Where the purse-seines are worked in deep water off the shore, as on the coast of Maine, little attention need be paid to the tides; but where they are used in bays or channels where the tide has much head, there is a practical difficulty in using them except at or near the time of slack water. In a swift current the seine is liable to accidents from being caught on rocks or other obstructions, or may be capsized or pulled out of position. In Narragansett Bay, the difficulties of this kind appear to be particularly great. According to Mr. Church it is not uncommon for a gang to work all day without success, their net being capsized every time it is set.

32.-DESCRIPTIONS OF FISHING SCENES.

Menhaden fishing in Southern New England.

174. The first time the writer ever saw menhaden-fishing was in August, 1874, when cruising off Watch Hill, Rhode Island, in the Fish Commission yacht "Cygnet." Several trim-built sloops are beating off and on, within a mile of the rocks. That they are "bony-fish catchers"

is evident from the two long boats which are towed astern, carrying the purse-seine, which looks like a bale of brown hay stowed in the middle of each boat. A man stands at every mast-head watching for the well-known ripple. A school passes under the bows of our yacht and rises to the surface at a short distance, the bright sides of the fishes glistening in the sun and their tails flipping the surface noisily. The sharp eyes of the "lookout" of the nearest vessel soon detects their presence. The sloop comes about and sails to the leeward of the school. As soon as they are near, three men jump into each boat. Two man the oars, a third stands in the stern and pays out the net, while the boats, rapidly diverging, are rowed around the fish, each describing a semicircular course. Now their courses converge and the men row faster. They come together and pass, thus closing the circle of network. The men all jump into one boat, the purse weight, or "long Tom," as they call it, is hooked to the two lead lines, and a splash of water announces that it has been thrown overboard to slide down the ropes and draw the lower ends of the net together. Now they begin hauling at the bottom lines, and in ten minutes they have drawn the bottom of the net into a purse and the fish are secured. The "lighter," or transporting boat, now sails up. The men on board heave a line to the seineboats and they are brought alongside. A large dip-net, three feet in diameter, is now suspended by a block and tackle in the rigging of the lighter, and the fish are rapidly transferred from the seine to its hold. The silvery masses of fish are hoisted into the air and dropped into the vessel, settling in the bins with a flapping noise like the sound of distant thunder or the hand-clapping of a large audience.

In August, 1876, when on the steamer from Saybrook to Greenport, I saw a fleet of sixty vessels busily plying their nets in the sound near the mouth of the Connecticut. In the evening a gale sprang up from the southwest, and as the steamer entered Peconic Bay the little sloops were seen scudding to harbor under low-reefed sails. Every wave swept the decks, but they floated like sea-birds. Some of them were loaded to the rail with fares of fish.

Menhaden fishing about Cape Ann.

175. We are indebted to Captain Babson for facts about the fisheries at Cape Ann, which are carried on for the purpose of securing bait for the codfish and mackerel fleets. Vessels for this business are fitted ont from the port of Gloucester on the same basis as those for other fisheries. The owners furnish the vessel-outfits, seine and boats, the crew going "on the halves"; that is, taking for their share half of the entire "catch" while the other half is claimed by the owners. A good vessel with boats costs about $5,000. A seine costs about $1,000, and with fair usage lasts through two seasons; it is made of cotton twine and preserved by the use of salt and tar. The seine is carried on a small deck at the stern of the seine-boat, which is about 30 feet long and 8 feet

wide and is built on the plan of a whale-boat of the old style. Only one seine-boat is used here, and on this the whole seine is carried, one end of the seine being taken by a "dory" with two oarsmen.

The Cape Ann Advertiser reported in 1872 that the menhaden fishery was prosecuted by about 40 vessels from that port.

Mr. Frederic G. Wonson, of Gloucester, states that the crew of a "pogie-catcher" consists of about 10 men, and that the cost of a three weeks' trip is about $400.

Menhaden fishing in Maine.

176. Mr. Church has furnished a very full account of the organization of crews on the seining-vessels. The largest steamers are 70 tons in burden, the smallest 25, the sailing-vessels about 30; these vessels are used for the men to live on, and tenders are employed to carry the fish to the factories. These tenders have an average capacity of 250 barrels, though recently they are built of a larger size, some carrying 600 barrels. Besides these there are the "purse" and "mate" boats from which the seine is worked. These are 28 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 2 deep. The sailingvessel has a cook who manages the vessel while the crew are working the seine. Each boat carries a "seine-setter" and two men to row. The captain of the gang is in charge of the "purse-boat," the first mate of the other, and in addition to these most gangs have a "fish-driver," who keeps close to the school in a small-boat and guides the gang in setting the seine. Some gangs have still another man, called the "striker," who is generally an apprentice learning the business and working at low wages. Four men to row, two to set the seines, and one (the cook) to manage the vessel, seven in all, are all that are really necessary for steamer or sail-vessel, the other functionaries being added as may be convenient. "The seines are 280 fathoms long and 100 feet deep. One-half of the seine is put in each boat. The steamer cruises with men at masthead looking for fish. When they raise a school they put what are called striker-boats on them. Each steamer has two, with one man in each; they are men with sharp eyes, quick and active. They row close to the school of fish, observe its course, and then by signs they direct the pursecrew how to set their seine to catch them. If fish get scared, they drive them with white sea-pebbles which they carry in their boats. If the fish turn to run out of the seine, they throw the pebbles before them, and as they pass through the water before them the fish turn and swim in an opposite direction. After the fish are surrounded the purse-crew and strikers all work together to get the seine around them. It is different from sail-gangs in this, that sail-gangs hoist the fish by hand, and have boats to take the fish from the fishing-grounds to market, while the purse-crew stay on the ground with a separate vessel. Steamers go on the ground, catch their fish, hoist them on board by steam, and when the day is done take them to market, and the same men that catch them discharge them." A steamer has no tenders, and thereby saves much

expense. A sail-vessel with a purse gang of seven men requires three tenders, with a man to sail each of them, making ten men in all as sharesmen. The steamer dispenses with the three extra men, and in consideration of the expense of coal and machinery takes their three shares. This leaves the shares of the remaining men proportionally the same as on a sailing vessel.

Sail-gangs and steamers have gear just alike to catch the fish. It is not a sure thing to catch even when they see plenty of fish. A gang last year set nineteen times and did not catch a fish.

A writer in the Boston Daily Advertiser newspaper of August 5, 1875, states that persons chartering a steamer and sharing equally the profits with its owner easily make from $1,000 to $3,000 in a season.

Boardman and Atkins thus describe the methods in use about Boothbay, Me., in 1874:

"Attached to each seine is a gang of fishermen and boats. The gangs are described as 'sailing gangs' or 'steamer gangs,' according to the means of locomotion. A sailing gang comprises two working boats and a light row-boat for the driver'; two carry-away boats, with a capacity of about 250 barrels each; one vessel and ten men in all. The working boats work the seine, the carry-away boats carry to the factory, and on the vessel the crew are fed and lodged. In a steamer gang, the vessel and the carry-away boats are replaced by a screw steamer of 35 to 60 tons (new measurement), and the number of men is reduced to nine. These steamers cost from $10,000 to $16,000 each, and will carry 800 barrels of fish. They were introduced on the coast of Maine three years ago. The advantage of the steamer over the sailing gang is obvious. It is not dependent on the wind, and can proceed without loss of time to the place where the fish are playing. Of course they catch a great many more fish, but they are so much more expensive that they do not appear to be much more profitable. The seine gangs are always attached to the oil-factories, and the latter employ no other mode of fishing. Each fac tory runs several gangs.

"Let us now follow the process of catching the fish as practiced by a steamer gang. We will begin at the sailing of the gang from the harbor, some cleat morning in August. The engineer bestirs himself and has on steam early enough to reach the fishing-ground about as early as the fish can be seen. The fishing-ground is just where experience, and particularly the experience of the last few days, dictates. Commonly it is out to sea. As soon as it is light a sharp watch is kept on every side. Wherever menhaden are seen, thither the steamer's head is pointed. Sometimes it is close by home, and sometimes twenty or thirty miles. are passed over before there is a single school to be seen. On approaching a playing school they always try to get on the outside of it, because the first movement of a school of pogies on finding themselves entrapped is invariably a rush seaward. The driver, in his swift rowboat, armed with a pile of stones, gets on the other side. Having

divided the seine between them, one end and half the seine being on each, the two working boats approach the school within a short distance and endeavor to get in a favorable position. Sometimes a whole day will be spent in vain endeavors to get near swiftly moving or capricious schools. When the favorable moment comes the boats separate and row around the schools of fish, paying out the seine from each as they go. Meanwhile the driver, on the opposite side, throws stones at the timid fish and starts them in the direction of the boats. At last the boats have encircled the fish, and meet on the side opposite to their starting point; instantly the purse-lines are seized, and no man stops to breathe until the bottom is pursed up. The crews exert themselves to complete the operation before the fish take the alarm, and many a time it happens that they pass out between the boats just before they meet, or under the bottom of the seine before the pursing is complete. The affrighted fish first, it is said, rush seaward. Finding them. selves shut in on that side, they turn and rush landward; headed off there, they furiously follow the net around at the top of the water, some going this way and some that. Finding the circuit complete, they gradually subside, and finally settle to the bottom of the bag. The seine is now drawn aboard the working boats until only a small portion of it is left in the water, and the fish brought in a compact body to the surface. The steamer is now brought alongside, and with a great tub holding two or three barrels, and worked by steam, the fish are rapidly taken on board. When everything works well it takes about two hours to catch and take on board a school of 500 barrels ; commonly it is longer than that." *

Gill-net fishing in Eastern Maine.

177. East of the Penobscot River, in Maine, most of the fishing is carried on with "float" or gill nets. These are knit usually of twine (size No. 12 to 14, 4-threaded), and of 3 to 4 inch mesh, and are from 30 to 180 feet in length and from 6 to 16 and 24 feet in depth; usually from 12 to 18. Two men in an open sail-boat will, according to Mr. W. H. Sargent, of Castine, take care of a dozen nets. These nets are usually set in the night by being anchored in favorite haunts of the menhaden. When a school strikes the net large numbers of the fish are "meshed" by running their heads through the openings until they are caught by the gill-covers. According to Mr. Brightman, of Waldoborough, the gill-netting in that vicinity is mostly done early in the season; he states that this method of fishing is not nearly so productive as in former years. Netters sometimes build a furnace for trying out oil on the deck of a small vessel, thus saving the trouble of transportation.

Gill-nets are also used about Boothbay in the early part of the season, but not so much as formerly. The nets are made, according to Mr. Brightman, of fine cotton twine, about 4 inches mesh, 12 feet deep, and 20 fathoms long.

"Op. cit., pp. 24, 25.

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