MASSACHUSETTS: GLOUCESTER DISTRICT. 161 



adrift unless their demand was complied with, using the most violent and threatening language. 

 Yielding to the force of superior numbers, fishing was abandoned, after which one of the natives 

 who had seemed reluctant in joining the mob was brutally beaten by his companions. One of the 

 crew of the Victor reminded the mob of the fisheries articles of the Washington treaty, and of the 

 award of $0,500,000, but they replied that they knew nothing about treaty or money. The scene 

 was a very exciting one, most of the hostile Newfoundlanders roaring at the top of their voices and 

 gesticulating wildly. The mob consisted of about two hundred and fifty men in boats roughly made, 

 averaging about 1C feet in length, a few being provided with one mast and sail, though the greater 

 part were propelled by oars. The next morning the crew of the Victor resumed fishing, when they 

 were again attacked, the natives brandishing their oars and striking at the captain and crew. Two 

 of the crew were struck and slightly injured. Afterwards the mob boarded the vessel and ordered 

 the crew to heave up the anchor. The wind being from the northwest, blowing on a lee shore, the 

 anchor was hove up and the Victor went to Northern Bay, a distance of about G miles. The 

 schooner Mattie, Captain Foster, of Beverly, was at the same place for bait, but got under way 

 and left before an attack could be made upon her. 



Job's Cove, where this assault occurred, is surrounded by high laud, shaped like a quadrant, 

 and as the wind was blowing on shore at the time, the cove affording no shelter, the vessels were 

 in imminent danger of being wrecked if the mob carried out their threat of cutting the cables. 



Capt. Charles Martin, of schooner Martha C., reports that while fishing for squid at Low 

 Point, Conception Bay, on Monday and Tuesday, August 2 and 3, having caught a considerable 

 quantity with jigs, a party of Newfoundlanders came on board and endeavored to prevent their 

 fishing. Captain Martin claimed the right to fish under the treaty, and the party departed without 

 molesting him, leaving the crew engaged in fishing. On Sunday, August 29, while engaged in 

 catching a few squid with jigs at Ophall Cove, Trinity Bay, at daylight, a party came off in a boat 

 and ordered them to stop, threatening to drive the vessel out of the harbor if the crew persisted 

 in fishing. The captain told them to try it if they dared, and kept on fishing, but was not further 

 molested. 



Along the shores of Cape Ann a small quantity of squid are taken in the floating traps, but 

 little use is made of them, the number secured not being sufficient to render them specially valua- 

 ble for bait. During the spring of 1881 squid were very abundant in Vineyard Sound. The two 

 Gloucester squid vessels that visited the region secured 350,000 that were taken to Saint Pierre^ 

 and several George's-meu also procured some for bait. 



THE TRADE IN FROZEN HERRING. A large business has been done during the winter season: 

 for the past twenty-five years in the Newfoundland and New Brunswick frozen-herring trade. The 

 Newfoundland branch of this business was inaugurated in the winter of 1854-'55 by a Gloucester 

 fishing vessel that purchased at Newfoundland a partial cargo of frozen herring and sold them 

 for bait to George's cod-fishermen. This new kind of bait was found to be just the thing needed by 

 the fishermen, and a large demand was at once created for frozen herring. Its introduction among 

 the George's-men gave new impetus to the winter cod fishery, and from that day to the present time 

 frozen herring has been almost the only bait used at Gloucester in the winter fisheries. In 1SG5 a 

 similar business was begun on the coast of New Brunswick, in the vicinity of Saint Andrews and 

 Grand Manan. As trading at New Brunswick was attended with much less expense than in 

 making the longer trips to Newfoundland, that region became the principal trading place ot the 

 frozen-herring fleet. 



The vessels bound for Newfoundland generally leave Gloucester in November, and take out 

 an assorted cargo suited for trade with the native fishermen from whom the herring are purchased. 

 11 G R F 



