THE SARDINE INDUSTRY. 499 



3. APPARATUS AND METHODS OF CAPTURE. 



HERRING TAKEN BY MEANS OP LIGHTS AND DIP-NETS. Two methods are now employed 

 in the capture of small herring for supplying the sardine canneries of the United States. The 

 first is the ordinary method of torching or "driving," as it is often called. This has already been 

 described in the chapter on the shore-herring fisheries. Driving seems to have been extensively 

 employed by the inhabitants in the vicinity of Eastport from the earliest settlement of the region, 

 and up to 1828 it was the principal method for taking small herring to be used for smoking. It 

 has always been more or less successful, though it involves considerable labor and exposure, At 

 present boats frequently drive for herring to a limited extent during the summer and fall months. 

 From twenty to thirty of them are said to be engaged in taking herring to supply the sardine 

 canneries at Eastport or for smoking. In this locality a crew of four or five men frequently dip 

 three or four hogsheads of fish in a single night. 



As mentioned elsewhere, torching is extensively carried on in Ipswich Bay, where small her- 

 ring called "spurling" are taken for supplying the shore fishermen of Gloucester with bait. From 

 eighty to one hundred men are regularly employed in this work for about two months, beginning 

 with the middle of October. 



Torching is also carried on to a limited extent at various points along the coast of Maine, 

 especially in the western portion of the State. 



THE FISHERY WITH BRUSH WEIRS. 

 THE BRTJSH WEIR PECULIARLY ADAPTED TO THE CAPTURE OF HERRING. Wherever the 



brush weir has been introduced it has been found to be peculiarly successful in the capture of 

 herring, and has largely superseded torching, as it is found to take a larger quantity of fish than 

 can be secured by the use of lights, and with much less labor and trouble to the fishermen. 



At the present time the typical brush weir is used within the limits of the United States only 

 on the coast of Maine, though modifications of it are employed in the river fisheries of numerous 

 localities in other parts of the country. The weirs are more numerous in the vicinity of Eastport 

 than in any other place. 



THE TYPICAL BRUSH WEIR INTRODUCED FROM NOVA SCOTIA. According to Mr. D. I. 

 Odell, of Eastport, and Mr. Jacob McGregor, of Lubec, the fishermen of the United States owe 

 their knowledge of the brush weir in its present form to Nova Scotia, where it was in use before 

 the beginning of the present century. According to these parties, the date of its introduction 

 into the United States was about 1820, when two or three small ones were built near the western 

 end of Cainpobello Island and along the shores of North Lubec for the capture of different species. 

 These were not sufficiently successful to warrant their extended use, and after one or two seasons' 

 fishing they were abandoned. The first large weir exclusively for herring is said to have been 

 built in 1828, by Mr. John McGregor and his son Jacob, at North Lubec. Mr. McGregor was a 

 native of Digby, N. S., and had become thoroughly familiar with the brush weir as employed in 

 the fisheries of that region before his removal to the United States several years earlier. Thus far 

 during his stay in Lubec he had been engaged in the smoking of herring, depending wholly upon 

 torching for his supply ; but he soon found that the movements of the herring were very similar 

 to those of the school that visited Digby, where the weir was successfully used. lie therefore 

 decided, on account of the labor and exposure in torching and the comparatively small quantity 

 offish taken, to build a brush weir for the capture of the fish. Accordingly he selected Rogers 

 Island as a suitable location, and proceeded at once to construct his weir. It was built in shoal 



