282 HISTOET AND METHODS OF THE FISHEEIES. 



sale to the vessels of the mackerel fleet not otherwise supplied. The number of baiters was five 

 or six. 



The price of menhaden for bait varied with their abundance. In Gloucester, in 1873, according 

 to Captain Babsou, 60,000 barrels of round-fish made 20,000 barrels of slivers, worth $4 a barrel to 

 the producer. At Marblehead the price in 1S76 averaged $1 for fresh and $6 for salt bait; at 

 Chatham, $1.50 fresh; at Nantucket, 50 to 75 cents; and at Martha's Vineyard, 50 cents. In 

 Narragansett Bay bait sold in 1871 for $1 to $1.50 per barrel, fresh. The regular price from 1867 

 to 1877 at the mouth of the Merrimac River was $ 1 per barrel ; probably 1,000 barrels of slivered 

 fish were prepared in 1S76, which sold for $5 a barrel. Boston and Gloucester vessels were 

 accustomed to anchor at the mouth of the river and wait there for supplies of bait. At one time 

 in 1877 there were probably twenty-five schooners waiting. 



The process of slivering and salting menhaden is described in the chapter on the menhaden 

 fishery. 



The manner of preparing the slivered menhaden or other fish for toll-bait is very simple, and 

 is essentially the same as that employed in early days, when it was the custom to grind up small 

 mackerel for bait. Captain Atwood remarked in his testimony before the Fishery Commission at 

 Halifax: "We now use menhaden for bait, but when I first went fishing we did not do so; our 

 practice then was to grind up small mackerel for the purpose. Any quantity of these mackerel 

 were at that time to be had for the cost, and plenty are to be met there now. These fish were of 

 no account then, and so we ground them up for bait. And when we could not obtain them we 

 ground up what we call gurry, the inwards of the fish with the gills attached. American fisher- 

 men, when they fish with hooks, use menhaden bait almost exclusively. The superiority of this 

 over any other is proved by the fact that when they can't get menhaden they won't take any 

 other. At first mackerel fishermen were afraid of this bait; it was a very bony fish, and they even 

 thought that if it was cut up for bait the mackerel would get sick of it owing to the number of 

 bones. There is a species of fish belonging to this family found on our coast which is exceedingly 

 fat; we call them blue-backed herrings ;* and some prefer this fish for bait, as it is not so bony as 

 menhaden, but when the mackerel got to be worth having, about everybody adopted menhaden 

 for bait ; it is the cheapest bait." t 



To prepare menhaden for use in the mackerel fishery, the slivers are ground up into a mush 

 which is called " ground bait." The slivers are passed through a bait-mill, which is a machine 

 somewhat resembling a farmer's feed-cutter. The fish are thrown into the hopper, and, by the 

 agency of a roller operated by a crank at the side of the mill, are passed through a complicated 

 array of sharp knives arranged upon tlie sides of the mill, and in spiral rows upon the roller. The 

 bait is usually ground at night by the watch on deck. As a rule, the bait is run through the mill 

 twice in order to make it fine enough. When the vessel has no bait-mill, which at present is rarely 

 the case, the fish are cut up with a hatchet or scalded with boiling water in a tub. Bait-mills were 

 first introduced about the year 1822. Prior to the introduction of the bait-mill all the bait was cut 

 up at night with the hatchet, by the watch, upon a chopping-block, which was a large flat- topped 

 piece of wood resembling a butcher's meat-block. The veterans of this fishery relate with great 

 glee how they used to be kept awake all night by the pounding of the bait-cutter over their heads, 

 and contrast the present usages with those of former days. When there was leisure in the day- 

 time, three or four men would work at the block together, each chopping with his own hatchet. 



* The Glut-Herring, Saw-belly, or Kyack, Clupea cestivalis Mitchill. 



tN. E. Atwood, Proceedings of the Halifax Commission, Appendix L, p. 42, September 19, 1877. 



