142 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



also off North Cape, Prince Edward Island. We didn't get more than two-thirds of a cargo 

 of fish when it was time to come home. We came home, notwithstanding the fact that there were 

 some 40 hogsheads of salt not used. 



"In 1825 I shipped on the schooner President. This schooner measured 84 tons and carried 

 160 hogsheads of salt. This and the previous year we used mackerel exclusively for bait, and had 

 no trouble in catching as many as we wanted. The mackerel were caught with 'jigs,' the offal 

 which was thrown from the decks being sufficient to keep the fish at the surface. We used the 

 spawn of codfish as toll-bait with which to keep the mackerel at the surface. We fished, for the 

 most part, on Bank Bradley and at the North Cape of Prince Edward Island and along the west 

 shore from Escumenac Point to Point Miscou. We used up all our salt. We wet all our salt and 

 came home, arriving the latter part of September." 



During the last thirty years the cod-seine has been used on the coast of Labrador, especially 

 by vessels from Newburyport. Fishing with the seine is thus described by Mr. W. A. Wilcox: 

 "A small boat is first sent to look over the ground, a water telescope being used this being a small 

 box 8 by 10 inches square, with a glass bottom. By the use of the water telescope the cod school 

 may be seen moving through the water. When the fish are discovered the seine is set around 

 them; the length of the seine is usually about 100 fathoms; its depth, 55 to 75 feet, the mesh 

 ranging from 3J to 4 inches. From 2,000 to 12,000 codfish have been taken at a haul. Herring 

 are also often taken in nets and salted ; these are brought home as part of the cargo. These are 

 caught near Bradore and Assizes Harbor." 



6. FORMER IMPORTANCE OF THE LABRADOR FISHERY. 



Mr. Wilcox writes : " Since 1875 only one Newburyport firm has been engaged in the Labrador 

 fishery. This same firm has prosecuted this fishery for over thirty-five years, "with from one to 

 four vessels each year; and, until within the last five years, not one unprofitable trip was made." 



The Labrador fishery is still extensively prosecuted by British Provincial fishermen. We quote 

 from Professor Hind the following description of the status of the Northern Labrador fishery in 

 1876: 



"About 400 fishing craft, from 18 to 90 tons burden, are supposed to have passed Cape Har- 

 rison this season. Taking the average of the entire fleet, they carried each eight men, three 

 fishing boats, and one shore boat. Out of the 3,200 hands we may assume that 2,400 were actually 

 engaged in fishing. The estimated catch was GO quintals per man, or in the aggregate 144,000 

 quintals. This work was accomplished in an average aggregate of twenty-four fishing days, and 

 to a large extent with the jigger, that is, without the use of bait. The average weight of the fish 

 is about 3 pounds fresh. Allowing one hundred and thirty fish to the quintal the number taken 

 would be about eighteen millions, the number wounded and lost about four and a half millions, 

 although some fishermen consider that one fish out of three is wounded by the jigger and lost 

 when the fish are very numerous. 



"During the gale of the llth and 12th of September there lay next to us in Indian Harbor, 

 off Hamilton Inlet, a small craft of 30 tons burden, just arrived from off Nain. She had been 

 fishing about the islands near the Missionary station, in latitude 56 40', about COO miles north- 

 west of Saint John's, and in three weeks had taken 300 quintals. Her complement consisted 

 of six men and two fishing boats. She arrived, like all the fishing fleet this year, too late to take 

 advantage of the season. The cod had 'struck in' many days before she commenced fishing. Had 

 she arrived a fortnight earlier she might easily have taken 80 quintals to the man in place of 50, 



