7o The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



by throwing over bait. The baiter stands amidships, with 

 a bait-box outside the rail, and with a tin cup nailed to a 

 long handle he scatters the bait on the water. If the 

 mackerel appear, the men throw out short lines, to the 

 hooks of which a glittering pewter jig is affixed. The fish, 

 if they bite at all, generally bite rapidly, and are hauled in 

 as fast as the most active man can throw out and draw in 

 a line. As they pull them on board, the fisherman, with a 

 jerk, throws them into a barrel standing beside him. So 

 ravenously do they bite, that sometimes a barrelful is caught 

 in 15 minutes by a single man. Some active young men 

 will haul in and jerk off a fish and throw out the line for 

 another with a single motion, and repeat the act in such 

 rapid succession that their arms seem continually on the 

 swing. While the school remains alongside and will take 

 the hook, the excitement of the men, and the rushing 

 noise of the fish in their beautiful and manifold evolu- 

 tions in the water, arrest the attention of the most careless 

 observer. 



The summer mackerel fishing is carried on in two 

 ways, with hooks and lines, and with the seine. The greater 

 number of fishermen use the hook and line. These are the 

 crews of those beautiful schooners to be met with every- 

 where in the southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 during the months of July, August, and September, and 

 which from afar look more like a small squadron of yachts 

 than a fleet of fishing vessels, so beautiful are their masts 

 and sails, and so neat and clean are they kept. But on a 

 nearer approach this is found to be an error, for on the 

 decks of these vessels are to be seen crews of from 10 to 

 20 men, all occupied either in catching fish, in repairing 

 fishing implements, or in splitting and salting fish that have 

 been taken ; and what is most striking is the order that 



