548 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



American and Newfoundland roe is but little more than half that of 

 Norwegian. In 1900 the best American roe was selling at $8.60 a 

 barrel and in the previous year at only $4.60. 



The sardine fishermen use peanut meal or flour to mix with the 

 roe, it being much cheaper. Floating lightly and being quite con- 

 spicuous, it attracts the attention of the sardines, wliich readily de- 

 vour it. 



In the Mediterranean sardines are caught during every month of 

 the year. On the west coast, however, the fishing season opens in Feb- 

 ruary and continues to November, rarely extending into December. 

 Fishing in the canning districts is continued as late as practicable, 

 usually as long as the fish remain in abundance, as their condition at 

 that time is good. 



The sardine fishery is emphatically a shore fishery, and most of it 

 is done within a very short distance of the home ports. This permits 

 the use of smaller and less expensive boats than would otherwise be re- 

 quired, and insures the landing of the fish a short time after capture. 

 The early fishing for the sardines de derive is mostly within 1 or 2 

 miles of the shore and rarely beyond 5 or 6 miles. In the summer and 

 fall fishing with bait, the boats may go 10 miles to sea, but the largest 

 part of the catch is taken within 3 or 4 miles of shore, and a very con- 

 siderable proportion close inshore in the bays. 



The fishing in the early part of the season — that is, in March, April 

 and May — is done mostly with old nets and is conducted only at night. 

 WTiile the boats are lying near by and the men sleeping, the nets are 

 allowed to drift. No bait is used. The fish thus caught are not fat 

 and are not used for canning, but are salted or sold for immediate con- 

 sumption. The regular fishing is carried on only by day. The boats 

 start for the fishing-grounds early in the morning (2 to 4 o'clock), so 

 as to be there when day breaks. They may also have to leave earlier 

 if the tide would otherwise beach them. The best fishing is in the early 

 morning, and the boats are often back to port by 9 or 10 o'clock with 

 full fares. 



When a boat arrives on the fishing-grounds, a net is shot and slowly 

 towed by means of a short line attached to the cork line and fastened 

 in the stem of the boat. In summer fishing, when sardines are abun- 

 dant, the fishermen often let one net go adrift when it is full of fish, 

 trusting to pick it up later, and put out another net. Indeed, a boat 

 may have fish in three nets at one time, though this is rarely the case. 



Bait is always used in the day fishing, being necessary in order to 

 attract the fish to the vicinity of the boats and into the nets. The cast- 

 ing of the bait, on the proper use of which a great deal of the success 

 of fishing depends, is always done by the master or 'patron,' who stands 

 in the stern of the boat on a little platform and uses the flour and roe 



