COD, POLLOCK, HADDOCK AND HAKE. 353 



valuable than themselves ; in consequence of this the fishermen have a 

 great prejudice against them and refuse to eat them. 



Capt. Atwood states that about Cape Cod they do not take to the hook 

 freely; that in other localities they are exceedingly voracious, and great 

 numbers of them may be caught in Massachusetts Bay with a surface 

 bait. 



When the United States Fish Commission steamer has been stationed 

 north of Cape Cod, a favorite amusement of the officers has been to catch 

 young Pollock with a fly. The older fish are less active and remain more 

 at the bottom. 



Concerning this species, Capt. Atwood states that they appear about 

 Cape Cod in schools in early May, frequently passing Race Point so 

 close to the shore as to be caught with the seine among the " tide-rips." 



Capt. E. W. Merchant, of Gloucester, tells me that the Pollock were 

 very abundant in Massachusetts Bay early in this century — before the war 

 of 1812. They were especially abundant on Middle Bank. They were 

 at that time chiefly caught with bait of herring, taken in seines from the 

 beaches. The fishing boats were of about thirty tons, and carried three 

 men and a boy. Fishing was carried on chiefly at night. When the ves- 

 sels would all " fleet up," and the bait on their hooks would toll the 

 schools of fish together. The vessels would take about fifty quintals in a 

 night. There were about thirty fish to the quintal. This abundance of 

 Pollock lasted until about 1820. These Pollock were salted, and con- 

 sumed at home or carried to Maine. They sold for about two dollars a 

 quintal. The oil of their livers was tried out in kettles on the shore. 

 Their roe was exported largely in those days, It was sold by the bushel,. 

 at the rate of about sixty cents. 



Mr. Earll writes : " Large Pollock are absent from the waters of Cape 

 Ann from the middle of January till early in May, the small ones leaving 

 earlier, in the fall, and returning in April.* The young may be taken 

 almost anywhere along the shore, but the large fish seem to confine them- 

 selves to definite localities; and though not particularly abundant during 

 the summer at Cape Ann, it is a favorite spawning ground for the species, 

 and during this period large schools visit this shore. 



" They begin to grow plenty about the first of October, and by the last 

 of the month are so numerous as to greatly annoy the cod-fishermen by 

 taking the hook before it can get to the bottom. 



*In 1SS1 the first Pollock came into Gloucester harbor May 2. 

 2 3 



