66 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



one of the out-riggers goes into the rail at the main rigging. There is 

 an iron plate on the rail. What the fishermen call a 'goose neck' is 

 on the inner j)art of the out-rigger that goes down through the iron 

 l^late on the rail. The forward out-rigger is forward of the fore-rigging 

 and is fixed the same as the after one. There is a guy on the end of 

 the outriggers to keep them steady. The guy on the after one leads 

 aft, and the guy on the forward one leads forward. The length, the 

 distance between the out-riggers on board of a ninety-ton vessel, is 32 

 feet. The mouth of the bag is 33 feet wide; ii^is fastened on the out- 

 rigger to within 4 feet of the end. There are stops on the out-riggers to 

 fasten the ijocket on. The inner part of the pocket is made fast to the 

 rail of the vessel between the two out-riggers. There is a block on the 

 outer part of the out-rigger. A block is made fast to the rigging, half 

 way up the mast, that forms a tackle to the outer end of each out-rigger. 

 When the seine has mackerel in it, the pocket is made fast to the inner 

 part of the seine, the out-riggers are lowered down to the edge of the 

 water and the mackerel are poured into the pocket. The i)ocket will 

 hold two hundred and fifty barrels of mackerel. It is made of stout 

 twine, 1 J-inch mesh. Some of the vessels have dressed a whole trip out 

 of the pocket. When the mackerel are in the pocket, the seine is ready 

 for a new school. All the seiners are having pockets made. All rigged, 

 the pockets cost $80. The size of the pocket is 8 fathoms deep, 32 feet 

 wide, 14 feet long. 



FIRST APrEARAIVCE OF FI$!)H AT CLOUCESTEB, 1881. 



By CAPT. S. J. MARTIN. 



The herring came May 5, and were small. May 6, the large herring 

 came. May 13, the first mackerel caught in trap at Kettle Island, thir- 

 teen in number. The first tautog were caught May 13 in the trap at 

 Kettle Island. The fir§t perch caught May 8. Flounders and sculpin 

 first caught A^jril 21. The small pollock came in the harbor May 2. 

 Alewives first caught May 13. The first menhaden caught off Long 

 Branch May 6, by Gallup & Holmes' steamers, of New London ; 800 

 barrels taken in one day. Finback whales have been plenty since the 

 first of Ajiril. Schooner Alice, of Swan's Island, was in Boston Monday, 

 with 30,000 mackerel, caught off Block Island. The mackerel are com- 

 ing east fast and are of good size. Pollock are plentiful at Chatham. 

 Two vessels got 35,000 pounds each with seines; they were schooling on 

 top of the water, the same as mackerel. 



Gloucester, May 18, 1881. 



