384 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



COD FISHINO TFITBE OILf^-NfTS FROm GI^OUCESTER, ITIASSACIIU< 



SETTS. 



BY S. J. MARTIIV. 



[Letter to Prof. S. F, BaircL] 



I will tell you last week's doings with cod gill-nets ; fish caught in 

 nets last week, 90,000 pounds. Fish are scarce. I think most of them 

 have moved off the rocks. Most of the boats have had their nets up 

 for repairs. They will all be set Monday. The nets rot very fast. The 

 best thing to keep them from rotting is linseed oil. I saw some twine 

 that had been put in a net last winter which is as good as ever this 

 winter. Seven boats have their nets off here. That makes it better to 

 have the nets in two places. They all have a better chance. I hope 

 they will do better next week; if not, some will take trawls and give up 

 the nets. 



Gloucester, Mass., December 31, 1881. 



CODFISH CAUGHT ]!«£AR CAPE CHAR1,ES, MOUTH OF CHESAPEAKE BAY, 



IN 1S34. 



BY FRAWCIS W. RYDER. 



[Letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



I cut the inclosed* from the Boston Journal of February IGth instant. 

 It would appear by this and other reports in the papers that codfish 

 are seldom caught south of the New Jersey coast. The following is 

 what a Cape Cod boy knew about codfishing near the capes of the 

 Chesapeake forty-eight years ago. 



In the summer of 1834 I was a boy on board the brig Calo, of Boston, 

 a packet sailing between Boston and Baltimore, and commanded by 

 Capt. Franklin Percival, of Barnstable, Cape Cod. We were on our 

 passage from Boston to Baltimore and became becahned near Cape 

 Charles, Smith's Island being in sight. We had three or four fish-lines 



* Copy of extract entitled "Cape Cod turkeys for Virginia." 

 [Special dispatch to the Boston Journal.] 



Washington, February 16. 

 The United States Fish Commission is endeavoring to propagate codfish in Chesa- 

 peake Bay, Some are caught by the fishermen on the coast of New Jersey, but it is 

 very seldom that they have been caught inside of the capes. The codfish eggs are 

 brought here for hatching, and the young fish will be sent to Fortress Monroe. Should 

 the predictions of Professor Baird and his associates be realized, Chesapeake Bay will 

 in a few years have lieets of codflshers rivaling the oyster fleet, and will supply the 

 South and Southwest with fresh codfish. 



