426 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



is, if he gets so mucli for inspection on a barrel. Perhaps th© law is 

 altered ; if not, there is a great deal of hush money. When mackerel 

 are sold out of pickle it hurts the market. When the speculator gets 

 them they are all culled over ; number one's made of number two's and 

 number two's made of number three's ; and they make twelve twenty- 

 pound kits out of a barrel. If a man buys inspected mackerel, he gets 

 what belongs to him. If they are not inspected, he does not; so much 

 for that. 



The boat that arrived from Ipswich Bay this morning was the Annie 

 Hodgdon, with 15,000 pounds of nice cod, from two days' fishing with 

 trawls. A school of haddock have been on the coast the past three 

 days. One man in a dory yesterday caught 500 pounds half a mile 

 southeast from Eastern Point. It there is plenty of bait the small ves- 

 sels will do well. Prospects good for all kinds of fish. 



Gloucester, Mass., April 16, 1882. 



[No. 2.— Letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



I thought I would write a few lines about the last week's fishing in 

 Gloucester. There have been twelve vessels from Western Bank with 

 780,000 pounds salt fish; 30 vessels from George's, averaging 15,000 

 pounds to a vessel; ten vessels with 210,000 pounds haddock; two ves- 

 sels with 50,000 pounds of fresh halibut. The haddock have all been 

 sold to the splitters. There is no market for haddock and cod. There 

 are plenty of mackerel and shad in Xew York. There have been fifteen 

 vessels in Isew York with 1,600 barrels of mackerel. Sbad are sent on 

 from Kew York in large quantities to Boston market. That hurts the 

 sale of cod and haddock. There has been a good school of large cod 

 in Ii)swich Bay. The shore boats do well when they have plenty of 

 bait. Herring are more plentiful than they have been. Herring are 

 half grown. The men in the harbor with nets sell all they can get at 

 50 cents a bucket. Haddock are more plentiful this year in the month 

 of April than they have been for eight years. On a fine day the dories 

 get from three to four hundred i^ounds half a mile from the Point. 

 There were three Lynn boats here yesterday; they had 20,000 pounds 

 of haddock to a boat, caught on middle bank in two days' fishing. That 

 has not been done during the past five years. The first salt mackerel 

 were sold in I>rew York for $S a barrel. Fish of all kinds are a shade 

 lower. Dried George's cod sold at 5J cents a pound. Fresh halibut 

 have sold all the week at 11 cents a pound. Fresh cod If cents a pound. 

 Fresh haddock 1 cent a i^ound. Mackerel sold in lyTew York, Saturday, 

 at 4 cents a piece. Shad sold in Boston, Saturday, at 10 cents a piece. 

 Whales are plentiful out in the bay, sometimes coming close to the 

 shore; a number have been shot over at Provincetown. The George's 

 vessels report plenty of herring on George's. 



Gloucester, Mass., April 23, 1882. 



