82 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



iug- that ■wiuter, but reported herring and cod abimdant. It is enough to 

 say here, that halibut failed to make their apperance during the winter, 

 and that while the Flyiug Cloud was in Harbor Le Cone, she was able 

 to procure only 4,GU0 pounds of these fish. 



Captain Smith, finding that there was no hope of obtaining a cargo 

 of frozen halibut, decided to do the next best thing, and to secure as 

 many fresh codfish as he could, freeze and pack them away in the hold. 

 The chances for obtaining a full load of cod were favorable, but the 

 thought occurred to him that he might do well to take home part of a 

 cargo of frozen herring to be used as bait by the George's cod fisher- 

 men. . lie was induced to take this step by an incident which had oc- 

 curred in his previous experience, of which the following is an account: 

 While in command of the schooner Columbia, in 184G, and engaged in 

 the winter George's cod-fishery, he had taken a good catch of herring 

 in nets on George's bank ; and when he started for home he had 450 of 

 them which had not been used. After leaving the bank the weather 

 was extremely cold, and the herring which had been left on deck dur- 

 ing night were frozen as " stiff' as sticks." It occurred to Captain 

 Smith to save these fish for another trip, and accordingly he packed 

 them away carefully in the hold, so that the frost might be retained in 

 them. On his succeeding cruise he found the bait which he had thus 

 saved was of great service to him ; and the consequence was that he 

 obtained a full fare of fish in a much shorter time than the other ves- 

 sels which were sailing in company. Here, then, was the starting-point, 

 so to speak, of the frozen-herring trade. Captain Smith succeeded in 

 procuring a fare at Harbor Le Coue of 64,000 pounds of frozen cod, 

 4,000 pounds of frozen halibut, and 80,000 frozen herring. For the 

 herring he paid $1 per barrel, which would be about 20 cents per 100. 

 Arriving in Gloucester, he found the George's fleet about ready to 

 start on their first trip to the bank, and offered his herring for sale 

 to them at $1.50 per 100 in number. Unfortunately a large portion of the 

 George's fleet was frozen in, so that they could not easily get out ; but, 

 nevertheless, this was so great an innovation in the fishery that few of 

 the skippers could be found among those ready to sail who would venture 

 to take a supply of frozen herring for bait. Three of the captains, how- 

 ever, decided to make the trial. One of them was Capt. Theodore Par- 

 sons, who bought 1,000 herring, half of which he sold to another vessel 

 before sailing; while the third v^essel took 500 herring. Finding that 

 there was little probability of selling his herring in Gloucester to the 

 GeorgesHien, Captain Smith went to Boston, where he sold them as 

 food at from 75 cents to $1 per 100.* In the mean time the three 

 vessels which had taken bait from him, notwithstanding the small 



* Before going to Boston be sold 20,000 of the herring to a stcable-keeper, at Glou- 

 cester, by the name of Floyd, who took the fish on teams to the east side of Capo Ann, 

 where the most of them were sold for bait to the boat fishermen, the remainder being 

 hauled to Swampscot and sold there for a similar purj)ose. 



