BULLETIN OF THE EXITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 25 



into vats, to I e exposed to the rays of the sun or tried by fire, as the 

 case may be. The young produce the "pale seal oil," the older seal the 

 darker and heavier " straw-colored seal oil." Either kind of oil is then 

 reduced by straining and other refining processes to two or three quali- 

 ties, each of which brings a price corresponding to its grade. Seal oil 

 is used for a variety of purposes in manufactures, and in many coun- 

 tries is still burned. The seal-hunter, if successful, is never lacking in 

 good, healthful food. Steak from the young seal, if freed from fat or 

 oil, is most tender, and really delicate and delicious eating. It tastes 

 more like fresh cow's liver than any other meat with which I am ac- 

 quainted, and is highly prized by the natives, as well as by all who 

 have once tasted it when properly cooked. 



Mackerel fishing. — Mackerel abound chiefly in the Gulf of Saint 

 Lawrence, seldom coming on to the Labrador coast. They are found here 

 occasionally, however, and are then captured and cured as in other 

 places. The time for catching these fish is usually from early in July to 

 late in September. The fish come along shore like the herring to spawn, 

 but are seldom fished until after spawning season, which is usually in 

 the earliest part of summer. It is most numerous in the fall mouths, 

 when it is extremely fat and well savored. It is taken in nets and 

 seines, and quite large ones at that, many of them capable of holding 

 GOO to 800 barrels offish. The practice among ordinary fisherman is to 

 use the hook and line; the bait used is a small fish called the pogie, 

 though anything bright will attract them, as a small silver piece placed 

 alone upon the hook. The mode of taking these valuable fish is thus 

 exe< llently and pleasantly described by Mr. Fortin: 



"As soon as the schooners have reached the place where shoals of 

 mackerel are usually found, they keep cruising backward and forward, 

 and the moment there is the least appearance of fish, or their presence 

 is eveu suspected near a vessel, the jibs are taken in, and the vessel is 

 brought to, with the mizzen-sail and mainsail veered half round. Feed 

 is then scattered all around from small pails, the fishermen seize their 

 lines, bait their hooks with small pieces of the skin of the neck of the 

 mackerel or any other fish (but the mackerel is much preferable), and 

 throw them into the water. The lines are tine, and are made of hemp 

 or cotton, generally the latter. They are from G to 8 fathoms long, and 

 one end is fastened to a small sinker of polished pewter, oblong in shape, 

 and weighing about 2 ounces, to one end of which is .soldered a middle- 

 sized hook. 



" Each fisherman plies the lines, one i~„ each hand, and leans on the 

 rail while fishing. He seldom pays out more than 4 or 5 fathoms of 

 line, for the mackerel, attracted by the chopped fish thrown overboard, 

 thousands of pieces of which float in mid-water, leave the depths of the 

 sea and come swimming toward the surface to feast with avidity on 

 this excellent bait, prepared for him with so much care; while he is 

 gorging himself with pieces of pogie and mackerel, he seizes the bait on 



