246 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES PISH COMMISSION. 



tons, $2,927 j Clarence Barclay, of 25 tons, $2,000. The expense of 

 landing that value of fish was so great that there was practically nothing 

 left for the share of the vessels. The crews are generally hired by the 

 month, the captain, however, receiving a share. The ordinary fisher- 

 man receives $25 per month ; the cook, $30 ; and the mate, who stows 

 the ice and fish and is general leader of all work, $40. The crew of the 

 Henrietta Frances, who were on shares, after the Portland fashion, re- 

 alized about $25 per month for the season. 



As an instance of the uncertainty of success attending this fishery I 

 will state that several skippers, who are usually very successful on the 

 New England coast, have made frequent failures here, while exerting 

 themselves to the utmost to prevent it. In this climate a fishing trip 

 cannot be prolonged as it can be farther north, because the supply of 

 ice is soon melted, or else the fish will be unsalable when landed. 



The unusually cold spring delayed the run of shore fish, as pompano, 

 Spanish mackerel, bluefish, &c, fully a month. They appear generally 

 by the first of March, while this season they did not come until the first 

 of April, when the best demand for them was over. 



The Spanish mackerel was the kind first caught this year, and they 

 seemed to come on the coast at all points simultaneously. Boat after 

 boat came to the market loaded, the crews reporting that they could 

 have taken all that they wanted. The light demand was soou supplied 

 and a good many fish were thrown away, either at Pensacola or at the 

 interior cities whither they had been shipped. It was at this time that 

 the spring flood of lake fish came into the western markets, crowding 

 out Gulf fish by their cheapness. When the demand for Spanish mack- 

 erel became so light, the Pensacola fishermen stopped catching more 

 than could be used in the city. During the month of April they have 

 been extremely abundant along the coast ; and are now, at the first of 

 May, just entering the bay. This run of mackerel is of a larger size 

 than is remembered as having occurred before in ten years. It is usual 

 for them to appear in schools at the water's surface off shore as early 

 as the middle of February or the first of March, and then in March and 

 the first of April to struggle along the sea-beach in pursuit of " bait," 

 as they are moving toward the bays. There have been seasons when 

 the mackerel would be abundant off in deep water, and but very few 

 would be seen or taken in seines along the shore. This year they seem 

 to be mainly in shoal water and in greater numbers than ever before 

 known here. 



Pompanos have not been as abundant as usual. A great many were 

 taken farther south, in the vicinity of Tampa, and shipped from Cedar 

 Keys. These were placed on the market earlier than the fish arrive at 

 the Pensacola section, and while the demand for fish was good. At the 

 beginning of the pompano run here, a (;ar-load of them was shipped 

 from Cedar Keys to New Orleans, where they were sold cheaper than the 

 Pensacola fishermen expected to receive for their catch. So far, the 



