SCIENTIFIC SURVEY. ^^ 



1636, Folsom observes* that fishing was the most common occupa- 

 tion, as it was both easy and profitable to barter the proceeds for 

 corn from Virginia and other stores from England. 



The trade with the planters of Massachusetts soon became cpn- 

 siderable. At this time, Mr. Vines had a consignment of bread 

 and beef from that quarter. Jocelyn remarks that " Winter Har- 

 bor is a noted place for fishes ; here they have many stages." He 

 describes the mode of pursuing this business in the following man- 

 ner. "The fishermen take yearly on the coast many hundred 

 quintals of cod, hake, haddock and pollock, and dry them at their 

 stages, making three voyages in a year. They make merchantable 

 and refuse fish, which they sell to Massachusetts merchants ; the 

 first, for 32 ryals ($4.00) per quintal — the refuse for 9 and 10 

 shillings ($2.00 to $2.25.) 



The merchant sends the fish, the first to Lisbon, Bilboa, Mar- 

 seilles, Toulon, Bourdeaux, and other cities of France — to Canaries, 

 pipe staves and clapboards ; the refuse fish to the West Indies for 

 the negroes. To every shallop belong four fishermen — a master, a 

 steersman, a midshipman and a shoreman, who washes the fish out 

 of the salt and dries it upon hurdles pitched upon stakes, breast 

 high, and tends their cookery. They often get in one voyage eight 

 or nine barrels a share a man. The merchant buys of the planters, 

 beef, pork, peas, wheat, Indian corn, and sells it to the fishermen." 



Thus, step by step, grew the fisheries of Maine into a business of 

 magnitude and importance, and in proportion as the fisheries pros- 

 pered, grew the maritime portions of our State in population and 

 corresponding strength. During the vexatious and bloody Indian 

 wars which soon after this began, and continued with but occa- 

 sional cessation for more than a hundred years, and kept the set- 

 tlers in constant watch for the safety of their property and lives, 

 their principal reliance for sustenance and supply of other comforts 

 was on their fisheries. But for these, many a family, and many a 

 hamlet on the seaboard, would have been reduced to actual starva- 

 tion. It was this never failing resource which gave them life and 

 energy and the means to resist the assaults of their wily foes, until 

 they finally conquered and exterminated them. 



* History of Saco, p. 37. 



