100 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



going to the vessel, and live-eigbtlis to the crew. This act 

 (wliich Avas repealed at close of war of late Rebellion) gave 

 a new impulse to the business, although Gloucester in 1828 

 had increased her fleet to one hundred and sixty-four 

 schooners and thirty-eight boats. INIarblehcad in 1831 had 

 fifty-seven vessels in cod and mackerel fishery, their catch 

 amounting to §^100,490, each fisherman averaging f213.52 

 for eight months' fishing, mostly on the Grand Banks, which 

 fishery was not then followed b}- Gloucester vessels. 



In 1820 mackerel-fishing as a business was prosecuted, 

 and has continued with greatly varying success ever since. 

 The mode of catching mackerel, until the past ten years, was 

 by hand-lines : now they are caught by boats from the vessel, 

 by rowing around a " school " when they show themselves 

 on the surface of the sea, and throwing a seine, which, if 

 successful, encloses the fish in a basin of net-work, the bot- 

 tom of the seine being pursed up. In this way hundreds of 

 barrels are sometimes taken at a single haul. 



The George's Bank cod-fishery commenced in 1830, from 

 which dangerous shoal the largest and best codfish are taken. 

 This fishery is prosecuted with hand-lines, the tide running 

 there so swift as to require frequently over one hundred 

 fathoms of line to reach the bottom. In 183G the fresh-hali- 

 but fishery commenced, and is now one of Gloucester's 

 specialties. To what extent the business has reached, I have 

 already shown, except the amount sold smoked, which is 

 very large. In 1870 this fishery Avas commenced on the 

 coast of Greenland with success, and has been followed more 

 or less since. The halibut caught there is fletched ; that is, 

 strips are taken from the fish, clear of bone, to be dried and 

 smoked. Two hundred and eighty thousand pounds were 

 brought from there last year by two vessels, only one prose- 

 cuting it this year. In 1876 halibut were caught on trawls 

 in water two hundred and fifty fathoms, or over quarter of 

 a mile deep, having been found for the first time in the deep 

 water off George's Bank. Trawling for them or for codfish 

 is pursued now on nearly all tlie banks. 



The mackerel-fishery in British waters has been almost 

 wholly abandoned by vessels from this county, and also, I 

 t'^iink, from the State ; it having been found unprofitable to 

 prosecute it so far from home when better fishing is found on 

 the American coast. 



