14 FISHERMEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



islanders have stout schooners, and go trawling with profit, if not with pleasure. A few solitaries 

 fish in small dories, and earn a slender livelihood thereby. 



" Most of the men are more or less round-shouldered, and seldom row upright, with head erect 

 and shoulders thrown hack. They stoop so much over the fish-tables — cleaning, splitting, salting, 

 packing — that they acquire a permanent habit of stooping."* 



5. THE INDIAN FISHERMEN OF NEW ENGLAND. 



The Indians of Passamaquoddy Bay. — The Passamaquoddy Indians in the neighborhood 

 of Eastport, Me., are engaged in various fisheries, the chief object of pursuit being the porpoise, 

 wbich is taken for its oil. The pursuit is an exciting one, the Indians in their slender birch-bark 

 canoes approaching to within gunshot, when the animal is killed, and afterward secured with a 

 lance, and either towed to land or taken into the boat. 



Indians of Southern New England. — The Indians of Gay Head, a well-known settlement 

 at the western end of Martha's Vineyard, and of other points on the south coast of New England, 

 have in days past been famous whalemen, and were often found filling the position of boat-steerer, 

 particularly on the New Bedford ships. 



6. THE BRITISH-PROVINCIAL FISHERMEN OF NEW ENGLAND. 



There were in 1S80 about 4,000 men, natives of the British Provinces, employed on our fishing 

 vessels. They are, as a rule, natives of Nova Scotia, though there are many from Cape Breton 

 and Prince Edward Island, and a considerable number from other parts of Canada and from New- 

 foundland. The Nova Scotians are, for the most part, of Scotch descent, while the Newfound- 

 landers are Irish. Many from Nova Scotia and Cape Breton have a share of Trench blood in their 

 •veins. They are all known by the general name "Nova Scotians." 



Seamanship. — A great many of the most skillful fishermen and skippers arc from the vicinity 

 of Pubnico, Lockport, Le Have, and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. These men have an hereditary 

 knowledge of maritime subjects, for there has for a long time been a considerable fleet of bankers 

 owned in that Province. Many other excellent men come from other parts of Nova Scotia, Cape 

 Breton, and Prince Edward Island. 



Immigration. — According to Capt. Epes W. Merchant, of Gloucester, the first Nova Scotian 

 came to that pqrt about the year 182S, on the lulling schooner commanded by Capt. ElishaOakes. 

 As will be shown hereafter, the practice of enlisting Newfoundlanders was common as early as 

 1648, and has doubtless continued ever since to greater or less extent 



Capt. Fitz J. Babsou, the collector of customs at Gloucester, in a letter to the Chief of the 

 Bureau of Statistics in 1875, says: 



"For some years there has been a large immigration of male adults coming from the Provinces 

 to engage in the fisheries of Gloucester. They arc mostly young men and unmarried. The supe- 

 rior class of vessels belonging to this port employed in the fisheries, the liberal and excellent 

 quality of provisions furnished by the owners, the prompt settlemeni and payment in cash for the 

 fares obtained instead of payment in goods, &c, which is the usual manner of payment to fisher- 

 men at other places, the rapid promotion to the command of a fine schooner consequent upon skill 

 and success, all conspire to draw the ambitious young seamen from the Provinces. 



"These immigrants make up to a huge degree the crews of our fishing vessels, and hence the 

 loss of life falls principally upon them. If the loss of life were confined to the native population of 

 the town, Gloucester could not long maintain the fishing business. 



• Thaxter's Isles <»f Shoals, L873,p.74. 



