184 



comrade's. You fish wiih two lines, most commonly seven fathom,? 

 lontr — that is, in heavy weather. In cahn weather, the jiGf-" are lighter 

 than when it blows h:ird. There is fin eye spliced at the end of" the 

 line, so that the jiij may be shitted at ])leasure. There are two other 

 lines used, called fiv-lines, with smaller hooks: when mackerel are shy 

 in biting, they will often take these. The fly-lines are only three 

 fathoms long. Ver}' often the mackerel stop biting. Then the fisher- 

 men take the gafis, and work with these until the fish disappear, 'i'he 

 gaffs must not be used while the lines are out, as they entangle them, 

 and cause great trouble. No man must leave the rail to pick up fish 

 which miss his barrel and fall on the deck, until the fishing is over. 

 You must take care to dress your mackerel quickh', as they are a fish 

 that is easily tainted. When you stop fishing, the captain or mate 

 counts the fish, and notes down in the fish-book what each man has 

 caught. Then the crew goes to dressing and splitting. The splitter 

 has a mitten on the left hand, to keep the fish steady to the knife. Two 

 men gib the fish, wiih mittens on, to prevent the bones scratching their 

 hands. One man hands up the fish to the splitter, wliile the rest of the 

 crew draw water to fill the barrels in which the fish are put to soak. 

 The fish are put in the soak-barrels back up. In a short time the 

 water is shified, and the fish washed out for salting. The salter 

 sprinkles a handhil of salt in the bottom of the barrel, then takes the 

 fish in his right hand, rolls them in salt, and places them skin down in 

 the barrel until he comes to the top layer, which he lays skin up, cov- 

 ering the top well with salt. Herring or small mackerel are the best 

 bait that can be used. These are ground in a bait-mill by the watch 

 at night: if the vessel has no bait-mill, the fish are chopped up with a 

 hatchet, or scalded with boiling water in a barrel or tub. When there 

 is a fleet of mackerel-vessels fishing, they often lee-bow each other — 

 that is, run ahead of one another — and so draw the fish towards the 

 shore. There they anchor, and put springs on their cables, which is 

 done by taking a strap outside the hawse-hole and fastening it to the 

 cable, then hooking it to a tackle, and hauling it aft, at the same time 

 pa3'ing out the cal)le. This brings tlie vessel broadside to the wind or 

 current, and the fishing goes on. Boats maj- fish with the same success 

 as vessels when moored in this manner. This is the whole system of 

 mackerel fishing, British or American, and requires nothing but activity 

 and energv." 



As already intimated, the mackerel is a capricious and sportive fish, 

 and continually changing its haunts and habits. When first seen upon 

 the coast in the spring, it is thin and poor. It differs essentially, from 

 one season to another, in size and quality. One j'ear it is fiit and large, 

 and is sought for almost entirel}^ in the Bay Chaleurs; anon it is lean 

 and small, deserts that bay and the adjacent waters, and frequents 

 George's Banks, or our own shores.* Sometimes, our whole fleet seek 



* Paul Crowell, in a report on tlie fislieries of Nova Scotia, Februarj-, 1852, remarks : 

 "Tlie maeltprel in the spring generally strike the sonth ])art of Nova 8eotia. From the 18th 

 to the '2r)rh of May they come from the southward, failing,' in with the Nautncket and St. 

 George's Shoal; a large quantity come throiigl) the Sonth Clianucl, and, when abreast of Cape 

 Cod, shape their coni-se towards the south coast of Nova Scotia. Uiing bound to 15oston this 

 spring, about the Ittth of May, 1 met large schools of mackerel, about tilly of sixty, to tlie 



