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106 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 

part of the time, they also make trips to Le Have Bank, Brown’s Bank, 
Seal Island Ground, German Bank, and occasionally to some other 
grounds. A few trips have been made as far east as the Western Bank 
(Western Bank and Le Have trips are usually made in December and 
January), and as far south as Block Island, but only at rare intervals, 
The greater part of the vessels composing the mackerel fleet are 
clipper schooners, many of them being equal in-appearance and sailing 
qualities to first-class yachts. It hasalready been mentioned that some 
of them carry a great amount of light sail, but while this is true of the 
larger vessels and for some others, there are a few of the smaller ones” 
that have no flying-jibs. The average size of the mackerel catchers is 
about 60 tons, the extremes being from about 20 to 151 tons. There 
are few, however, over 100 tons; and the largest one is a three-masted 
sehooner. 
The bankers average larger than the vessels employed in other fish- 
eries. Tew are less than 60 tons; the average size is about 75 tons; 
while a small number are more than 100, and the largest, a three-masted 
schooner, is 193 tons. The fleet is composed chiefly of the finest class” 
of sea-going vessels, and this may especially be said of those employed - 
in the bank halibut fishery. There are, however, a few old-fashioned 
schooners that make tripsfor cod in summer. The salt carried by the 
cod-fishermen serves for ballast, and this is stowed in “ pens” or bins in” 
' the hold. The halibut catchers and a few other bankers are ballasted 
like the Georgesmen, though perhaps not so heavily, the ice and salt 
they carry making up the deficiency. The fishing-grounds visited by 
the bank fleet extend from Le Have Bank to Davis Strait, although 
the Grand Bank, Banquereau, and Western Bank are the principal ones. 
The vessels of the New York market fleet belong chiefly to the ports _ 
on Long Island Sound. They differ in some respects from the vessels” 
of Northern New England, as they are, with the exception of the halibut 
catchers, nearly all vemeas smacks, and a considerable portion of them 
are sloops. The smacks take the greater part of their catch to market 
alive, preserving, however, the dead fish in ice. The vessels engage 
in the halibut fishery are arranged somewhat similar to those alread) 
mentioned, and the fish are kept in the same manner, namely, by icin 
_them. Although there is not so large a proportion of extremely shar 
vessels in the New York fleet as in the fishing fleet north of Cape Cod, 
there is, nevertheless, a general resemblance between the schooner- 
rigged vessels and those of Massachusetts. The average size of the 
market smacks is about 40 tons, the extremes being 20 and 65 tons. The 
smacks fish from Cape Henlopen to George’s Bank, principally on some 
part of the shore soundings, catching cod, haddock, &c., in the winter, 
and besides these several other varieties in summer. The halibut catch- 
ers go farther east on George’s Bank and adjacent grounds. The few 
vessels employed in the southern coast fisheries belong to the same 
class as the smacks that have been mentioned ; indeed the greater part) 
of them were built in the ports of Long Island Sound. 
ine 
