128 BEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



divided the seine between them, one end and half the seine being on 

 each, the two working boats approach the school within a short dis- 

 tance and endeavor to get in a favorable position. Sometimes a 

 whole day will be spent in vain endeavors to get near swiftly moving 

 or capricious schools. When the favorable moment comes the boats 

 separate and row around the schools of fish, paying out the seine 

 from each as they go. Meanwhile the driver, on the opposite side, 

 throws stones at the timid fish and starts them in the direction of the 

 boats. At last the boats have encircled the fish, and meet on the side 

 opposite to their starting point ; instantly the purse-lines are seized, and 

 no man stops to breathe until the bottom is pursed up. The crews exert 

 themselves to complete the operation before the fish take the alarm, and 

 many a time it happens that they pass out between the boats just before 

 they meet, or under the bottom of the seine before the pursing is com- 

 plete. The affrighted fish first, it is said, rush seaward. Finding them- 

 selves shut in on that side, they turn and rush landward ; headed off 

 there, they furiously follow the net around at the top of the water, some 

 going this way and some that. Finding the circuit complete, they gradu- 

 ally subside, and finally settle to the bottom of the bag. The seine is 

 now drawn aboard the working boats until only a small portion of it is 

 left in the water, and the fish brought in a compact body to the surface. 

 The steamer is now brought alongside, and with a great tub holding two 

 or three barrels, and worked by steam, the fish are rapidly taken on 

 board. When everything works well it takes about two hours to catch 

 and take on board a school of 500 barrels ; commonly it is longer than 

 that." * 



GUI-net fishing in Eastern Maine. 



111. East of the Penobscot Eiver, in Maine, most of the fishing is 

 carried on with "float" or gill nets. These are knit usually of twine 

 (size No. 12 to 14, 4 threaded), and of 3^ to 4 inch mesh, and are from 30 

 to 180 feet in length and from C to IG and 24 feet in depth; usually from 

 12 to 18. Two men in an open sail-boat will, according to Mr. W. H. 

 Sargent, of Castine, take care of a dozen nets. These nets are usually 

 set in the night by being anchored in favorite haunts of the menhaden. 

 When a school strikes the net large numbers of the fish are " meshed" 

 by running their heads through the openings until they are caught by 

 the gill-covers. According to Mr. Brightman, of Waldoborough, the 

 gill-netting in that vicinity is mostly done early in the season ; he states 

 that this method of fishing is not nearly so productive as in former 

 years, betters sometimes build a furnace for trying out oil on the deck 

 of a small vessel, thus saving the trouble of transportation. 



Gill-nets are also used about Boothbay in the early part of the sea- 

 son, but not so much as formerly. The nets are made, according to Mr, 

 Brightman, of fine cotton twine, about 4 inches mesh, 12 feet deep, and 

 20 fathoms long. 



* Op. cit., pp. 24, 25. 



