374 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



20. They seldom take bait ; very small fish are found in them. 



22. Cannot: I think they are mixed indiscriminately. 



32. Large quantities are devoured by sharks, horse-mackerel, whales, 

 porpoises, and other fish of prey. 



34 and 35. Gill-nets and seines. Gill-nets are from 30 to 80 feet long, 

 and from 7 to 10 feet deep; seines are from 50 to 100 fathoms in length, 

 and 5 to 15 fathoms deep. 



30. All kinds and sizes. Seine-boats are uniform in size and build ; 

 they have no deck. About 35 feet long and 15 feet beam. 



37. Two men can manage nets ; a seine requires from 10 to 15. 



38. When fish are plenty, nothing but darkness interrupts. 



39. They are not, except in shoal-water places, where they are taken 

 at high tide. 



40. They •' school" best in calm weather; consequently more easily 

 taken. 



41. I should judge there were 75 vessels of all sizes employed, and 

 from four to five hundred men and boys. Very many who live on the 

 shores fish with nets, tending their nets with small boats, hardly going- 

 out of sight of their homes for the season. 



42. Nearly all are pressed for the oil ; many are used for fish-bait ; 

 mostly shii^ped to Boston. 



43. There are two or three factories owned by Ehode Island and IS^ew 

 York parties, not worked so much now as formerly. E. A. Friend & 

 Co., of Brooklin, are the largest resident manufacturers, but there are 

 about one hundred smaller or private concerns who carry on the busi- 

 ness in connection with other business. 



44. The aggregate, 1,625 barrels. Friend, about 700 barrels; Chatto, 

 350 barrels. 



46. Large factories, steam ; smaller ones, the common bed-screw. 



47. Slivered, they are worth, put up, about $6 per barrel ; in 1803 they 

 were worth $4 ; prices vary with the quantity. 



48. When poor, July, 200 ; very poor, 1st June, 250 ; fat, August, 

 150; very fat, October, 100. 



49. About one ton of scrap is obtained in making three barrels of oil. 



50. Three quarts is the least I ever knew ; from the first school. 



51. Six gallons is the most I ever knew ; from the last school. 



52. Yes. 



53. The first oil made in this region was made by a man named Bart- 

 lett, residing on an island in the town of Bluehill, Hancock County, 

 Maine. About the year 1837 he sent a small phial-full to Boston to have 

 it tested. Meeting with encouragement, he commenced in a small way 

 to manufacture by setting a common iron kettle over a fire, filling the 

 kettle with fish, and with a strong cover under a heavy beam, "cider- 

 press" fashion, pressing the oil into a vat. From that time the manu- 

 facture increased fast iu this section. For about twenty years gill-nets 

 were used exclusively for taking the fish. 



