HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 125 



is evident from the two long boats which are towed astern, carrying 

 the purse-seine, which looks like a bale of brown hay stowed in the 

 middle of each boat. A man stands at every mast-head watching for 

 the well-known ripple. A school passes under the bows of our yacht 

 and rises to the surface at a short distance, the bright sides of the fishes 

 glistening in the sun and their tails flii^piug the surface noisily. The 

 sharp eyes of the " lookout " of the nearest vessel soon detects their 

 presence. The sloop comes about and sails to the leeward of the school. 

 As soon as they are near, three men jump into each boat. Two man 

 the oars, a third stands in the stern and pays out the net, while the 

 boats, rapidly diverging, are rowed around the fish, each describing a 

 semicircular course. Now their courses converge and the men row 

 faster. They come together and pass, thus closing the circle of net- 

 work. The men all jump into one boat, the purse- weight, or " long Tom," 

 as they call it, is hooked to the two lead lines, and a splash of water 

 announces that it has been thrown overboard to slide down the ropes 

 and draw the lower ends of the net together. Now they begin hauling 

 at the bottom lines, and in ten minutes they have drawn the bottom of 

 the net into a purse and the fish are secured. The "lighter," or trans- 

 porting boat, now sails up. The men on board heave a line to the seine- 

 boats and they are brought alongside. A large dip-net, three feet in 

 diameter, is now suspended by a block and tackle in the rigging of 

 the lighter, and the fish are rapidly transferred from the seine to its 

 hold. The silvery masses of fish are hoisted into the air and dropped 

 into the vessel, settling in the bins with a flapping noise like the sound 

 of distant thunder or the hand-clapping of a large audience. 



In August, 1876, when on the steamer from Saybrook to Greenport, 

 I saw a fleet of sixty vessels busily plying their nets in the sound near 

 the mouth of the Connecticut. In the evening a gale sprang up from 

 the southwest, and as the steamer entered Peconic Bay the little sloops 

 were vseen scudding to harbor under low-reefed sails. Every wave 

 swept the decks, but they floated like sea-birds. Some of them were 

 loaded to the rail with fares of fish. 



Menhaden fishing about Ca])e Ann. 



175. We are indebted to Captain Babson for facts about the fisheries 

 at Cape Ann, which are carried on for the purpose of securing bait for 

 the codfish and mackerel fleets. Vessels for this business are fitted out 

 from the port of Gloucester on the same basis as those for other fisheries. 

 The owners furnish the vessel-outfits, seine and boats, the crew going 

 "on the halves" ; that is, taking for their share half of the entire "catch" 

 while the other half is claimed by the owners. A good vessel with 

 boats costs about $5,000. A seine costs about $1,000, and with fair 

 usage lasts through two seasons ; it is made of cotton twine and pre- 

 served by the use of salt and tar. The seine is carried on a small deck 

 at the stern of the seine-boat, which is about 30 feet long and 8 feet 



