698 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



{Pomolobus vernalis and P. cestivalis). The shore-fishermen of Cape Ann 

 use principally clams, frozen and fresh herring (including Sperling), and 

 alewives. 



Clams are used principally during the summer months and at other 

 times when bait is scarce. They occur in considerable numbers in most 

 of the muddy flats along the shore between tide-marks, being small and 

 scattering near the line of high-water, but gradually "increasing in both 

 size and number as the low-water line is neared. To these flats the fish- 

 ermen resort with their clam-forks and baskets during the hours of low- 

 water. When they are ijlenty, an energetic worker can dig from seven 

 to nine bushels at a single tide, these making nearly two-thirds of a bar- 

 rel of bait ; but in the vicinity of Gloucester the flats have been dug over 

 so frequently that clams are becoming scarce, and the fishermen are often 

 obliged to buy their supply from other places, at an average price of four 

 or five dollars a barrel. 



The Sperling, now so extensively used by the shore-line fishermen, 

 average from five to six inches in length. They make their appearance 

 in these waters about the middle of September, remaining until driven 

 off by the coldness of the water late in December. We are told that 

 they were first used for bait by the Swampscott fishermen about 1840, 

 and that the demand did not become general until 1806. The supjjly 

 now comes wholly from Ipswich Bay, where for the past two years the 

 fish have been unusually abundant. They are taken wholly at night, 

 within a short distance of the shore, by means of dip-nets. The men 

 visit the grounds in 20-foot dories, made expressly for the purpose, and 

 as soon as it becomes dark a torch is placed in the bow, and two men 

 row the boat rapidly through the water, while the third stands ready to 

 secure the fish as they are attracted by the light and gather in little 

 bunches, keeping just in front of the boat. A good dipper will often 

 catch, half a bucket of them at a single dip. It usually takes but a short 

 time to secure all that can be sold, when the boat returns to the shore, 

 where a wagon is in readiness to carry the fish to market. Ninety men 

 were engaged in this work during the winter of 1878-'79, landing and 

 marketing about 7,000 barrels of sperling, at an average price of $3 per 

 barrel. During the season six men landed nearly a thousand barrels, 

 while a single crew of three men caught 20 barrels in one night. 



The fishermen buy only enough bait to last them through the day, 

 getting a fresh supply each morning, as the fish soon become soft, and 

 when in this condition will not stay on the hook. For this reason they 

 are not suitable bait for the trawl, and cannot be used in the offshore 

 fisheries. 



Frozen herring usually make their appearance in the Cape Ann 

 markets about the middle or last of December, from which time they are 

 extensively used as bait by all of the fishermen until April, when the 

 weather becomes so warm that they cannot be obtained. The supply 

 comes largely from the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, where 



