PACIFIC COD FISHERIES. 49 
But one man goes in a dory, and each rows away in search of a 
good place to fish. The direction in which they row from the vessel 
is, to a great extent, governed by the tide and force of the wind, the 
idea being to utilize the wind and tide to help in getting back to the 
ship when the dory, being full, would make rowing laborious. As 
the fish seem at times to be quite numerous in small, isolated areas, 
considerable luck enters into the fishing. When one of the fishermen 
is perceived to have good success his mates are apt to gather around 
and try their luck on the same spot. The men return to the vessel 
about noon, or sooner if a dory load has been obtained. After 
obtaining their dinner they go out again, and sometimes a trip will 
be made after supper. Each man’s catch is counted as he pews them 
inboard upon his return to the vessels. 
While the fishermen are out on their first trip of the day the mem- 
bers of the dress gang are usually fishing over the rail of the vessel, - 
and some of them do this whenever they have a few spare moments. 
These men are paid a fixed sum (usually an average of the prices 
paid the fishermen) for all fish so caught, which is in addition to 
their regular wages. 
Trawl lines.—But little trawling has ever been done by the vessels 
fishing on the Alaska banks, and none by those fishing on the 
Okhotsk banks. In 1888 the schooner Avago, belonging to Lynde & 
Hough, of San Franciso, employed trawl lines on the Bering Sea 
banks, but the fishermea claimed that the fleas (amphipod crusta- 
ceans) devoured or injured the cod so badly that their use had to be 
abandoned. 
But few efforts in this line were made by the vessels of the fleet 
until in 1913, when the schooner Vega and the power schooner Union 
Jack, belonging to the Union Fish Co., of San Francisco, used trawl 
lines for a considerable part of the season. On the Vega, which 
fished on the outer banks off the Shumagin Islands, the ground line 
of the trawl was of 20-pound tarred cotton. The gangings, which 
were about 3 feet in length and set about 6 feet apart, were of 
6-pound tarred cotton. The hooks used were of the 10/O japanned 
Limerick brand. The trawls were coiled in tubs made by sawing 
barrels into equal halves. Each dory crew was expected to have’ 
rigged up 42 trawls of 50 fathoms each, but under ordinary condi- 
tions would rarely ever have in the water at one time more than 14, 
one-half of the balance being baited and ready for use, while the 
rest were held in reserve in case of emergencies. 
Around the edges of the top of the cabin of the vessel were nailed 
boards. When ready for the first baiting the fishermen dumped the 
bait onto the top of the cabin and then stood in the gangways and 
cut up the bait on the boards, and as fast as the hooks were baited 
