278 REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [14] 



nor, indeed, can they assign any other reason, since there appears to 

 be no special feature in the character of the bottom to attract the fish. 

 So persistent are the cod in clir)ging to this locality, that it almost in- 

 variably follows that nets placed within its limits come up well filled 

 with fish, while gear that is set a dozen or twenty fathoms outside get 

 very few, if any, cod. The fishermen confess that it is a mystery to 

 them, and they are exceedingly puzzled to know how the fish get there 

 and escape the walls of netting which surround this spot in all direc- 

 tions. They do not believe it is possible that enough cod could be there 

 at once to fill the nets night after night for months, and they arrive at 

 the conclusion that the fish must reach the place during the day, at 

 which time they are supposed to rise above and swim over the nets that 

 bar their progress near the bottom, and which of course can be seen by 

 daylight.* 



The results which were obtained ft'om the use of nets by the Northern 

 Eagle during the winter of 1S80-'S1 were considered very remarkable. 

 The amount of codfish taken in the first three trials (which were made- 

 in Massachusetts Bay), in unfavorable weather and with inferior nets, 

 was 4,000, 0,000, and 7,000 pounds, respectively. On a trip ending Jan- 

 uary 11, 35,000 pounds of cod were taken by the Northern Eagle, 8,000 

 pounds of which were caught in a single morning. Two other vessels, 

 which were absent the same length of time, fishing at the same place 

 with trawls, got only 4,000 and 8,000 pounds, respectively. After that 

 time she made another trip, taking the same amount, 35,000 pounds, in 

 four days' fishing, 18,000 pounds of which were caught in one day. On 

 this day the schooner Christie Campbell, of Portsmouth, set ten trawls 

 (each trawl having 1,000 hooks) close to the nets. The 10,000 hooks 

 caught about 2,000 pounds of fish to the 18,000 taken in the nets. 



The Northern Eagle began fishing with nets on November 27, 1880, 

 and as early as January 20, 1881, she had taken 111,000 pounds of cod. 

 None of the trawlers during that time caught more than one-third of 

 that amount, though they were fishing at the same place. The netted 

 fish were much larger than those taken on trawls, averaging during the 

 first six weeks' fishing 23 pounds each. Among these were individuals 

 which weighed 75 and SO pounds apiece, but there were no small fish, 

 such as are frequently taken on trawls, and which can be sold only at 

 reduced prices. This, it may be stated, has invariably been the case 

 when gill-nets have been used. No immature^ fish, or what is termed 

 "trash" by fishermen, have been taken. At first the nets met with the 

 same opposition from the trawl-line fishermen that trawls, when first 



•Capt. S. J. Martin, -writing from Gloucester to Professor Baird, under date of Jan- 

 uary 7, 1884, says: " In Ipswicli Bay the fish are in one place. Four hundred nets are 

 set in a place one-half mile wide by one-half mile long. The nets are across one 

 another. The vessels have set their nets all over the bay, but find only a few scat- 

 tering fish except in that one spot. There they get good hauls every morning when 

 there is a chance t,o haul the nets. * * * The fishermen think strangely of the 

 fish being in one place. They can find nothing there to keej) them alive." 



