282 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [18] 



so tLfcit most of tlie boat s Avill use nets." Under date of October 31, 1883, 

 he gives the Ibllowiug statenieiit, wliicli shows iu ii most strikiDg manner 

 the advantages that are sometimes derived from the use of gill-nets, and, 

 at the same time, aftbrds us an insight into tiie way in which the tish- 

 ermeu are often induced to adopt this method of fishing : -'The schooner 

 S. W. Craig, of Porthmd, one of the high-line pollock catchers," says 

 Captain Martin, " Nvas i n liere last Wednesday. I went aboard to see the 

 skipi)er and to gain what infornuition I could concerning the pollock 

 lishery. The conversation ran thus : ' How do you find the i)ollock, cap- 

 tain ? ' ' Pollock ! there ain't none. I have been out two days with 12 

 men and got 2,000 pounds ; that is bad enough.' I said : ' They are 

 catching a good many pollock in nets. Do you see that small boat com- 

 ing ? that is Horace Wiley's ', he caught 3,000 pounds the night before 

 last, and caught as many last night. He has got nets.' ' Where does 

 he catch them 1 ' ' Off on a spot of rocks called Brown's.' The captain 

 said: ' I will get some spirling to-night, and go off where they have got 

 their nets set. We will give them fits if we can get some new spirling.' 

 I answered: 'Cap., it is of no use to go where they have got their nets 

 set. If you do you will get nofisli.' He replied, ' That be hanged for 

 a yarn ! I think you can catch fish with spirling as well as you can 

 with nets.' I said: 'No, sir;j you can't do it.' 



"The next day he went out with some new sjiirling to where Wiley 

 was hauling his nets. (The latter had picked out a dory fidl of cod and 

 pollock, about 2,000 pounds.) lie let go his anchor close to the nets 

 and gave the order, 'All hands over lines!' He lay theie two hours, but 

 did not catch a fish. 



"I was aboard again yesterday, and said: 'Captain, how did they 

 bite where the nets were"r 'That beats all,' he replied ; ' we never felt 

 a bite. I am going to Boston to order 25 nets.' " 



The boat Gracie, which began fishing with nets about the middh; of Oc- 

 -tober, did remarkably well; her crew made $145 apiece up to Noveudjcr 

 11. According to Captain Martin she had landed 15,000 pounds of large 

 cod and 30,000 pouuds of large pollock, and he writes : " Some of tiie line 

 fishermen have not caiight as nuich as 10,000 pounds in the same time. 

 * * * All the shore-fishing will be done with nets this winter, as 

 the spirling are scarce." This success had the effect to induce others 

 to engage in this fishery, and at the date just given (Novend)er 11) there 

 were 10 boats using nets. Each one was provided with 15 nets, each 50 

 fathoms long, 2.^ fathoms deep, with a Di-incii mesh. 



The first vessel to go to Ipswich Bay beg<in fishing there early in 

 November, and on her first trip, with only 5 nets, she caught 6,000 

 pountls. By November 18 there were 20 boats, setting 390 nets, in 

 Massachusetts Bay. This would make 31),(.00 yards of netting. Be- 

 sides this there were two or three vessels in Ipswich Bay: and the 

 schooner Onward, which left Gloucester that day to go around the cape, 

 had a gang of 35 nets. The little schooner Morrill Boy, previously 



