REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [70] 



been caught in the night. Catching mackerel in the night is done with 

 great difficulty. Sometimes the vessel goes away from the boat. There 

 were two such cases this fall. Schooner "Everett Pierce's" boat went 

 out and set around a school of mackerel, and the seine was full of fish. 

 At this time a squall of wind came and blew the lantern out, and the 

 two men on board of the vessel lost sight of the boat. The men were 

 in the boat from 11 o'clock at night until 5 o'clock the next morning. 

 They were obliged to cut holes in the seine in order to let the mackerel 

 go out so as to save the net, for if the mackerel died the seine would 

 have been lost. The crew of the "Minnehaha," of Swampscott, had a 

 similar experience the same night. The darker the night the better it 

 is for seining, since the water will 'fire' more. When watching for 

 mackerel one man is on the mast-head. He can see a school from 

 the mast-head when he could not see it from the deck of the vessel. 

 Sometimes the fish may be seen from the deck, but when the men get 

 in the seine-boat they are not able to see them. A man on the mast- 

 head can see them all the time. He gives orders to the men in the 

 boat which way it is best for them to go. Captain Martin, of the 

 schooner "^Northern Eagle," saw a school of mackerel one night. They 

 could not see them plainly, so the lantern was held up, when the mack- 

 erel could be seen from the boat. They then set their seine and got 150 

 barrels of mackerel. When the fish saw the light they came nearer the 

 surface. Sometimes when the mackerel are close to the surface it is not 

 necessary to have a man on the mast-head since they may be seen from 

 the deck and seine-boat. It is not very often that the mackerel come 

 to the surface during the fall of the year. Sometimes on a calm night 

 in summer you can hear them rushing, but not often. Catching mack- 

 erel in the night is hard work. Say, for instance, you get 200 barrels 

 a night, and perhaps it is the latter part of the night, it will take all 

 day to dress and salt them, head them up, and get them below. Thus 

 if another dark night follows, all of the men are on the lookout for 

 another school. After looking for, perhaps, two hours, some one (most 

 likely the man on the mast-head) gives the alarm, telling those on deck 

 where the fish are. The vessel is then kept in the direction of the 

 school, and as soon as they can be seen from the deck the men jump 

 into the boat, shoving off from the vessel, while the captain stands up 

 with the steering-oar in his hand, looking for the school. Soon he 

 espies the fish, or the man on the mast-head sees them, and tells the 

 men in the boat which way to go. When the captain sees them he sings 

 out: 'I see them, boys! Pull away! Pull hard, the mackerel are going 

 last.' When the boat is in the right position the captain shouts, 'Give 

 'em twine,' and away goes the seine, three men heaving it out as fast as 

 they can. When they are nearly around the school they sing out: ' (live 

 them twine.' Sometimes they make a good circle so that the seine-boat 

 and dory will meet, but it is difficult to do this in the night. When the 

 seine comes together they haul in on the purse-line, and when the net 



