EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [82] 



The mackerel hook fishery is of the past; and this chapter must be 

 regarded, in large part, as historical. It is by no means impossible, 

 however, in years to come that the old method of fishing, which had 

 many undoubted advantages over that at present employed, will be 



revived. 



22. — Fishing-grounds. 



The grounds frequented by the mackerel-hookers, as the fishermen 

 call them, were as follows : 



(a.) The Gulf of Saint Lawrence.* — In the early part of the season 

 the favorite fishing-grounds were in the southwestern part of the Gulf 

 of Saint Lawrence, from Cape Gaspe to the North Cape of Prince Ed- 

 ward Island; especially off Point Escumiuac, Pigeon-hill ground, or 

 the west shore lying along the coast from Miramichi to Point Miscou, 

 Bank Bradley, Bank Orphan, and Bay of Chaleur. Later in the season, 

 in July, August, and September, the principal fisheries were carried on 

 upon the grounds just mentioned, also around the Magdalen Islands 

 and along the north side of Prince Edward Island. Occasionally, too, 

 in August and September, vessels fished on the south side of Prince 

 Edward Island from Georgetown to East Point. In September and 

 October fishing was carried on at the Magdalens, Prince Edward 

 Island, in the Bay of Saint George, between Cape Saint George and 

 Port Hood, and on the northwest shore of Cape Breton from Port Hood 

 to Cape North. Favorite localities were about Margaree Islands and 

 Cheticamp; also, on the east side of Cape Breton, in Aspee Bay, and 

 about Sydney. About 1858 and 1859 several successful fares were made 

 in the estuary of the Saint Lawrence from Cape Gaspe to Cape Chatte; 

 and about the Seven Islands and Mingan Islands on the coast of Labra- 

 dor. In the year 1877 a Gloucester schooner obtained 200 barrels of 

 mackerel at Port-au-Port, on the west coast of Newfoundland, t Bird 



*Note upon the origin of mackerel fishing in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. 



Mr. Daniel Cameron, of Southport, Me., thinks the first American vessels went to 

 the Bay in 1832. This year 4 went, among others the schooner "Galen," Captain Pate, 

 of Freeport. These schooners averaged (iO to 70 tons, carried about 250 barrels, and 

 filled up in four or five days. The first vessel going to the bay from this section of 

 which we learn was the schooner " Olinda," Capt. Jos. Maddocks, of Southport, in 1837. 

 Captain Atwood states that, in 1834, the New England fleet in the Gulf of Saint 

 Lawrence consisted of six vessels, three of them from Provincetwn. The Cape Ann 

 Advertiser of May 13, 1K39, refers to "the custom which has grown up within a few 

 years of going to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence for mackerel, where already the supply 

 is lessening." 



tA lucky streak. — The schooner "William T. Smith," Capt. Henry O. Smith, the 

 last of the baymen, arrived home on Monday, bringing a good fare of mackerel, of 

 which about 200 barrels were caught off Newfoundland, as already mentioned in onr 

 columns. These fish are of good size and prime quality, and will command a ready 

 sale. Captain Smith struck a streak of luck when he ventured into untried waters 

 in pursuit of mackerel, and his voyage will prove a profitable one, which is an 

 anomaly in this branch of the fishing industry the present season. — (Cape Ann Adver- 

 tiser, November 23, 1877.) 



