[103] HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 



times in the course of the summer, obtaining, in some instances, as 

 many as 1,100 to 1,200 barrels. * 



28. — Financial profits of the mackerel hook fishery. 



Old-fashioned vessels were employed as seiners for a number of years 

 from Gloucester, it then being thought by many of the fishermen that 

 swift sailers were not so necessary for this branch of the fisheries as for 

 some others. In this respect, as in many other things, there has been 

 a radical change. 



The expense of fitting out with seine, boat, &c, deterred many of the 

 owners from sending their vessels seining, and the more conservative 

 clung to the old method of jigging until the failure of mackerel in the 

 Gulf of Saint Lawrence compelled them to adopt the seine or abandon 

 the business. 



As a matter of course such large stocks and enormous profits were not 

 obtained by the seiners years ago as they have made for the past two 

 years, 1880 and '81. Neverthless many of them did well. But a vessel's 

 "fit out" for jigging cost comparatively little, and with a much smaller 

 stock more clear money would be left than if she went seining. This, 

 together with the fact that more or less risk is attached to seining, such, 

 for instance, as losing the apparatus altogether, having the net torn, the 



* The influence exerted upon the settlements in the Strait of Canso in the period 

 between 1850 and 1870, by the trade thus derived from the mackerel fleet, was very 

 remarkable. In many of the coves, on either side of the strait, small villages sprang up, 

 and huge store-houses and wharves were built where the American vessels could secure 

 storage for their fish until they could be shipped, and also at the same time obtain 

 supplies of salt, bait, provisions. &c, which they required for the prosecution of their 

 voyages. This, of course, brought a great deal of money to the people of Canso, and 

 many of the merchants who were not slow to take advantage of the circumstances 

 became quite wealthy. Those were lively times in the strait, and it was not an unu- 

 sual thing to see ten or twenty sail of mackerel schooners lying at Port Hawkesbury 

 or at McNairs or some of the other coves discharging their cargoes and taking on 

 board outfits for another trip. This afforded much employment to local residents 

 and remunerative returns. Most of the people who owned wood lands devoted their 

 time in winter to cutting and preparing for use a lot of fuel which they could readily 

 dispose of the following summer to the American fishermen at good prices ; and who- 

 ever was fortunate enough to have a small stream or brook running through his land 

 near the coves, usually derived quite a revenue from the American fishermen by charg- 

 ing five or ten cents per barrel for the water which they were obliged to fill there. 



Of late years, however, since the general introduction of the purse-seine in the mack- 

 •erel fisheries, and the consequent failure of our fishing fleets to resort to the Gulf of 

 Saint Lawrence daring the mackerel season, a great change has taken place in the pros- 

 perity of the settlements at Canso. So much so, indeed, that many of the wharves 

 and store-houses have been allowed to fall into decay and become nearly worthless 

 from disuse. Most of the coves which were formerly the scene of busy life and activity 

 during the mackerel season, now have a comparatively deserted and forlorn appear- 

 auce. Many of the merchants have moved away to Halifax and other business centers 

 of the provinces, while those who remain find their business much less remunerative 

 than it was at the time when the Strait of Canso was frequented by a large fleet of 

 American mackerel schooners, which were engaged in fishing in the Gulf of Saint 

 Lawrence. 



