REPOKT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [104] 



boat .stove, &c, served to deter the timid ones from engaging in it until 

 compelled to. 



Eapid advances in the knowledge of using the purse-seine have been 

 made within the past few years, which no doubt has had a strong influ- 

 ence in changing the hook fishery into seining. For a number of years 

 it was believed that mackerel could not be taken except in shoal water 

 where the seine would reach bottom, and as a result of this but compar- 

 atively little could be done. More recently the practice of seining in 

 the night; tolling the fish alongside of the vessel and then surrounding 

 them, &c, have added much to the profits of the fishermen. 



The large net profits which were sometimes made by the mackerel 

 hook fishermen previous to 1870 bore no mean comparison to the money 

 cleared by the seiners of the present day, though, of course, the latter 

 frequently get higher stocks. This, as mentioned above, is due to the 

 difference of the cost of fitting out of a vessel for hooking and for 

 seining, the - expense for the latter often being twice or three times as 

 much as it would be for line fishing. The following account of some of 

 the large mackerel stocks made by vessels engaged in fishing with hook 

 and line we copy from the "Fishermen's Memorial": 



"The largest stock made in the Bay of Saint Lawrence mackerel fish- 

 ery was that of schooner "Colonel Ellsworth," Capt. George Bobinson,, 

 in 1865. She was absent about five months, her net stock amounting to 

 $13,728.* The high-liner's share was $558; cook's, $582. 



"Schooner "Gen. Grant," Captain Coas, in 1864, stocked, in two trips 

 to the Bay of Saint Lawrence, $11,251.94, clear of all expenses.! The 

 high line made $502.24; cook's share, $638.17. 



" Schooner "Nor' Wester" the same year stocked $0,721.74, net, in one 

 Bay trip; the high liner making $308.60, and the cook $486.61. 



" Schoouer " Gen. Sherman," in a three months' trip to the bay in 1864 

 packed 612 barrels of mackerel, her net stock amounting to $0,696. 

 High-liner's share, $575.06. 



" Schooner "Kit Carson," in 1865, brought in 591 barrels of mackerel,, 

 having been absent about ten weeks. Her net stock amounted to 

 $6,542. High-liner's share, $260. 



"Schooner "James G. Tarr," in 1866, stocked $5,824 in a nine weeks r 

 trip to the bay. Cook's share, $331.76. 



" Schooner " Seddie C. Pyle," in 1871 , packed 1,070 barrels of mackerel 

 caught off this shore,|in addition to 18,000 southern mackerel sold fresh 

 in New York, in the spring. Her net stock for the year was $10,561.66. 

 High-liner's share, $491.38; cook's share. $708.52. 



" Schooner "Eureka," in six months' mackereling off this shore in 1868, 

 packed 935 barrels, her stock amounting to $10,748.33. High-liner's 

 share, $440.^2; cook's share, $473.70."§ 



* Her gross stock — the amount her fish sold for — was doubtless about $16,000, 



tHer gross stock would lie between $13,000 and $14,000. 



tNew England coast. 



§ Fishermen's Memorial and Record Book, pp. 86 and 87. 



