REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [228] 



there that voyage, and we never fished anywhere, or caught any mack- 

 erel on the Prince Edward Island side, or anywhere witbin the restricted 

 limits, until 1842. During that year I was passing Port Hood late in 

 the afternoon— it was just nightfall— when I hove to and tried the 

 school, and I do not think that I was at the time three miles offshore 

 I did not fish there over a day, and we obtained a few mackerel, per- 

 haps six or seven barrels. When I came to talk with the crew, some 

 said we were 6 miles offshore, and some 4 miles, and so on ; but I will 

 tell you what I thought about it : this was, that if a cutter came along 

 he would take me, so I considered that I did not need to stay there. 

 Soon after dark I discovered a vessel running down apparently towards 

 the Strait of Ganso, and hauling up for us. I was afraid she was a cut- 

 ter, and I was then very sorry that I had obtained any mackerel there. 

 She happened, however, not to be a cutter, and I got away the next day. 

 This was all the mackerel I ever caught within the three-mile line." — 

 (Testimony of Captain Atwood before Halifax Commission.) 



1836. — Prices of mackerel. 



Sales of mackerel at $9 for No. 1, $8 for No. 2, $4.25 to $4.50 for No. 



3, per barrel, purchaser paying inspection. — (Gloucester Telegraph, June 



8, 1836.) 



1836. — Unusual scarcity of mackerel. 



The Barnstable Patriot says : We learn from Wellfleet that the mack- 

 erel fishermen which have arrived at that place within two weeks have 

 got unusually small fares, averaging less than 50 barrels each. — (Glou- 

 cester Telegraph, July 6, 1836.) 



1836. — A PROTEST AGAINST BOBBING OR " GIGGEStG" MACKEREL. 



The Boston Journal protests strongly against the barbarous method 

 of taking mackerel, called " gigging," and urges that it is not only liable 

 to censure on the score of humanity, but is also impolitic, and that if 

 this destructive method of fishing is generally continued a few years 

 longer, it will break up the fishery. We have for a year or two past en- 

 tertained a similar opiuion, and probably the complaints now so fre- 

 quently made by the fishermen that, though mackerel are plenty, they 

 will not bite, is owing to the custom of " gigging." There is hardly 

 anything which possesses life that has so little instinct as not to become 

 very shy under such barbarous inflictions. It is obvious that all which 

 are hooked in this manner are not taken on board ; the gig frequently 

 tears out, and thousands, millions of these fish are lacerated by these 

 large hooks, and afterwards die in the water. — Newburyport Herald. — 

 (Gloucester Telegraph, September 3, 1836.) 



1836. One of the great mackerel-fishing stations. 



The principal business of the place [Sandy Bay, now Kockport, Mass.] 

 is the bank, bay, shore, and mackerel fisheries, which, with the freight- 



