The Herring Fishery. 59 



till May. In this month a run of large fat herrings is 

 taken in nets upon the banks, which lie 10 or 15 miles sea- 

 ward, and carry about 75 fathoms water. A net 30 fathoms 

 long and three deep is passed from the stern of a boat at 

 anchor. The free end drifts with the tide, held to the 

 surface by cork floats sometimes the tides carry the net 

 down 1 5 fathoms in a slanting direction thus drifting from 

 night to morning; the net is overhauled, and from 20 to 100 

 dozen is the ordinary catch. It is very evident that, owing 

 to the distance from shore, and the need of calm weather for 

 the boats and nets, as well as for the fish, which are very sus- 

 ceptible to rough seas, this fishing must be precarious. The 

 boats are stout, weatherly keel boats, with a half deck, 

 from five to 15 tons, carrying a jib, fore and main sail, and 

 usually called second-class fishermen when entered at a 

 regatta. 



The " in shore run," a fish of smaller size, are taken in 

 nets set to a buoy, instead of a boat, the free end drifting 

 to the tide. These nets are often moored from one buoy 

 to another to preserve a permanent position across a creek 

 or small bay. In these various ways herrings are taken by 

 the shore population of the whole Atlantic and Gulf coast 

 of Nova Scotia, from the Bay of Fundy to Cumberland. 

 The immense tides of the Bay of Fundy, leaving long flats 

 and sand-bars at low tide, and the steep trap formation of 

 its southern coast line have singularly altered the character 

 of the fishery. Here the drift-net fishing is carried on, 

 boats and nets drifting for miles upon the flow and returning 

 upon the ebb, the nets twisted and coiled into apparently 

 impossible masses. The 'shores of the trap formation being 

 flat tables of trap reaching plane after plane into the sea, 

 with no crevice to hold a stake or anchor a buoy, the fisher- 

 men procure stout spruce fir trees, and lopping off the 



