THE FISHING INDUSTRY. 397 



in April or May and stayed there fishing until September, 

 catching and salting the fish. 



The method of these northern fisheries was at first to 

 fish from the sides of the schooner ; but later, an eighty- 

 ton schooner, with her crew of twelve or fourteen, would 

 anchor in some harbor while small boats with two men 

 in each would sail and row to the fishing grounds. They 

 used hand lines. The fish were taken to the shore, 

 cleaned and washed, and then salted down. Afterwards 

 many of them were laid upon the hot rocks in the sun 

 to dry. 



Towards the close of the season vessels bound to 

 Europe would sometimes buy from the fishermen the 

 stock already dried, but those which were brought home 

 to dry were spread upon the fish flakes at Bassing Beach 

 until cured enough to be tied up in bundles for the Boston 

 market. 



The food of the fishermen was much increased by the 

 countless birds' eggs to be found upon the islands in their 

 fishing waters, and the men always took guns and ammu- 

 nition to supply the larder with fowl. The earnings of a 

 common fisherman upon these trips were about sixteen 

 or eighteen dollars a month. 



The State government provided no public records for 

 the codfish business as it did for pickled fish, and the 

 statistics of it are therefore meager ; but enough has been 

 said to intimate the scope of the dried fish industry before 

 the smaller and more beautiful mackerel fascinated our 

 fishermen. The mackerel business is vividly in the minds 

 of one half our adult inhabitants, who recall with pride 

 the days when the port of Cohasset had but few superiors 

 in that industry. 



The vessels used in the enterprise were nearly all built 

 at home, as we have already shown in a former chapter. 

 During the year 181 3 the dangers of war seemed to be so 

 far distant from our harbor that our energetic townsman, 



