4 1 6 HIS TOR Y OF con A SSE T. 



loaded upon ox carts to be hauled to the Cove, and thus to 

 furnish one more product of a self-sufficient community. 



The boys packed the fish with this salt according to 

 three grades of the mackerel, the smallest and leanest ones 

 being the third quality. The deputy fish inspectors ap- 

 proved of the barrels and marked them, when they were 

 headed up and turned upon their bilge and enough water 

 poured into the bunghole to saturate the fish. Then they 

 were ready to be shipped to Boston or elsewhere to market, 

 wherever commerce might bear them as our own Cohasset 

 fish. 



After the first cruise to the south in the spring, our 

 schooners fished during the summer months on shorter 

 voyages in northern waters, going sometimes as far north 

 as the Bay of Chaleur. The fish grew fatter and larger 

 during the summer, and they bit the hook more readily. 

 Many persons who stayed at home during the first fishing 

 trip to finish their planting would go upon the later ones 

 when fishing was more profitable. Some of the largest 

 and fattest fish caught in the month of August were 

 called "bloaters " ; they were only slightly salted and then 

 dried, making as toothsome a tidbit as ever came out of 

 the sea. Many a friend rejoiced to be remembered by a 

 fisherman's gift of "bloaters'"' upon the return of a suc- 

 cessful voyage. 



The luck of some years was to catch only small fish or 

 "tinkers," about ten inches long, and the whole commu- 

 nity felt the disappointent. When the season was favor- 

 able and large cargoes of number-one mackerel were cap- 

 tured, the wives could indulge in new gowns, the children 

 could be sent longer to school, and the debts for living 

 expenses when the voyages had been failures could all be 

 paid off. The business furnished a living for about six 

 hundred men and boys with their families, and for a 

 hundred years it was the main source of income for the 

 town. 



