195 



tliree fourths of that qunnllty. Besides these, some thousands of bar- 

 rels are anuiuiUv pickled. The kind known among dealers as the 

 gibbed herring, wiien properly dressed and cured, is a good article of 

 food, and a substitute tor the second quality of mackerel. 



Another sai fishery is that at the Magdalene islands, in which our 

 citizens are allowed to participate by treaty stipulation. It has been 

 thought to be of considei'able value as a means of employing vessels 

 (too small for carrying freight willi profit) in the early pait of the sea- 

 son. It has been prosecuted with various success. Our vessels visit 

 these islands in " spawning time," when the herrings are poor, and 

 the quality, if well cured, is not such to command a high price. For- 

 merly, so little time and care were bestowed upon them that many were 

 unfit for human food. Salted in bulk, as it is termed, they remained in 

 the hold of the vessel until her arrival in port, where they were packed 

 without being washed, and sweltering in all their impurity. Some 

 masters and owners, to their credit, have always been at the labor and 

 expense of curing them in a proper and wholesome manner. Of late, 

 smohng has been found pre{eral)le to pickling ; and whenever the fish- 

 ery is successful, many thousand boxes are sent to market. The seine* 

 is in common use at the, Magdalene islands. The kind best adapted to 

 the fisherj^ is large, requires some twenty or thirty men to manage it, 

 and is capable of enclosing and bringing to the shore several hundred 

 barrels at a haul. Captain R. Fair, iii command of her Majesty's ship- 

 of-war the Champion, visited these islands officially in May, 1839, 

 and aftfT the commencement of the fishery. He found the " quantity 

 o)i herrings ver}^ great, exceeding that of any former year; and the ex- 

 pertness and perseverance of the American fishermen" to be "far 

 beyond that of the" colonists. "About one hundred and forty-six sail 

 of American fishing schooners, of from sixty to eighty tons, and each 

 carrying seven or eight men," were engaged in it, he continues, and 

 caught "nearly seven hundred barrels each;" making fi)r the number 

 stated "a presumed product of one hundred thousand ban-els, of the 

 value of one hundred thousand pounds sterling ; the tonnage about ten 

 thousand, and the number of men about one thousand." Whatever the 

 statistics of the year in question, the average quantity of herrings caught 

 by our vessels is not probabl}- forty thousand barrels ; while the price — 

 ajpouiul sterling the barrel — is quite fifty per cent., I suppose, above that 



* The nuicliiue for rlic inannfiicture of "bobbiiiet" is couiu'ctod sufliciently with dur ;;,'iMieral 

 eubject to justify bri<'f rffrTL'iicc to it. The first macliiiit' wiis ix-rfcctcJ in tiio yi'iir 16'J9. 

 From a minute accj>uiit of the invention tlif followiiii: fw^ta are obtained. A workman of Not- 

 tingham, En<.'iaud, employed in makiu<; maeliinery for the manufaeture of tisiiin;;-nct.>5, soizwl 

 X)\)un a hint t'nrniKlied l>y a child at play, and diseovered by tliat means a mode of foniiint,' the 

 bobbin and eurriaj^'c, as now n.Ked in tJie bobbinef machine. At first, tlie invention was t-Ti- 

 fincd to tlie mannfacture of lishin<;-nets, but v.as finally, and after many failures, e.xlended to 

 the making' of hiee. The value of laee mad'- by iiKiehiiK.'ry thus introduced i,'* now inniieiise. 

 l'>y reference to the statistics of \^'.\\, it appears thai, in seven towns and cities in Kiiuland, 

 tliirty-one thousand jjcrsons are employed in mtdiinii. and oinj hundred thousand women and 

 fhildren (ditain a considerable portion of their subsistence by eml)ndderinj;^ it. The (luanfity 

 of cotton recjuired yearly is 2,4(M),()i)(J pounds, the animal nnmnfacture is ;il),77I,(M)(> s(inare 

 yards, aJid the anninil value is £ I, !^.")( ),(>.')(», and ihe |iermanent capital employed about 

 £2,f)!KI,(HI(). Nor is this all; the nninnfactun! has been e.xU'tided to the conliiu-nt, and 

 in,i1()fl,'100 yards, or about one-third of tho quantity nnidc iu Great ]3ritain, it is estimated, id 

 produc*«d there. 



