32 



a belief that it would ever again recover the ratio of ante-revolution- 

 ary growth. For a period of more than thirty years this fishery 

 ceased to be of am r account in the business of the town, but, since 

 about 1860, the increased demand and consequent higher price of 

 fish have induced many of its merchants to send their vessels to the 

 ancient fishing ground which contributed so largely to the early pros- 

 perity of Gloucester, and which, in recent years, has been one of the 

 chief sources of that increase in business by Avhich it has risen to its 

 present importance. The success with which this fishery is now pur- 

 sued is doubtless due in a considerable degree to the practice of 

 trawl-fishing. From the earliest times, till within a few years past, 

 it was the custom of the New England fishermen, who resorted to 

 that Bank, to fish from the vessel only ; but they now use the French 



MODEL OF TRAWLER OF 1876. 



mode of fishing with trawls, which are lines, sometimes several hun- 

 dred feet in length, with short lines and baited hooks suspended from 

 them at frequent intervals. They are often set a long distance from 

 the vessel, and as this work must be done and the trawls tended in 

 dories, as their small boats are called, it is sometimes very hazard- 

 ous, and, unhappily, liable to fatal accidents. 



During the first quarter of the present centur} r , when, as we have 

 seen, the Grand Bank fishery was almost totally abandoned by the 

 Gloucester fishermen, the shore fishery continued to give employment 



