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1G30, " took many mackerels " ; and three years later a man was lost 

 from a passenger ship, by drowning, as he was casting forth a line 

 in tiying to catch some. As early as 1653 a coastwise trade in this 

 fish had commenced, and in later years it seems certain that some 

 were shipped to foreign ports ; for we find that, in 1692, the remon- 

 strants against an order passed by the General Court that no person 

 should haul ashore any mackerel with any sort of nets or seines 

 whatsoever, and that no person should catch any, except for use 

 while fresh, before the first of July annually, in refutation of the as- 

 sertion that mackerel will not "save well" in May and June, state 

 that they have shipped mackerel caught in those months beyond sea, 

 and add that they kept as well as those caught in other months. There 

 can scarcely be a doubt, therefore, that this fish was to some extent 

 an article of trade among the early colonists ; and we know that, 

 before the Revolutionary war, several vessels were employed in this 

 fishery from the harbors on the south side of Massachusetts Bay ; 

 but Gloucester fishermen do not seem to have given much attention 

 to it till about 1821, for in the thirteen years immediately preceding 

 that date we find that, according to the inspection returns, the whole 

 number packed here was only 1171 barrels. From this time, how- 

 ever, the business rapidly increased ; the fish became so abundant in 

 our waters that, in 1825, a single jigger, carrying eight men, took 

 over 1300 barrels, and in 1831 the whole catch of the town rose to 

 69,759 barrels ; but after the last named date mackerel began to be 

 scarce on our own coast, and the catch declined so rapidly that, in 

 1840, it amounted to only 8870 barrels; and in that and the four 

 following years the total aggregate taken by Gloucester fishermen 

 amounted to no more than 66,547 barrels. About this time the en- 

 terprise of the fishermen led them to pursue the mackerel into their 

 distant retreats in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and for several }*ears 

 nearly all the vessels of the town engaged in this fishery resorted to 

 that region, and it became the chief source from which the demand 

 for the fish could be supplied. With success widely varying from 

 year to j r ear the mackerel fishery has continued to be pursued to the 

 present time. Late in the Spring months the fishermen start to meet 

 the " schools " when they make their first appearance in the waters 

 south of New England, from which they follow them to our own 

 coast and into the seas of British America ; but it is a precarious 

 fishery and it is agreed that a good deal depends upon luck ; for 

 there is often a wide difference in the result of the season's work of 

 men equally diligent and equally skilled in the business. Of late it 



