456 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



to a great extent destroyed the spawning grounds of the fish. 

 Cod, however, still exist all along the New England shores 

 in varying quantities, though the supply is scarcely sufficient 

 some seasons to meet the demands of local markets. 



Every portion of the fish is of use. The flesh, as a staple 

 article of food, forms the basis of an enormous export trade 

 to all parts of the world ; the entrails, head, and bones, are 

 extensively used for fertilizing lands ; the swimming bladder 

 is employed in the manufacture of gelatine, and the oil ex- 

 tracted from the liver is well known as a valuable agent in 

 the materia medica ; the skin is utilized in the manufacture 

 of glue. 



A number of cities on the Maine and Massachusetts coasts 

 are famous as rendezvous for large fleets of fishing vessels 

 which make their annual cruises to the Banks for the pur- 

 pose of gathering the harvests of the sea. Many of these 

 cities owe both their origin and their prosperity to the 

 energy, industry and success of their fishermen. The busi- 

 ness is probably of less relative importance to-day, although 

 the number of men employed in 1900 was about 35,000, the 

 catch 162,218,921 pounds, and its value $ 4,385,102. 



The method of fishing on the Banks is from small boats 

 with hand lines and trawls, the latter being long lines upon 

 which are attached several hundred hooks. They are an- 

 chored and buoyed at both ends, and left out during the 

 night. In the morning the trawl is brought up, the fish that 

 have feasted unwisely are removed, and the hooks are rebaited 

 to repeat the operation. The bait used is the soft-shell clam, 

 the capelin (a small fish from the bays of Newfoundland), 

 and the squid (a mollusk of the cuttle-fish order, which is 

 principally taken in Newfoundland waters). When the 

 American fishermen use clams as bait they take a supply, 

 iced or salted, from the United States, being enabled thereby 

 to avoid the necessity of touching the Dominion coast ; in 

 former times, however, a call at some Canadian or Newfound- 

 land port was made imperative for obtaining supplies of 

 capelin or squid, neither of which occurs abundantly in the 

 United States. A class of Canadian longshoremen followed 



