62 FISHERMAN'S OWN BOOK. 



and hauled the next morning. The experiment proved a success from the 

 start. For the first three nights the catch was 4,000, 6,000 and 7,000 lbs. 

 respectively, although the weather was unfavorable and the trawl fishermen 

 were securing only about half the amount taken by the Northern Eagle. In 

 eight days' fishing this schooner took 40,000 lbs. of large fish, and on one 

 trip, ending Jan. 11, 1881, she took a fare of 35,000 lbs., of which 8,000 

 lbs. were taken in one morning. Two trawlers, absent the same length of 

 time, took 4,000 and 8,000 lbs. respectively. The next trip she was absent 

 four days and took 35,000 lbs., of which over one-half were caught in a sin- 

 gle day.* From Nov. 27, 1880, to Jan. 20, 1881, Capt. Martin took 110,000 

 lbs. cod, none of the trawlers exceeding one-third of that amount in the 

 same time. Later in the season three netters arrived at Portsmouth in one 

 day, one with 28,000 lbs. and the others with 10,000 lbs. each of large cod- 

 fish, while the trawlers had much smaller fares. Another day sch. Defiance 

 took with her nets 12,000 lbs. steak codfish, and was high line of a fleet of 

 twenty-seven vessels, one with twenty trawls out securing only fourteen fish, 

 another 800 lbs., and a number of others not exceeding 2,000 lbs. each. 



The nets used by the Ipswich Bay fishermen are made of strong Scotch 

 flax twine, twelve-thread, and are of nine-inch mesh (4^ inches square). 

 Those used by Capt. Martin were 50 fathoms long and 3 fathoms deep, while 

 other vessels, later in the season, used nets 100 fathoms long and 2 fathoms 

 deep. The floats were of glass, fifty of them being attached to a fifty-fathom 

 net. Bricks were used as sinkers, one being attached to the foot of the net 

 directly beneath each of the floats. These fifty-fathom nets cost about $18 

 each, and a fourteen-pound trawl-anchor was attached to each end of a gang 

 of three nets. They were mostly set in the northern part of the Bay, but a 

 few miles from shore, where the current was not strong, one man in a dory 

 being able to set or "underrun" three nets, fastened together at the top and 

 bottom. 



The advantages of this method are found in the larger size of the fish 

 taken, the saving in the cost of bait, the saving of the labor required to bait 

 trawls, etc. Capt. Collins is of the opinion that this method may be profita- 

 bly employed on the Grand and Western Banks and Banquereau, especially 

 on the shoaler parts of these grounds, where the nets could be easily "under- 

 run." This would obviate the necessity of leaving the Bank before a fare 

 had been secured, as is frequently done, to procure a fresh supply of bait. 



We present four plates illustrating the methods of gill-net codfishing: 



Plate V shows the Norwegian method of setting the nets at the bottom of 

 the sea, 1 being the nets, 2 the rocks used for mooring, 3 the buoy, 4 the 

 buoy-line, 5 glass floats attached to the buoy-line to keep the slack from 



*On this day sch. Christie Campbell of Portsmouth set ten trawls of 1,000 hooks each 

 close to the nets, and caught about 2,000 lbs. of fish to the 18,000 lbs. taken in the nets. 



