MASSACHUSETTS: GLOUCESTER DISTRICT. 165 



of netting. It is open at one eud, where it is furirished with two stationary guides that lead 

 obliquely into it from the ends of its sides and up from the bottom. These guides are made of 

 netting, and have an opening between their inner ends. The trap is also furnished with movable 

 wings made of netting that extend outwardly from the trap as leaders. Floats are attached 

 to the upper edge of the trap, the guides, and the wings, so as to buoy the trap when in the sea, 

 and to keep the sides in a vertical position and the bottom of the trap on that of the sea. The 

 wings are not fixed to the bottom at their lower edges, but one of them is bent around or turned 

 inward, and, by a line, is connected with the middle of another line that extends across the mouth 

 of the trap. The other wing serves to direct the fish into the trap, and the bent wing intercepts 

 and turns back any that might escape from it. The guides not only guide fish into the trap, but 

 prevent the escape of those already in it. The trap is held in place in the sea by ropes leading 

 from the upper edge of the trap to anchors. Fixed to the anchors and to the bottom of the trap 

 are elastic stay-lines or connections that allow the bottom of the trap to conform to the surface of 

 the bottom of the sea and hold it down thereon. 



In front of the trap is a purse or pocket of netting, open at the top, where it is provided with 

 a series of floats. The pocket communicates with the trap by an opening leading from one to the 

 other at the upper part of the front end of the trap. To haul the trap, its bottom, at its rear end, 

 is lifted off the bottom of the sea high enough to cause the fish to pass into the intercepting pocket. 

 The dimensions of the traps vary; one of the most successful ones set off Gloucester is rectangular 

 in shape, and is 25 fathoms long, 30 fathoms wide, and 5J fathoms deep, and has a leader 40 

 fathoms long, reaching to the shore. The peculiar, though simple, construction of the trap, by 

 which it is supported by anchors and brace lines, makes it specially suited for deep water or places 

 where it would be difficult, if not impossible, to employ piles or merely a single line to each 

 anchor. The kinds of fish taken include all the species commonly found on this coast, the most 

 important being mackerel and herring. In the spring of 1880, when mackerel were very abundant 

 inshore, many thousand barrels were taken in the traps near Gloucester. Most of them were 

 tinkers, and too small for salting, so that but a small part of the catch was saved. 



THE CLAM INDUSTRY. The business of digging clams for bait and for food is carried on in 

 the 'Squam River. The flats in this river are daily covered by the tide and afford good feeding 

 ground for the clams. Ninety-two men are engaged in this business from October to May, and 

 twenty men the balance of the year. The grounds are visited by men in their dories who wait 

 for low tide, secure loads of the bivalves and return to shore, when the clams are sent in shell to 

 market or "shucked" and sold for bait after being salted in barrels. Small houses arc built upon 

 the shore for the shelter of the diggers while engaged in " shucking." The diggers pay one of their 

 number a certain percentage to act as agent for the sale of the clams. During the year 1879 the 

 yield of clams amounted to 13,978 bushels, valued at $5,200, and the capital invested in dories, 

 outfits, and buildings, was $J,000. 



LOBSTER FISHERY. This business is not extensively prosecuted at Gloucester. In and about 

 the harbor and at Annisquam and Bay View during the year 1879, fifty-three men were engaged in 

 taking lobsters, using for their capture the ordinary lobster pot, in form a half cylinder. The bait 

 used was fish heads, sculpins, and sometimes haddock. The pots were set offshore at various depths 

 varying from 1 to 12 fathoms. The catch was lauded by the fishermen and at once sold to buyers 

 who transported most of the lobsters by rail or boat to Boston. The principal season is from April 

 to November. Forty-eight dories, valued at $960, and 1,324 pots, worth $1 each, were used to 

 capture 133,340 lobsters, making 1,778 barrels, of a total value to the fishermen of $(5,GG7. 



DISTRIBUTION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS. There has been for several years a growing tendency 



