196 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



vessel. The watch oil deck at night chopped the bait, but only the captain threw it, and with so 

 much economy that an iron spoon was used for that purpose. Captain Pote was very successful, 

 and, keeping his method a secret for a long time, other fishermen said he had made a bargain with 

 the evil one. From that time it is claimed that the practice of throwing bait and using the hand- 

 line began. Mackerel are now taken by the market fishermen and American fleet almost exclu- 

 sively with the purse-seine in deep water, and many are brought fresh to market from as far south 

 as Cape Henry in the spring, and later in the season from off the New England coast, and as far 

 north and east as Halifax in July and August. They are caught in weirs and gill-nets oft' Cape 

 Cod early in the spring and late in the fall, and by the hand-line of the shore-fisherman among the 

 ledges all along the Massachusetts coast. During the past season they have varied in size, and 

 ranged in value from 25 cents to $25 per hundred. During the year 1879 there were received 

 ill Boston 11,724,943 fresh mackerel in number. 



Herring are principally sold fresh in winter, when the supply comes from the shores and islands 

 of Eastern Maine and New Brunswick, where vessels fish all winter. The fall catch off the home 

 coast in October and November freely supplies the market at that season, but the herring is not 

 then highly valued as a fresh-fish food. 



Alewives are sent here to a small extent in spring from the small rivers and inlets of this 

 State, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, but most of them go to the smoke-house or are pickled for 

 the West India trade. 



Turtle and terrapin are not largely sold in this market. The former comes from the West 

 Indies and South America, and the latter from Virginia, both of them chiefly via New York. 



Tautog are caught in weirs and also with the hand-line, and are chiefly taken around Cape 

 Cod. They are highly esteemed, but seem to be much less numerous than a generation ago. 



Plaice are mostly caught off Cape Cod with the hand-line, with small but stout hooks. 



Spanish mackerel are taken from the south shore of Cape Cod to New Jersey, but are counted 

 a southern fish, and most of the 10,000 pounds annually received in Boston are taken along the 

 southern coast. 



Sturgeon, so largely handled in the Philadelphia and New York markets, are not much sought 

 after here; but a few thousand pounds have been sold here for the past three years. 



Red snappers are ordered by a few dealers from New York. More are seen in this market 

 now than formerly, from 5,000 to 10,000 pounds a year being sold. 



Sheepshead are even less called for than the red snapper, and are only occasionally received 

 from the New York dealers. 



Scup are taken principally along the south coast of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Con- 

 necticut. They are no longer as plentiful or as large as formerly, and during the past season have 

 been smaller and scarcer than for many years. 



Striped bass is another excellent fish. Once large and plenty, they are now small and scarce 

 in the rivers of New England, and thus far the Canadian fish are seldom sent to the Boston market. 

 Less than the amount once annually taken at a single one of the many estuaries frequented by 

 these fish, appeared in the Boston market last year. 



Salmon trout are received from Maine and the Dominion, and are sold here annually to the 

 amount of 4 or 5 tons. The trout business is crippled by the harshness of protection laws, which 

 refuse the dealers the privilege of importation during our close season, at which time the trout of 

 more northern waters are in their best condition. 



Sea perch, or dinners, were taken in much larger quantities a few years ago than at present; 

 38,000 dozen were sold in Boston during 1879. The market could dispose of many times this 



