HISTORICAL REFERENCES: NEW HAMPSHIRE. 679 



and one or two boys. When tliey make a tolerable fare, they bring home five or six hundred quintals offish, split, 

 salted, and stowed in bulk. 



CURING THE CATCH ; FOREIGN TRADE. "At their arrival the fish is rinsed in salt water, and spread on hurdles 

 composed of brush, and raised on stakes about three or four feet from the ground ; these are called flakes. Here the 

 fish is dried in clear weather, and in foul weather it is put under cover. It ought never to be wet from the time that 

 it is first spread till it is boiled for the table. Besides the fleshy parts of the cod, its liver is preserved in casks and 

 boiled down to oil, which is used by curriers of leather. The tongues and sounds are pickled in small kegs, and make 

 a luxurious, viscid food. The heads are fat and juicy ; but most of those which are caught at sea are thrown away. 

 Of those which are caught near home the greater part become the food of swine. 



"The fishery has not of late years been prosecuted with the same spirit as formerly. Fifty or sixty years ago 

 the shores of the rivers, creeks, and islands were covered with fish fiakea; -and seven or eight ships were loaded annu- 

 ally for Spain and Portugal, besides what was carried to the West Indies. Afterward they found it more convenient 

 to make the fish at Causeau, which was nearer to the banks. It was continued there at great advantage till 1744, 

 when it was broken up by the French war. After the peace it revived, but not in so great a degree as before. Fish 

 was frequently cured in the summer on the eastern shores and islands, and in spring and fall at home. Previously to 

 the late revolution, the greater part of remittances to Europe was made by the fisheries, but it has not yet recovered 

 from the shock which it received by the war with Britain. 



"It is, however, in the power of the Americans to make more advantage of the cod fishery than any of the Euro- 

 pean nations. We can fit out vessels at less expense, and by reason of the westerly winds, which prevail on our 

 coasts in February and March, they can go to the banks earlier in the seasou than the Europeans and take the best 

 fish. We can dry it in a clearer air than the foggy shores of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. We can supply every 

 necessary from among ourselves, vessels, spars, sails, cordage, anchors, lines, hooks, and provisions. Salt can be 

 imported from abroad cheaper than it can be made at home, if it be not too much loaded with duties. Men can 

 always be had to go on shares, which is by far the most profitable method, both to the employers and the fishermen. 

 The fishing banks are an inexhaustible source of wealth, and the fishing business is a most excellent nursery for 

 seamen. It therefore deserves every encouragement and indulgence from an enlightened national legislature. 



VESSEL BUILDING IN 1791. " Fishing schooners and whale-boats are often built at the distance of two or three 

 miles from the water. * * Vessels of an hundred tons and upwards have been built at the distance of one or 

 two miles from the water and drawn on strong sledges of timber, on the snow, by teams of two hundred oxen, and 

 placed on the ice of the rivers so as to float in the spring." 1 



XEW CASTLE AKD EXETER. 



THE FISHERIES OF NEW CASTLE IN 1870. The Portsmouth Chronicle of August 10, says : We are pleased to 

 learn that the New Castle fleet is doing a big business this year, and that Harding and Doane are prospering to a very 

 gratifying degree. One of their craft, the Velocipede, not finding fish where the rest of the summer fleet were, stood 

 away to the southward, an unusual thing to do so late in the season, and soon took 200 barrels of mackerel in over 

 her rails, and nearly every vessel arriving lands a good fare, schooner Pyrola, Moore, one of Messrs. Harding and 

 Doane's fishing fleet, arriving at New Castle Monday evening, after an absence of ten weeks on Grand Bank, with 1,600 

 quintals of splendid fish on board. This is an immense catch, and the Pyrola claims the fishery championship; we 

 thiuk she has won it, though, if we remember rightly, there was an old brig that once brought in 1,600 quintals of 

 dried cod, but that was the result of a long trip to Labrador. Another of Messrs. H. and D.'s fine vessels, the schooner 

 W. H. Y. Hackett, Eobbins, arrived Tuesday, also from Grand Bank, with 1,200 quintals of fish." 



EXETER IN 1792. "There was formerly at the falls in this town an alewife fishery, which afforded an abundant 

 supply of that kind of fish for the inhabitants of the to wn and vicinity. But for want of sluices in the dams, by which 

 they might ascend the fresh river and gain proper places for spawning, they have for many years almost. disappeared. 

 There was also, till within thirty years, a good bass fishery through the whole course of the river. But very great 

 numbers having been imprudently, or rather, wantonly taken in one season, they almost totally loft it. For several 

 years past they have been returning to their old haunts, though in small numbers. Could people be restrained from 

 taking them through the ice, it is thought that the river might again be replenished with them and the fishery 

 restored. The legislature has passed an act for their preservation; but, through the inattention of those whose duty 

 it is to guard the laws from violation, it is feared that the generous intention will be frustrated. Laws of this kind 

 not duly enforced serve only to favor the vicious and irregular at the expense of the conscientious part of the com- 

 munity. Three or four miles below the falls are taken a few oysters of a small size but good relish."' 



PORTSMOUTH, 177O TO 187O. 



THE FISHERIES AND FOREIGN TRADE FROM 1770 TO 1806. Some inference to the early fisheries of Portsmouth has 

 already been given in the review of the State! Toward the close of the last century a considerable foreign trade 

 was developed. At the wharves were constantly seen vessels loading for the West Indies, Spain, and other countries, 

 large quantities of fish forming a great part of their cargoes. During the war of the revolution, when the hook and 

 line were temporarily laid aside, a fleet of privateers was fitted out and soon heard from in various parts of the world. 

 The first privateers fitted out after the declaration of war were from Portsmouth, and many of them were fishing 



'Belknap's Hist New Hampshire. Boston: 1792. Vol. iii, pp. 211-216. 

 'Coll. Mass. Hist Society, vol. iv, 1792, 1st series, p. 95. 



