186 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



ent, the thought of their forming any such scheme seems useless, for the people are, as a rule, too 

 conservative to improve any on their present system. The only possible hope of improvement is 

 from some enterprising American. I feel confident that, with ice for the trawlers in the winter and 

 labor cheap, a person could preserve and sell in a single season enough bait to pay for his buildings, 

 and that he could after that make money rapidly. If he had such a depot, the fishing vessels would 

 soon learn where bait could be procured, natives would also know where they could have a steady 

 cash market for their catches, and the owner would doubtless both obtain and dispose of all the 

 bait he was able to handle. To me it seems remarkable that the Gloucester fishermen have not 

 long ago provided some better method of bait procuring, or that the vessel owners have not them- 

 selves instituted improved methods. 



But not only do the fishermen lose a vast amount of time in bait-hunting, they also lose a good 

 deal of their bait from defective methods of preserving it. 1 have elsewhere described the present 

 method of preserving the bait in ice. Under this treatment the result is the almost utter worth- 

 lessness of the two or three bottom layers and the greatly deteriorated quality of much more. The 

 weight of ice and squid from above pressing down the lower layers and the melting of the sub- 

 stratum of ice, with also the water and filth from the upper layers added to the lower ones, make 

 in the course of ten or twelve days the undermost bait utterly unalluring to (he fish. As a result 

 of this the vessel can not take a large supply of bait and then remain fishing on the Banks, but 

 must after a brief interval seek the land for/res/t bait. 



Now it seems to me that this defect could be profitably remedied by the introduction of some 

 inexpensive refrigerators in which forty or fifty thousand squid could be kept frozen during one 

 whole month or more if necessary. Such refrigerators, built into the places now occupied by the 

 bait-pens, would undoubtedly save enough in the time of the crew and in the waste of bait to pay 

 for themselves in a single year, or two at furthest. In our cruise we made three trips for bait, spent 

 thirty days, and obtained in total about 70,000 squid; by having refrigerators and arrangements 

 for preserving nearly this entire number at one time the vessel could have been saved at least 

 twenty-five days on her trip and several thousands of ruined squid.* 



One of the most unpleasant and often most disastrous hindrances in the way of the fishermen, 

 when they are in search of bait, arises from the hostile feelings often entertained by the bait- 

 catchers. These, instigated by jealousy or by fears lest their own rights are to be infringed on, 

 have at many different times come to blows with the American fishermen, and by mere force of 

 numbers overcome them and driven them away from their shores. 



The Fortune Bay people, during 1876, made an attack upon the American fishermen so violent 

 as to draw considerable attention to the incidents in the newspapers at that time. In 1878 the 

 schooner Concord, from Gloucester, entered Tor Bay in search of bait. She had scarcely come to 

 anchor when a squad of shoresmen boarded her, and threatened if she did not leave at once to cut her 

 cables. The captain, who was a man of considerable pluck, toM the men that he had no intention 

 of quitting the harbor with his vessel until he was ready. He then left the vessel with the angry 



* Several years ago the question of freezing bait on lishing- vessels by such a system of refrigeration as that sug- 

 gested by Mr. Osboru, was pretty thoroughly tested on the Gloucester schooners It was found impracticable, even 

 for the vessels fishing on George's, and was abandoned by the fishermen, who, in many cases, had expended consider- 

 able sums of money to try the experiment. One of the chief difficulties in the way of using such a system on board of 

 a cod-fishing vessel ou the Grand Bank is the fact that the refrigerator, if large enough to hold and preserve 70 or 80 

 barrels of bait, would occupy so much room that there would be insufficient space left iorfi.sh and Hie requisite salt to 

 put on them. Then, too, the experiments tried by the Gloucester fishermen convinced them that bait frozen on board 

 of the vessels by refrigeration was not nearly so attractive to the cod as that iced in the ordinary manner a result 

 which must always be a serious objection to the introduction of a method that otherwise might seem to have many 

 advantages, particularly to one not very familiar with the fishery and its varied requirements. J. W. COLLINS. 



