292 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



As a matter of course such large stocks and enormous profits were not obtained by the seiners 

 years ago as they have made for the past few years, 1880, 1881, and 1>82. Nevertheless, many of 

 them did well. But a vessel's "fit out" for jigging costs comparatively little, and with a much 

 smaller stock more clear money would be left than if she went seining. This, together with the 

 fact that more or less risk is attached to seining such, for instance, as losing the apparatus alto- 

 gether, having the net torn, the boats stove, &c. served to deter the timid ones from engaging in 

 it until compelled to. 



Eapid advances in the knowledge of using the purse-seine have been made within the past 

 few years, which no doubt has had a strong influence in changing the hook fishery into seining. 

 For a number of years it was believed that mackerel could not be taken except in shoal water, 

 where the seine would reach bottom, and as a result of this but comparatively little could be done. 

 More recently, the practice of seining in the night, tolling the fish alongside of the vessel and then 

 surrounding them, &c., have added much to the profits of the fishermen. 



The large net profits which were sometimes made by the mackerel hook fishermen previous to 

 1870 bore no mean comparison to the money cleared by the seiners of the present day, though, of 

 course, the latter frequently get higher stocks. This, as mentioned above, is due to the difference 

 in the cost of fitting out a vessel for hooking and for seining, the expense for the latter often 

 being twice or three times as much as it would be for line fishing. The following account of 

 some of the large mackerel stocks made by vessels engaged in fishing with hook and line we copy 

 from the Fishermen's Memorial and Record Book : 



"The largest stock made in the Bay of Saint Lawrence mackerel fishery was that of schooner 

 Colonel Ellsworth, Capt. George Robinson, in 1865. She was absent about five mouths, her net 

 stock amounting to $13,728.* The high-liner's share was $558; cook's, $582. 



"Schooner General Grant, Captain Coas, in 1804, stocked in two trips to the Bay of Sainjfc 

 Lawrence $11,254.94 clear of all expenses.t The high-line made $502.24; cook's share $638.17. 



"Schooner Nor' Wester the same year stocked $9,721.74 net in one bay trip; the high-liner 

 making $308.60 and the cook $486.61. 



"Schooner General Sherman, in a three months' trip to the bay in 1864, packed 612 barrels of 

 mackerel, her net stock amounting to $9,696. High-liner's share, $575.06. 



" Schooner Kit Carson, 1865, brought in 591 barrels of mackerel, having been absent about ten 

 weeks. He net stock amounted to $0,542. High liner's share, $260. 



" Schooner James G. Tarr, in 1866, stocked $5,824 in a nine weeks' trip to the bay. Cook's 

 share, $331.76. 



"Schooner Seddie C. Pyle, in 1871, packed 1,070 barrels of mackerel caught off this shore, f 

 in addition to 18,000 southern mackerel sold fresh in New York in the spring. Her net stock for 

 the year was $10,561.66. High-liner's share, $491.38 ; cook's share, $708.52. 



" Schooner Eureka, in six mouths' mackereling off this [American] shore in 1868, packed 935 

 barrels, her stock amounting to $10,748.33. High-liner's share, $440.82; cook's share, $473.70." 



8. ITINERARY OF A MACKEREL VOYAGE TO THE GULF OF SAINT LAWRENCE. 



BY COLONEL D. W. Low. 



We go to Essex, a neighboring town on Cape Ann, 6 miles from Gloucester, or to the ship- 

 yards of Gloucester, where we see on the stocks, ready for launching, a schooner of 60 or 70 tons, 



* Her gross stock the amount her fish sold for was doubtless about $16,000. 

 tHer gross stock would be between $13,000 and $14,000. 

 {Now England coast. 



