34(> HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



fish, besides charges of transportation place him in the position that if he catches during the 

 season, to his own share, forty barrels of mackerel in one vessel, he has not made as good a season 

 by about $100, gold, as if he had been in an American bottom." * 



Capt. P. A. Scott, R. N., commanding the marine police of the Dominion, reported, in 1870, to 

 the Commissioner of Marine and Fisheries: "For mackerel fishing the Americans use pogies and 

 clams, chopped fine, as bait. The pogies are found only on the coast of the United States, and 

 when imported into the Dominion cost about $6 per barrel." t 



Capt. Charles (*. F. Knowles, R. N., commanding H. M. S. Lapwing, cruising on fishing sta- 

 tion No. 4, which includes the west coast of Cape Breton and the east coast of Prince Edward 

 Island, reported to Vice- Admiral Fanshawe, November 7, 1870, in these words: "The bait with 

 which the Americans are supplied is far superior to any which can be procured in this country, 

 to which may be attributed, in a great measure, the success of the Americans previously to the 

 recent restrictions, although even now the local fishermen complain that they have no chance while 

 an American schooner is fishing near them."| 



Professor Hind, in his treatise on " The Effect of the Fishery Clauses of the Treaty of Wash- 

 ington on the Fisheries and Fishermen of British North America" (part 1, p. 75), remarks that its 

 value as a bait for cod is, in a considerable degree, superseded by the herring ; but as a bait for 

 "tolling mackerel" it is still in repute, although other fish, similarly treated and finely ground, 

 appear to be equally useful in this respect. The first part of this statement is undoubtedly true, 

 at least as far as the fishermen of the British colonies are 'concerned. In regard to the compara- 

 tive value of herring and menhaden for toll-bait, there is still room for difference of opinion. 



An average of perhaps 250,000 barrels of mackerel were annually caught by the United States 

 vessels, using menhaden bait solely, against 110,000 caught by the Provincial fleet, which used 

 menhaden bait when it could be obtained, buying it at the rate of $6 a barrel in preference 

 to herring bait, which costs only the labor of catching and the salt for preserving. 



SLIVERING MENHADEN. The method of preparing menhaden for salting, to be used as bait, 

 is very simple. The head of the fish is taken in the left hand of the workman, and with a knife 

 held in the right hand he cuts a slice, longitudinally, from each side of the body, leaving the head 

 and vertebrae to be thrown away, or, occasionally, to be pressed for oil. The slivers (pronounced 

 styvers) are salted and packed in barrels. The knife used is of a peculiar shape and is called a 

 "slivering knife." 



THE PREPARATION OF MACKEREL BAIT. The use of menhaden bait for mackerel fishing was 

 inaugurated in 1835 or 1840; the bait is ground up into a mush and salted, to be used as a "toll- 

 bait," and to be thrown over the side of the smack to attract the school to the surface and keep it 

 alongside; this is called "chumming up the fish," and the bait is called "chum" or "stosh." To 

 prepare it for use the "slivers" are passed through a "bait-mill," which is a machine like a 

 farmer's feed-cutter; the fish are thrown into the hopper, from which the fish pass between a roller 

 armed with small knives in rows, and a series of similar knives arranged along a board which slopes 

 toward the bottom. The bait is usually ground at night, by the watch on deck; when the vessel 

 has no " bait-mill," the fish are cut up with a hatchet or scalded with boiling water in a tub. 

 Bait-mills were first introduced about the year 1824. In fishing for mackerel, one man throws over 

 the bait while the rest ply their lines. " Toll-bait" is also used by the smacks, which use purse- 

 seines and drift-nets, to attract the fish to the surface. 



* Proceedings Halifax Commission, 1877, Appendix F, p. 67. 

 t Third Report Commissioner Marine and Fsheries, 1871, p. 312. 

 ., p. 342. 



