348 HISTOEY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



TABLE. Seine-fishery at mouth of the Merrimac. 



A similar fishery, though of much less extent, was carried on by Gloucester vessels in Salem 

 Harbor. There being no considerable body of fresh water, the schools were small and easily dis- 

 persed. July 15, 1877, I observed six or seven gangs busily plying their seines opposite The Wil- 

 lows. After a day or two the menhaden were driven away, and the fishing ceased until the fol- 

 lowing week, when they returned and were soon followed by the same boats. 



AN ESTIMATE OF THE TOTAL CONSUMPTION OF MENHADEN BAIT. It is not practicable to 



make, from the data to which we have access, any very accurate estimate of the total quantity of 

 menhaden bait used in one year. We give below a number of estimates for individual ports or 

 fisheries ; 60,000 round barrels are thus accounted for. It is no doubt correct to estimate the total 

 consumption for 1877 at 80,000 barrels, or 26,000,000 of fish. 



CONSUMPTION BY THE GEORGE'S BANK FLEET. The George's Bank cod fleet is owned 

 entirely in Gloucester. There are about 130 vessels, making usually one trip every twenty days. 

 When they can get slivered menhaden they carry no other bait. Early in the summer they go to 

 Vineyard Sound for their bait, where they buy it from the pounds; later they have usually been 

 able to buy nearer home. Each vessel carries about forty round barrels of menhaden, iced. Mr. 

 Joseph O. Proctor estimates the annual number of trips made with this bait at COO. This gives a 

 total amount of 24,000 round barrels, or about 8,000,000 of fish ; 24,000 round barrels are equiva- 

 lent to 8,000 barrels of slivered fish. 



Ten years ago, according to the estimate of the same gentleman, the George's-meu did not 

 carry menhaden bait on so many trips, nor did they carry so much. He estimates 300 trips, at 30 

 barrels, giving an aggregate of 9,000 round barrels, or about 3,000,000 fish. 



CONSUMPTION BY THE GRAND BANK FLKET. Mr. Proctor estimates that the Grand Bank 

 cod vessels of Gloucester use in all about 600 barrels of slivered menhaden bait. 



Major Low's statement of the outfit of the schooner Madam Roland,"* copied from the trip- 

 book, shows that she was supplied with 5 barrels of pogy slivers, at $8 per barrel, making $40; 

 and 5 barrels of slack-salted clams, at $11, making $55. His model table, to show the cost of a 

 a new schooner fitted at Gloucester, 1875, for a four months' trip to the Grand Bank for codfish 

 and halibut, with 14 hands, estimates for 12,000 pogies or herring, at $100. 



CONSUMPTION BY THE MACKEREL LINE-FISHERMEN. Each mackerel vessel engaged in line- 

 fishing consumes during the course of the season about 20 barrels of salted menhaden slivers. In 

 1807, when the entire fleet fished with hooks, the amount consumed by Gloucester alone amounted, 

 by Mr. Proctor's estimate, to 6,500 barrels, and the total consumption in the United States of mack- 

 erel bait must have exceeded 25,000 barrels. In 1877 the purse-seiners are in a large majority. 

 The whole amount consumed by a seining vessel does not exceed 5 or 6 barrels in a season. Glouces- 



* Sailed for the Grand Banks August 26, 1873; arrived at Gloucester October 10, 1873; time absent, one month 

 fourteen days ; gross stock, $2,758.27. Doc. and Proc. Halifax Commission, vol. iii, p. 2,600. 



