432 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES, 



Another method, knowu as " sweeping," was frequently employed. By this method ordinary 

 gill-nets were used in the daytime. When the fish were seen schooling at the surface they were 

 at once surrounded by a wall of netting, and driven into the meshes by means of rocks or oars, 

 which were thrown or darted into the water. This method was extensively used by the vessel 

 fishermen in former times, and is still employed to a greater or less extent by the shore fishermen 

 in various localities along the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts. 



SEINES. Seines, though extensively employed in the herring fisheries of Newfoundland and 

 other places, are seldom used in the capture of these fish on the coast of the United States, as 

 traps and weirs are found to be less expensive and answer the purpose equally well. 



Large catches of herring are often made in the purse-seines of the mackerel fishermen. These 

 are used at a considerable distance from the shore in the capture of mackerel, and it occasionally 

 happens that schools of herring are taken by mistake, or that both herring and mackerel are 

 taken at the same set. The fishermen claim that the two species seldom mingle freely in the same 

 school, and they explain the fact of their being taken together by saying that the herring have a 

 habit of following the mackerel and of swimming beneath them in the water. There seems no 

 sufficient evidence to substantiate or to disprove this theory. Captain Collins, who has been 

 extensively engaged in the mackerel fisheries, gives it as his opinion that the purse-seine can be 

 used to great advantage in the herring fisheries off the American coast whenever the price of the 

 fish will warrant the fishermen in engaging in their capture. At the present time, however, the 

 demand for them is so light and the price is so low that no attention is given to the capture of 

 herring by the mackerel fishermen, and when a school is accidentally taken it is at once turned 

 out, the men not considering the herring worth the time and trouble required in curing them. 



5. DISPOSITION OF THE CATCH. 



STATISTICAL, SUMMARY. The total catch of herring by the fishermen of Maine in 1880 was 

 ^4,695,192 pounds, which entered into consumption as follows : 4,300,000 pounds used fresh for 

 food, 8,819,875 pounds used for pickling or brine salting, 6,138,942 pounds used for smoking, 

 6,496,375 pounds used for canning, 7,000,000 pounds used for bait, and 1,940,000 pounds used for 

 fertilizer. 



In New Hampshire the catch was 108,750 pounds of herring, about 60,000 pounds being used 

 for food and the remainder for bait and fertilizer. 



In Massachusetts the catch in 1879 was 7,794,780 pounds, of which quantity 3,827,124 pounds 

 were consumed fresh (2,610,514 pounds for bait and 1,216,610 pounds for food) and 3,967,656 pounds 

 were used for pickling. 



CARE OP THE FISH ON THE VESSELS.-^AS shown above, very many of the herring taken 

 by the American fishermen are used for bait in the shore and bank cod fisheries and in the 

 fresh-halibut fishery. Many more were salted for the market in former years than at the present 

 time. The greater part of those now prepared by American fishermen are salted without splitting, 

 and are known in the market as "round herring," in distinction from those that have the gills and 

 viscera removed, which are known as "split herring." 



In the vessel fisheries the greater part of the herring are salted in barrels before being landed. 

 After being taken from the net they are heaped upon the deck and water is thrown upon them for 

 the purpose of washing off the loose scales and the blood that has collected. A quantity of salt is 

 then sprinkled over them and thoroughly mixed among the fish. They are then placed in barrels, 

 when a little more salt is added, and they are rolled aside, where they are allowed to settle, and 

 are again filled up with fish. As soon as the fish have become properly "struck" the barrels are 



