466 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



wives and children of the native fishermen are usually employed for this work. They sometimes 

 work on shore, but as frequently they board the vessel and work on her decks on account of the 

 convenience of handling the fish. Many of them have become very proficient in this work. In 

 most cases the knife is dispensed with, the gills being removed with the thumb and forefinger, and 

 the entrails are drawn out through the opening thus made. 



When the vessels arrive home those fish intended for pickling, whether previously packed in 

 bulk or in barrels, are at once taken out and thoroughly washed. They are then packed in barrels 

 with strong ne\v brine, and inspected or not, according to the laws of the State where they are 

 landed, after which they are ready for the market. Those intended for smoking, however, are taken 

 out gradually as they are needed, and soaked from 24 to 48 hours, after which they are strung 

 and again washed before being placed in the smoke-houses. 



The fish from Labrador and Newfoundland, being of superior quality, are usually pickled and 

 bring a high price in market. Those from the Magdalens, on the contrary, being taken during 

 the spawning season, are of an inferior grade and are chiefly used for smoking. During the height 

 of the trade the pickled fish from that region were sold to the poorer classes in the Southern 

 States, or were shipped to the West Indies. 



SMOKED HERRING. Formerly, many of the vescel-owners engaging in the Magdalen fisheries 

 had a number of smoke-houses where they prepared the fish before sending them to market. 

 After smoking, they were packed in boxes and shipped to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia 

 for exportation. On account of their large size and poor condition they always rank lower than 

 any other brands and have never been extensively used by the people of the Northern States, the, 

 bulk being consumed by the laboring classes of the South. Some of the firms extensively engaged 

 in the smoked-herring trade had no interest in the vessels, and it was customary for these to 

 contract with the vessel-owners or masters for cargoes at a stated price ; and they sometimes even 

 chartered the vessels outright, and assumed the responsibility, making their own arrangements 

 with the fishermen. 



7. EXTENT OF THE FISHERIES AND THE EXPORT TRADE. 



THE FORMER IMPORTANCE AND THE DECLINE OF THE FISHERIES. As has been said, the 

 first vessel visiting the Magdalen Islands for herring went from Isle au Haut, Me., in 1822. 

 From this date the business spread rapidly to other fishing towns of the New England coast, 

 and within a few years a large fleet was engaged in the business. 



Mr. Lorenzo Sabine, referring to the Magdalen herring fisheries in 1853, gives the following 

 statement with reference to the extent of the fisheries in 1839, together with his comments upon them : 



"Capt. R. Fair, in command of Her Majesty's ship-of-war the Cham pion, visi ted these islands 

 officially in May, 1839, and after the commencement of the fishery. He found the ' quantity of 

 herrings very great, exceeding that of any former year ; and the expertness and perseverance of 

 the American fishermen' to be 'far beyond that of the colonists.' 'About one hundred and forty-six 

 sail of American fishing schooners, of from 60 to 80 tons, and each carrying seven or eight men,' 

 were engaged in it, be continues, and caught ' nearly 700 barrels each;' making for the number 

 stated, ' a presumed product of 100,000 barrels, of the value of 100,000 ; the tonnage about 10,000, 

 and the number of men about one thousand.' Whatever the statistics of the year in question, the 

 average quantity of herrings caught by our vessels is not probably 40,000 barrels ; while the 

 price a pound sterling the barrel is quite fifty per cent., I suppose, above that generally received 

 in any market in the United States for the article of ' Magdalene herrings." 7 * 



* Sabine's Report on the Principal Fisheries of the Amer ican Seas, 1853, pp. 195, 196. 



