THE LOBSTER FISHERY. 753 



the eel grass, iii such shallow water that they were uncovered at low tide. The average weight 

 of -smack lobsters iu that year was 2 pounds each, aud of canning lobsters from three-fourths of 

 a pound to 1 pound. The average daily catch to forty pots was about seventy-live lobsters, 

 the larger part being smack lobsters. By fishing in deep water iu the spring but few small 

 lobsters are taken. According to Mr. David Smith, the lobster fishery was started at Swan's 

 Island by four parties from Gloucester, Mass., who hired others to assist them at this place. 

 They came in the fall in a smack, which waited until they obtained a load ; but they did not 

 return for a second trip. The year in which this occurred was not stated by Mr. Smith, but prior 

 to this time the inhabitants of the islands had no idea of the-abuudance of lobsters in their neigh- 

 borhood. They began fishing the next spring, aud ten men engaged in the business up to 1855, 

 after which time there followed an interval of three or four years when but little was done. In 

 1800 eight or ten men were again fishing, using from thirty to forty pots each. Iu 1855 the 

 daily catch for forty pots vaiied from two hundred to two hundred aud fifty lobsters, very few of 

 which were small. About one-fourth were rejected as soft, or otherwise unsalable, the market- 

 able ones averaging 3 to 3 pounds each. 



Long Island, lyiug to the southeast of Swan's Island, is the outermost of all the islands in the 

 vicinity of Mount Desert, and is considerably isolated. It is visited in the lobster season by dry 

 smacks running to the Southwest Harbor aud Deer Isle canneries, and by well smacks from 

 Boston and Portland. There are eight men on the island, who fish for lobsters, with about fifty 

 pots each, from April to August, and stock on an average about $75. The pots are set singly. 

 At the close of the lobster season these men engage in hand-line fishing to some extent. Floun- 

 ders, sculpius, and fish heads are used as bait. 



The boat fishermen of Isle au Haut aud the adjacent islands make almost a specialty of fish- 

 ing for lobsters. As a rule, however, they all catch enough fish for home use, while a portion also- 

 fish for a few weeks iu midsummer, curing most of their catch, and peddling it up river in the fall. 

 When mackerel are abundant they fish for them quite generally. There are six fishermen who 

 regularly abandon lobstering about the middle of June to go trawling. They fish for cod, hake r 

 and mackerel until September, when they usually begin to set their lobster pots again. Those; 

 who do much other fishing than that for lobsters generally have two boats, a square-stern, center- 

 board, sloop-rigged fishing boat, 15 to 20 feet long, similar in most respects to the " Matinicus 

 boat," aud a "double-ender," for lobster fishing. In 1878 one half of the fishermen fished for lob- 

 steis the entire season, or from the 1st of March until December. The others had taken up their 

 pots by the middle of July, in order to fish for cod, hake, and mackerel until the middle of Sep- 

 tember, when they set them again, completing the lobster season about the first of December. Im 

 1879 all of the fishermen, forty iu number, fished for lobsters from the 1st of March to the Istr 

 of August, selling the count lobsters to Portland, Boston, and New York smacks, and the cullings, 

 to dry smacks running to Green's Landing, Oceanville, North Haven, and Castine. After the- 

 1st of August most of the men engaged in the mackerel fishery. Only ten of the fishermen set 

 pots iu the fall of 1879, beginning iu October and continuing until December, and selling all of 

 their catch to Portland, Boston, and New York smacks. No lobster fishing is done in the winter. 

 The fishermen make and repair their gear, and build a boat, if needed ; but the greater part of the 

 time is spent iu idleness, as no other employment than fishing is to be obtained on the island. A 

 few of the men do a little farming to supply .their own needs. 



A laiger number of pots to the man is used here than iu most localities, and the more active 

 fishermen ?nake very fair earnings. One instance is recorded of a man stocking $425, lobstering 

 during the five mouths from March to August of 1879, and several others, during the same period 

 SEC. v, VOL. II 48 



