THE LOBSTEll FISHERY. 759 



Total amount of capital invested (31,925 



Average number of men employed 37 



Average number of women and children employed 47 



Average number of smackmen employed 13 



Total number of persons employed 97 



Number of pounds of live lobsters used 1, 177,404 



Amount paid to tbe fishermen for the same $11,775 



Number of l-pound cans of lobsters put up 164,292 



Number of '2 pound cans of lobsters put up 43,320 



Enhancement in value of lobsters in process of canning $10,500 



Value of the canned lobsters $28, 335 



Summation of the entire lubsler industry in Belfast district in 1880. 



Total number of persons employed 



Total amount of capital invested $5,-*, 318 



Total value of the products as they entered into consumption $53,965 



This district includes many important flsbiug stations, among which are Eockland, Owl's Head, 

 South Thomaston, Friendship, Saint George, George's Island, Muscle Kidges, Bristol, Bremen, 

 and Matinicus Island. 



The boat fishermen of this district constitute the larger part of those engaged in the lobster 

 fishery; but there are quite a number of men employed on the shore and bank fishing vessels, and 

 on the menhaden steamers, who own lobster boats and pots, and who, in the fall (about October), 

 after they have done with those fisheries, begin to fish for lobsters. A few may continue in this 

 industry all winter, but the majority of all the lobster catchers take up their pots in December. 

 Many begin lobsteriug again in February and March and continue until April or May; some even 

 fish as late as June. The catch is sold to Boston and Portland smacks, and to the canneries at 

 East Boothbay and Saint George. About one-third of all the lobster fishermen are also vessel 

 fishermen ; but as about one-third of the boat fishermen do not engage in lobstering, the number 

 of lobstermen is about equal to the entire number of summer boat fishermen. Many of the boats 

 used by the lobsterineu are the same as are employed in the other fisheries, and are known locally 

 as " lobster boats." They are quite large, measuring 18 to 2G feet in length, and have a cuddy 

 forward, where the lobsters can be kept from freezing in cold weather, by means of a stove, until 

 they can be transferred to the floating cars. There are also accommodations for cooking and 

 sleeping on board. These boats are sloop-rigged, and generally furnished with a center-board. 



The men go singly, and as their pots are set on single warps, unlike the general method to 

 the westward, they keep their boat under sail while hauling. The pots are set in rows; in winter 

 the inner pots will be near one or other of the outer islands or ledges, the remainder extending off 

 shore. 



From the large-size of their boats, the lobsterrneii of this region are enabled to begin fishing 

 by the middle of February, and to venture some distance from land, where lobsters are most 

 abundant in cold weather; but the well smacks do not begin to run regularly until between the 

 1st and the middle of March. By about the middle of April the lobsters have worked back into 

 shallow water, and soon after this the fishery attains its height. The smack lobsters average about 

 2 pounds each, while the cullings or canning lobsters run from seventy-five to ninety by count to the 

 hundred weight. Four to 5 cents each is paid for smack lobsters until tbe middle of April, and 

 after that about three cents each. The smacks cease running about the middle of July, and 

 beginning again about the middle of September, continue into November, and even as late as 

 December. 



