THE GROWTH ALONG THE COAST 183 



a trade center, as it is now, for the fishermen of Maine. 

 In a single year previous to 1841, 45,000 barrels of 

 mackerel were packed here. In the year 1864 there were 

 27,766 barrels packed at Portland, a quantity second only 

 to the output of Gloucester. 1 



The state of the fisheries of Maine in 1840 shows that the 

 business was carried on most extensively in Lincoln County, 

 on the middle coast, and in Washington, the easternmost 

 county. The counties of Hancock, Waldo and York ranked 

 next in importance. There were in all 3,610 men employed 

 in the fisheries ; capital was invested to the amount of $526,- 

 967; the products of the fisheries consisted of 279,156 

 quintals of dried and smoked fish, 54,071 barrels of pickled 

 fish, 118,851 gallons of oil, whalebone and other products 

 amounting to the value of $2,351. 2 



In 1850 there were 37,218 tons employed in the codfish- 

 ery of Maine, and 12,046 tons employed in the mackerel 

 fishery. 8 Of the total 95,616 tons employed in the cod- 

 fishery of the country in 1851, the amount of the State 

 of Maine was 45,528 tons. The condition of the fisheries 

 of the State for the year 1859 shows that in the codfishery 

 there were 1,269 vessels of an aggregate tonnage of 63,477, 

 carrying crews to the number of 8,883 men, and in the 

 mackerel fishery there were 163 vessels of an aggregate ton- 

 nage of 9,814 tons, carrying 1,304 men. The fisheries of 

 the State in 1859 had a total of 1,432 vessels, of a tonnage 

 of 73,291 tons, carrying 10,187 men. 4 



At the close of the Civil War the fisheries were prosper- 

 ous in the State of Maine, probably beyond any other period 

 to that date. But the principal branches of fishing cod, 

 mackerel, menhaden and herring were on the verge of 



1 U. S. Fish Com. Report, 1881, p. 287. 



2 Hunt, XI, pp. 322-23. 



a Cotton, The Progress of the United States, p. 129. 

 * 36th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Docs. No. 41. 



