ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. > 147 
ing paragraph, the aggregate number of fish taken would be 
three thousand two hundred. 
Competent authorities estimate that each vessel in the mack- 
erel fleet captures and brings in an average quantity of eight 
barrels of pickled fish, or perhaps eight fish each. The num- 
ber of vessels in the mackerel fleet is at least four hundred. 
Allowing four fish to each there is an aggregate of 1,600 fish. 
Estimating one for each vessel in the halibut fleet yearly, we add 
fifty more in the aggregate. 
Mr. Earll judged that in 1878, as for several years previous, 
two thousand swordfish had been brought into Portland, Me. 
Allowing one thousand of these to the regular swordfishermen 
and the mackerel vessels, we have a remainder of one thousand 
taken by the occasional fishermen of Portland already spoken 
of, and to be added to the aggregate, which now amounts to five 
thousand eight hundred and fifty. 
Add one hundred and fifty more for the coasters, seabass fish- 
ermen, and pound-tending vessels of southern Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and the sum is 6,000. 
The average weight of a swordfish dressed is estimated by 
several persons, Captain Ashby, Mr. Earll, Mr. Thompson, and 
others, to be three hundred pounds, and that this is not far from 
the truth may be seen by referring back to the records of the 
Northern Eagle. If the average weight: is assumed to be two 
hundred and fifty pounds, the aggregate weight of a year’s catch 
of swordfish amounts to 1,500,000 pounds, valued at $45,000, the 
average price being estimated at three cents per pound. | 
To estimate the number of men employed is almost impossi- 
ble, since the season continues only four months, and many are 
employed for a much shorter period. The crews of the forty 
vessels number from one hundred and sixty to two hundred ; 
the number of men employed for shorter periods it seems scarcely 
necessary to estimate. 
In 1874 the annual catch for the United States was estimated 
by Mr. E. G. Blackford at. 2,000 fish, weighing 1,000,000 pounds. 
SWORDFISH AS AN ARTICLE OF FOOD. 
” 
“The small swordfish is very good meat,” remarked Josselyn, 
