THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 219 
with trawls, got only 4,000 and 8,ooo pounds respectively. 
After that time she made another trip, taking the same amount 
35,000 pounds, in four days’ fishing, 18,000 pounds of which were 
caught in one day. On this day the schooner “ Christie Camp- 
bell,” of Portsmouth, set ten trawls (each trawl having 1,000 
hooks) close to the nets. The 10,000 hooks caught 2,000 pounds 
of fish to the ro,ooo taken in the nets. | 
The “Northern Eagle” began fishing with nets on November 
27th, 1880, and as early as January 2oth, 1881, she had taken 
111,000 pounds of cod. None of the trawlers during that time 
caught more than one-third of that amount, though they were 
fishing at the same place. The netted fish were much larger 
than those taken on the trawls, averaging during the first six 
weeks’ fishing twenty-three pounds each. Among these were 
individuals which weighed seventy-five and eighty pounds a 
piece, but there were no small fish, stich as are frequently taken 
on trawls, and which can be sold only at reduced prices. This, 
it may be stated, has invariably been the case when gill-nets 
have been used. No immature fish or what is termed as “trash” 
by the fishermen, have been taken. At first the nets met with 
the same opposition from the trawl line fishermen that trawls 
did—when first introduced—from the hand-liners some thirty 
years ago. Notwithstanding, however, that many of the fisher- 
men were inclined at the start to inveigh against “building a fence” 
to prevent the fish from moving about on the bottom, it was not 
long before they all began to realize the advantages of using gill- 
nets. It 1s said that whénever in port, the deck of the “Northern 
Eagle” was crowded with fishermen, anxious to learn about the 
method of capture which she had adopted. Before the close of 
the first winter several vessels, both from Gloucester and other 
ports, fitted out, to a greater or less extent, with nets. Asa 
rule these schooners commenced their operations so late in the 
season that they could not make a fair test of the gill-nets, 
for the schools of spawning fish that had been in Ipswich bay 
began to leave the shore-grounds soon after the vessels began 
operations. 
Gill-net fishing for cod and pollock opened favorably in the 
winter of 1882, but the shore codfish were much less abundant 
