KING HERRING 



711 



the only use to which the Alaskan her- 

 ring was put. At other points in south- 

 east and central Alaska the herring is 

 utilized in fresh and salted conditions for 

 human food and for bait in the halibut 

 fisheries. In all the coast states there 

 is a limited herring fisher)', the most im- 

 portant interests centering at San Fran- 

 cisco. 



The herring fishery of the United 

 States at the present time yields about 

 130,000,000 pounds annually, for which 

 the fishermen receive $870,000. Of this 

 quantity about 10,000,000 pounds are ob- 

 tained in Pacific waters. The manufac- 

 tured herring products — oils, fertilizers, 

 sardines, etc. — are worth several million 

 dollars. 



Canada's extensive herring fisheries 



The Dominion of Canada has the most 

 extensive herring fisheries of the West- 

 ern Hemisphere. All of the maritime 

 provinces of Canada have an abundance 

 of herring, and in all of them large quan- 

 tities of this fish are placed on the market 

 in various forms. Among all the food- 

 fishes of Canada, the herring is exceeded 

 in value only by the salmon and the cod. 

 As the most abundant of the shore fishes 

 of the eastern provinces, the herring 

 played an important part in their coloni- 

 zation and has continued to be a large 

 factor in their growth and prosperity. 



It is in Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 

 wick that the herring fisheries have at- 

 tained their greatest development. As 

 early as the eighteenth century large 

 quantities of smoked herring in boxes 

 were exported from Nova Scotia, and 

 Lorenzo Sabine in his report to the Sec- 

 retary of the Treasury on "The Principal 

 Fisheries of the American Seas" (1853) 

 said of the herring of Annapolis Basin : 



This fish, well smoked and of approved 

 color, is a great luxury for the forenoon lunch 

 and for the tea-table, and the time has been 

 when a herring box branded 'Digby' or with 

 the name of a well-known curer there, passed 

 as current in our markets, without examina- 

 tion, as coin received at the mint. 



The beautiful town of Yarmouth, 

 Nova Scotia, remains true to its name 



and has for years sent to the market 

 "'bloaters" that for quality would reflect 

 no discredit on the fish so called that 

 originated at Yarmouth, the great her- 

 ring center on the North Sea. On the 

 shores of New Brunswick large quanti- 

 ties of small herring are caught, and 

 some of these are canned locally ; a very 

 large percentage, however, are sent to 

 the sardine factories at Eastport and 

 Lubec. 



Lying in the middle of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence is a group of small, pictur- 

 esque islands known as the Magdalenes, 

 which have had an interesting history in 

 which the herring fishery has been closely 

 entwined. Their value consists almost 

 exclusively in their fishery resources, 

 chief among which is the herring; this 

 fish resorts to the shores in immense 

 shoals at times, and for at least 250 years 

 has been a source of livelihood to the 

 hardy inhabitants. Many of the fisher- 

 men are lineal descendants of those Aca- 

 dians who, under De Monts and Cham- 

 plain, made the first permanent settle- 

 ment in New France; and up to a com- 

 paratively recent time, and doubtless to 

 some extent even down to the present, 

 they preserved the dress, language, and 

 customs of their ancestors. 



The tenure of these islands and their 

 rich fishing privileges was once granted 

 by the British crown to Richard Gridley, 

 of Massachusetts, who in 1775 con- 

 structed the defensive works on Bunker 

 Hill and became chief of the engineer 

 department of the Revolutionary army. 

 Under the Treaty of 1818 American fish- 

 ermen enjoy the same fishing rights at 

 the Magdalenes as the resident Cana- 

 dians, and in former years many New 

 England vessels resorted to these islands 

 to participate in the herring fishery. The 

 fish here taken are noted for their large 

 size, and 25,000,000 pounds have been 

 taken some seasons. In the middle of the 

 nineteenth century as many as 150 fishing 

 vessels from Maine and Massachusetts 

 have sometimes been observed catching 

 herring here at one time, but of late years 

 the value of the islands to our fishermen 

 has become insignificant. 



