GILPIN ON TME FOOD FISHES OF NOYA SCOTIA. IT 



SO nearly bagged, goes with tliem. In profonnd silence they watch 

 their prey till it runs quite up far within the bight or elbow of the 

 seine. And then a few rapid strokes of the oars, and as many dex- 

 terous tosses of the remaining nets as the boat is rowed to land, and 

 they have secured their prey. This is technically called making a 

 stop. For 36 hours the fish swim in frantic circles, breaking the 

 water every where, they then apparently sulk down to the bottom, 

 and never come up again. These stops are made all around us, and 

 within si"ht of our crowded streets. Our beautiful Basin is often 

 alive with them, and then in addition, a smart schooner, the float- 

 ing home of the fishermen now far from the rock hung cottages, 

 adds her tall masts, spread alow and aloft Avith drying nets, to 

 the pretty confusion of glittering fish, dotted head floats, smart 

 whalers and busy men around. 



So close do land and water, the dusty traveller, and the drip- 

 ping fisher meet in these sw^eet spots, that I once saw a stop 

 made on the very verge of the rail, and the puffing engine making a 

 back ground to the group, as glittering fish were tossed up and 

 shining dollars cast down, and the farmer returning with the price 

 of the harvest he had watched and toiled over many a weary hour, 

 or of the stock he had fed and folded through many a winter day, 

 was exchanging it with the hardy sea farmer who ploughs no fur- 

 rows but with his keel, who gives of herds he has never fed, and 

 of harvests that nature has sown broad cast on a thousand rolling 

 hills for him to garner with boat hook and sweep net, rather than 

 reaping knife or bullock- wain. 



These stops are made on many parts of our seaboard, in St. 

 Mary's Bay, and Digby Basin, where fish weirs are substituted for 

 nets, and all along the Atlantic coast, and find their way to Halifax 

 markets in lots varying from ten barrels to one or two hundred. As 

 they are included with the deep sea mackerel returns, it is impossi- 

 ble to ascertain the exact number of barrels* taken annually by shore 

 fishing; but the whole amount of both shore and sea mackerel 

 fisheries for the year 1865, was somewhat above $1,000,000. 



