COD, POLLOCK, HADDOCK AND HAKE. 353 
vaiuable than themselves; in consequence of this the fishermen have a 
great prejudice against them and refuse to eat them. 
Capt. Atwood states that about Cape Cod they do not take to the hook 
freely ; that in other localities they are exeeedingly voracious, and great 
numbers of them may be caught in Massachusetts Bay with a surface 
bait. 
When the United States Fish Commission steamer has been stationed 
north of Cape Cod, a favorite amusement of the officers has been to catch 
young Pollock with a fly. The older fish are less active and remain more 
at the bottom. 
Concerning this species, Capt. Atwood states that they appear about 
Cape Cod in schools in early May, frequently passing Race Point so 
close to the shore as to be caught with the seine among the “ tide-rips.’’ 
Capt. E. W. Merchant, of Gloucester, tells me that the Pollock were 
very abundant in Massachusetts Bay early in this century—before the war 
of 1812. They were especially abundant on Middle Bank. They were 
at that time chiefly caught with bait of herring, taken in seines from the 
beaches. The fishing boats were of about thirty tons, and carried three 
men and a boy. Fishing was carried on chiefly at night, when the ves- 
sels would all “fleet up,’’ and the bait on their hooks would toll the 
schools of fish together. The vessels would take about fifty quintals in a 
night. There were about thirty fish to the quintal. This abundance of 
Pollock lasted until about 1820. These Pollock were salted, and con- 
sumed at home or carried to Maine. They sold for about two dollars a 
quintal. The oil of their livers was tried out in kettles on the shore. 
Their roe was exported largely in those days. It was sold by the bushel, 
at the rate of about sixty cents. : 
Mr. Earll writes: ‘‘ Large Pollock are absent from the waters of Cape 
Ann from the middle of January till early in May, the small ones leaving 
earlier, in the fall, and returning in April.* The young may be taken 
almost anywhere along the shore, but the large fish seem to confine them- 
selves to definite localities ; and though not particularly abundant during 
the summer at Cape Ann, it is a favorite spawning ground for the species, 
and during this period large schools visit this shore. 
«They begin to grow plenty about the first of October, and by the last 
of the month are so numerous as to greatly annoy the cod-fishermen by 
‘aking the hook before it can get to the bottom. 
*In 1881 the first Pollock came into Gloucester harbor May 2. 
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