20 FISHERMEN OF THE UmTED STATES. 



Fishing villages of Newfoundland. — A writer in Harper's Magazine for 1854 -writes : 



"Fishing, or some process connected with it, is the occupation of almost every man, woman, 

 a-pd child in the country. Out of Saint John's, either fish or some sign of the finny tribe, visible or 

 odoriferous is met with wherever there is a population. At a distance from the capital, in the 

 small settlements, the fishermen live in unpainted wooden cottages, scattered in the coves, now 

 perched upon rocks or hidden in the nooks, the neighborhood showing small patches of cultivated 

 garden ground and copses of stunted wood. Each cabin has its fish flake, a kind of rude platform, 

 elevated on poles ten or twelve feet high, covered with a matting of sticks and boughs, on which 

 the fish are laid out to dry. At a convenient point on the shore is a stage, much more strongly 

 constructed, jutting out over the water. It forms a small pier, made in part to serve the purpose 

 of a ladder, at which a landing frequently is alone possible on the steep and rock-bound coast. 



" On returning from the fishing ground, the boat is brought to the stage with the cargo, and 

 sticking a prong in the head of each fish, they are thrown upon the stage one by one, as hay is 

 pitched into a cart. The operations of cutting open, taking out the entrails, preserving the liver for 

 oil, remo\ing the backbone, and salting, are immediately performed upon the stage, in which 

 the younger members of the family are employed. The drying on the flakes is the last process. 



" It is the inshore fishery that is prosecuted by the British, not extending generally more than 

 a mile or two from the harbors, that of the Great Bank being abandoned to the Yankees and 

 French." 



Eably enlistment of Newfoundlanders in the fisheeies of New England.— The 

 following extract from Hubbard's History of New England, referi'ing to events which took place 

 in 164.8, shows that fishermen from the regions now designated as the British Provinces, partici- 

 pated in the fisheries of New England at that time : 



" Some of these petitioners being bound for England, their papers were searched by the 

 authority of the governor and council, amongst which were found the coi^ies of some petitions and 

 queries to be presented to the commissioners for plantations. One petition was from some non- 

 freemen, pretended to be in the name, and upon the sighs and tears, of many thousands, &c. In 

 the preamble they showed how they were driven out of their native country by the tyranny of the 

 bishops, &c. One of their petitions was for liberty of conscience and for a general governor. They 

 had sent their agents up and down the country to get hands to this petition, but of the many thou- 

 sands they spake of, they could find but twenty-five hands to the chief petition, and those were, 

 for the most part, either young men who came over servants and never had overmuch shew of 

 religion in them or, fishermen of Marblehead, feared to be profane persons, divers of whom were 

 brought the last year from Newfoundland for the fishing season, and so to return again. Others 

 were drawn in by their relations, and those depended upon for means how to live."* 



7. THE IRISH FISHERMEN OF NEW ENGLAND. 



Ieishmen in the Glouoestee and Boston fleets. — There are many Irishmen in the 

 Gloucester fleet; among them are individuals who have distinguished themselves by their skill 

 as fishermen. As a rule, however, these men, as well as those of Irish descent who have come 

 from Newfoundland, are from the peasant classes, and are remarkable rather for stolidity, indiffer- 

 ence to danger, and endurance of hardship, than for enterprise and activity. They are most 

 likely to be found among the crews of the George'smen, the dull monotony of hand-lining being 

 better suited to their temperaments than to that of the Americans, who prefer the cleaner, safer, 



*Hnbl>aid's History of New England, from the discovery to 1680. Boston : 1848, p. 515. 



