296 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES, 
tern for that purpose. The mackerel caught in this manner are always carried fresh to the shore, 
and are intended chiefly for the supply of the markets of the large cities. They are packed in 
barrels, and may or may not be gibbed through the gills before reaching shore. A vessel setting 
a long string of nets may catch as much as 50 barrels of mackerel in a night, but ordinarily not 
more than 5 or 10 barrels, frequently less. The barrels are carried on deck, and the fish are 
put in them as soon as they are removed from the nets. When the weather is warm the barrels 
are filled with ice-water. Besides the mackerel caught, considerable quantities of shad and ale- 
wives are taken in these nets. On an excursion made by one of the authors from Portland in 
1873, besides 6 barrels of mackerel there were caught with a small string of nets about 40 fine 
shad, averaging 2 pounds each, and 300 or 400 of that species of alewives known to the Portland 
fishermen by the names of “kyack,” “cat-thresher,” “saw-belly,” or “blue-back,” probably iden- 
tical with the glut-herring (Clupea wstivalis) of the Chesapeake basin, the summer alewives occa- 
sionally taken in New England rivers. On this occasion the mackerel were feeding extensively 
on various entomostraca, with which the water was filled, and which imparted to it a vivid phos- 
-phorescence all night long. The presence of these animals, and of others more minute, causes the 
water and the nets to “fire” in such a manner as often to render them so visible to the fish that 
they successfully avoid contact with the twine. 
The mackerel caught at Provincetown in gill-nets are brought in by the boats, and shipped 
by the fishermen to Boston in vessels devoted specially to this business, the owners of which 
receive a percentage upon the amount of their sales. 
The crew of a Maine mackerel-dragger consists generally of two to four men, the vessels being 
usually owned by the fishermen. 
2. HISTORY OF MACKEREL GILL-NETTING. 
The custom of dragging for mackerel, though practiced for centuries in Europe,* appears to 
have been first used in this country at Provincetown about ‘the year 1841, where it is still prose- 
cuted to a considerable extent in addition to the stationary gill-net fishery which has been 
* For convenience of comparison the following description of drift-net fishing for mackerel on the coast of Eng- 
land is quoted from Yarrell’s British Fishes: : 
“The most common mode of fishing for mackerel, and the way in which the greatest numbers are taken, is by 
drift-nets. The drift-net is 20 feet deep by 120 feet long; well corked at the top, but without lead at the bottom. 
They are made of small fine twine, which is tanned of a reddish brown color to preserve it from the action of the salt 
water, and it is thereby rendered much more durable. 
“The size of the mesh is about 2} inches, or rather larger. Twelve, fifteen, and sometimes eighteen of these nets 
are attached lengthways by tying along a thick ropo, called the drift-rope, and the ends of each net to each other. 
When arranged for depositing in the sea, a large buoy attached to the end of the drift-rope is thrown overboard, the 
vessel is put before the wind, and, as she sails along, the rope with the nets thus attached is passed over the stern 
into the water till the whole of the nets are thus thrown out. The nets thus deposited hang suspended in the water 
perpendicularly, 20 feet deep from the drift-rope and extending from three-quarters of a mile to a mile, or even a mile 
and a half, depending on the number of nets belonging to the party or company engaged in fishing together. When 
the whole of the nets are thus handed out, the drift-rope is shifted from the stern to the bow of the vessel, and she 
tides by it as at anchor. The benefit gained by the boats hanging at the end of the drift-rope is that the net is kept 
strained in a straight line, which, without this pull upon it, would not be the case. The nets are ‘shot’ in the evening, 
and sometimes hauled once during the night; at others, allowed to remain in the water all night. The fish roving 
in the dark tarough the water hang in the meshes of the nets, which are large enough to admit them beyond the gill- : 
covers and pectoral fins, but not large enough to allow the thickest part of the body to pass through. In the morning 
early preparations are made for hauling the nets, A capstan on the deck is manned, about which two turns of 
drift-rope are taken; one man stands forward to untie the upper edge of each net from the drift-rope, which is called 
casting off the lashings; others haul the net in with the fish caught, to which one side of the vessel is devoted; the 
other side is occupied with the drift-rope, which is wound in by the men at the capstan.” (The History of British 
Fishes, first edition, 1836, vol. 1, pp. 126, 127.) 
