298 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
Perley, writing in 1852, remarked: “In those harbors of Nova Scotia which are within the 
Straits of Canso mackerel have of late years been taken in seines capable of inclosing and secu1ing 
800 barrels, and in these seines 400 and even 600 barrels have been taken in a single sweep.”* 
In the same locality Perley refers to the use of the drift-nets, undoubtedly meaning the set 
gill-net just described, remarking, however, that this mode of fishing is probably not so well under- 
stood on the coast of Nova Scotia as in England. He however quotes from Yarrell an account of 
drift-net fishing in England, which is altogether different from that used in Nova Scotia, and cor- 
responds precisely with the drag-net fishing also described in the beginning of this chapter. 
It is worthy of mention that mackerel as well as herring, on the coast of Europe at the present 
time, are almost exclusively caught by the use of the drag-net, the only other method in use being 
the equally old-fashioned one of “drailing,” which was abandoned by our fishermen sixty-five years 
ago.* The antiquated method of drailing was, however, kept up by the fishermen of the Gulf of 
Saint Lawrence until 1860, or perhaps even to the present time, for the purpose of obtaining 
mackerel for bait to be used in the cod fisheries. 
5.—THE EARLY METHODS OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY (1620 
TO 1820). 
1. CATCHING MACKEREL WITH DRAG-SEINES. 
The method chiefly practiced by the colonists of New England for the capture of mackerel 
was that of drag-seining, and we find as early as 1626 a record of the establishment, by Isaac 
Allerton, of a fishing station at Hull, where mackerel were seined by moonlight. There can be 
little doubt that the practice of fishing with baited hooks was also early introduced, and that in 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries groups of boats might have been seen, as at the present 
day, clustered together in the harbors or near the outer shores, their crews busily engaged in 
hauling in the tinkers, and, occasionally, larger mackerel which, during the summer season, found 
their way into these protected waters. It is not known when the custom of drailing for mackerel 
was first introduced, but it was beyond question the common method at the close of the last and 
the beginning of the present century. 
In July, 1677, the records of the Plymouth colony show that the Cape Cod fishery was let 
seven years, at £30 per annum, to seine mackerel and bass, to certain individuals who are named. 
They were restricted to take in the Plymouth colonists with them; and, if none offer, to admit 
strangers. ‘The profits of the hire which accrued to the colony were sometimes distributed to the 
schools. 
A writer in the Massachusetts Historical Society’s Collections gives the following description of 
these fisheries (vol. iv, 2d series, p. 232): “The aboriginal name of this fish (the mackerel) is Wawun- 
nebeseag, a plural term signifying fatness—a very descriptive and appropriate name. The mode 
of taking these fish is while the vessel is under quick way and the helm secured, when all are 
engaged at the long, veered lines, of which it is said that one man will attend three, and it may be 
more. The first manner of taking mackerel] was by seining by moonlight. This perhaps was first 
* Fisheries of New Brunswick, 1852, pp. 13-16. 
tThough drailing was abandoned so long ago by the professional mackerel fishermen of New England, we are, 
nevertheless, told by Capt. Joseph Smith, of Gloucester, that this method of fishing is still practiced by the Block 
Island boat fishermen. 
