THE SARDINE INDUSTRY. 499 
3. APPARATUS AND METHODS OF CAPTURE. 
HERRING TAKEN BY MEANS OF LIGHTS AND DIP-NETS.—I'wo methods are now employed 
in the capture of small herring for supplying the sardine canneries of the United States. The 
first is the ordinary method of torching or “driving,” as it is often called. This has already been 
described in the chapter on the shore-herring fisheries. Driving seems to have been extensively 
employed by the inhabitants in the vicinity of Eastport from the earliest settlement of the region, 
and up to 1828 it was the principal method for taking small herring to be used for smoking. It 
has always been more or less successful, though it involves considerable labor and exposure. At 
present boats frequently drive for herring to a limited extent during the summer and fall months. 
From twenty to thirty of them are said to be engaged in taking herring to supply the sardine 
canneries at Eastport or for smoking. In this locality a crew of four or five men frequently dip 
three or four hogsheads of fish in a single night. 
As mentioned elsewhere, torching is extensively carried on in Ipswich Bay, where small her- 
ring called “spurling” are taken for supplying the shore fishermen of Gloucester with bait. From 
eighty to one hundred men are regularly employed in this work for about two months, beginning 
with the middle of October. 
Torching is also carried on to a limited extent at various points along the coast of Maine, 
especially in the western portion of the State. 
e 
THE FISHERY WITH BRUSH WEIRS. 
THE BRUSH WEIR PECULIARLY ADAPTED TO THE CAPTURE OF HERRING.—Wherever the 
brush weir has been introduced it has been found to be peculiarly successfal in the capture of 
herring, and has largely superseded torching, as it is found to take a larger quantity of fish than 
can be secured by the use of lights, and with much less labor and trouble to the fishermen. 
At the present time the typical brush weir is used within the limits of the United States only 
on the coast of Maine, though modifications of it are employed in the river fisheries of numerous 
localities in other parts of the country. The weirs are more numerous in the vicinity of Eastport 
than in any other place. 
: THE TYPICAL BRUSH WEIR INTRODUCED FROM Nova ScorTi1a.—According to Mr. D. I. 
Odell, of Eastport, and Mr. Jacob McGregor, of Lubec, the fishermen of the United States owe 
their knowledge of the brush weir in its present form to Nova Scotia, where it was in use before 
the beginning of the present century. According to these parties, the date of its introduction 
into the United States was about. 1820, when two or three smal] ones were built near the western 
end of Campobello Island and along the shores of North Lubec for the capture of different species. 
These were not sufficiently successful to warrant their extended use, and after one or two seasons’ 
fishing they were abandoned. The first large weir exclusively for herring is said to have been 
built in 1828, by Mr. John McGregor and his son Jacob, at North Lubec. Mr. McGregor was a 
native of Digby, N. 8., and had become thoroughly familiar with the brush weir as employed in 
the fisheries of that region before his removal to the United States several years earlier. Thus far 
during his stay in Lubec he had been engaged in the smoking of herring, depending wholly upon 
torching for his supply ; but he soon found that the movements of the herring were very similar 
to those of the school that visited Digby, where the weir was successfully used. He therefore 
decided, on account of the labor and exposure in torching and the comparatively small quantity 
of fish taken, to build a brush weir for the. capture of the fish. Accordingly he selected Rogers 
Island as a suitable location, and proceeded at once to construct his weir. It was built in shoal 
