184 



comrade's. ; You fish with two lines, most eommoilly seven fathoms 

 long — that is, in heavy weather. In calm weather, the jigs are lighter 

 than when it blowS'hard. There is an eye spliced at the end of the 

 line, so that the ji^ may be shifted at pleasure. There are two other 

 lines used, callefd fly-Unes, with smaller hooks: when mackerel are shy 

 in biting, they will often take these. The fly-lines are only three 

 fithoms long. Vefy often the mackerel stop biting. Then the fisher- 

 ^Mien take the gaffs; and work with these until the fish disappear. The 

 gaffs must not be used while the lines are out, as they entangle them; 

 and cause great trouble. No man must leave the rail to pick up fish 

 which miss his barrel and fall on the deck, until the fishing is over. 

 You must take care to dress your mackerel quickly, as they are a fish 

 that is easily tainted. When you stop fishfng, the captain or mate 

 counts the fish, and notes down in the fish-book what each man hag 

 caught. Then the crew goes to dressing and splitting. The splitter 

 has a mitten on the left hand, to keep the fish steady to the knife. Two 

 men gib the figh, wiih mittens on, to prevent the bones scratching their 

 hands. One man hands up the fish to the splitter, while the riest of the 

 crew draw water to fill the barrels in which the fish are put to soak. 

 The fish are put in the soak-barrels back up. In a short time the 

 water is shifted, and the fish washed out for salting. The salteir 

 sprinkles a handful- of salt in the bottom of the barrel, thien takeS the 

 fish in his right hand, rolls them in salt, and places them skin down in 

 the barrel until he comes to the top layer, which he lays- skin up, cov- 

 ering the top well with salt. Herring or small mackerel are the best 

 bait that can be used. These are ground in a bait-mill by the watch 

 at night: if the vessel has no bait-mill, the fish are chopped up with a 

 hatchet, or scalded with boiling water in a barrel or tub. When there 

 is a fleet of mackerel-vessels fishing, they often lee-bow each other — 

 that is, run ahead of one another — and so draw the fish towards the 

 shore. There they anchor, and put springs on their cables, which is 

 done by taking a strap outside the hawse-hole and fastening it to the 

 cable, then hooking it to a tackle, and hauling it aft, at the same time 

 paying out the cable. This brings the vessel broadside to the wind or 

 current, and the fishing goes on. Boats may fish with the same success 

 as vessels when mftored in this manner. This is the wljole system of 

 mackerel fishing, British or American, and requires nothing but activity 

 and energy." 



As already intimated, the mackerel is a capricious and sportive fish^ 

 and continually changing its haunts and habits. When first seen updft 

 the coast in the spring, it is thin and poor. It differs essentially, from 

 one season to another, in size and quality. One year it is fat and large^ 

 and is sought for almost entirely in the Bay Chaleurs ; anon it is lean 

 and small, deserts that bay and the adjacent waters, and fi-equehts 

 George's Banks, or our own shores.* Sometimes, our whole fleet seek 



* Paul Crowell, in a report on the fisheries of Nova Scotia, S"ebrnary, 1858, remarks ; 

 "The maclierel in the spring generally strike the south part of Noto Scotia. From the ISti 

 to the 25th of May they come from the southward, falling in with the Kautuoket and S^, 

 <Jeorge's Shoal ; a large quantity come through the South Channel, and, when abreast of Oap« 

 Cod, shape their course towards the south coast of Nova Scotia. Being bound to Boston this 

 spring, about the 18th of May, I met lai'ge schools of mackerel, about fifty or sixty, to tih« 



