The Mackerel Fishery. 



71 



reigns on board of these schooners, whose decks and holds 

 are almost always full of fish, fish barrels, salt, etc. 



Before sailing from their port of outfit for the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, they provide themselves with several barrels 

 of very fat little fish, called poggies, to serve as bait and 

 as feed, for the purpose of attracting mackerel to the surface 

 of the water and retaining them near the vessel. 



At a later period, when the poggies are exhausted, 

 recourse is had to the ofial of the mackerel for bait, and it 

 is prepared in this way : — Whole fishes, or the offal of fishes, 

 either poggies, mackerel, or others, are chopped very fine 

 in a machine something like a chaff or straw cutter, and 

 then put into a large bucket full of salt water ; the mixture 

 is then stirred for a long time with a small paddle, and this 

 is the whole secret of preparing feed for mackerel. Machines 

 for chopping up the fish are sold at from £\ to £\ \os., 

 according to their size. 



As soon as the schooners have reached the place where 

 schools of mackerel are usually found, they keep cruising 

 backwards and forwards, and the moment there is the least 

 appearance of fish, or their presence is even suspected near 

 a vessel, the jibs are taken in, and the vessel is brought to, 

 with the mizen-sail and mainsail veered half round. Feed 

 is then scattered all around from small pails ; the fishermen 

 seize their lines, bait their hooks with small pieces of the 

 skin of the neck of the mackerel or of any other fish (but 

 the mackerel is much preferable), and throw them into the 

 water. The lines are fine, and made of hemp or cotton, 

 generally the latter. They are from six to eight fathoms 

 long, and to one end is fastened a small sinker of polished 

 pewter, oblong in shape, and weighing about two ounces, 

 on which is soldered a middle-sized hook. Each fisher- 

 man plies two lines, one in each hand, and leans on the 



