268 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
duce the price of the fish to so low a figure that fishermen are reluctant 
to catch them. The winter of 1885-’86 was, owing to its fluctuating tem- 
perature, a disastrous one, and buyers at Eastport as well as dealers in 
the larger markets, almost without exception, lost money in the busi- 
ness. Another element which has for the past few years seriously in- 
terfered with the demand for frozen herring is the practice adopted by 
dealers on the Great Lakes and elsewhere of artificially freezing any 
surplus of lake herring and other species taken in summer, and retain- 
ing them until cold weather sets in, when the refrigerators are opened 
and the fish are placed upon the market. Still another influence which 
has worked as disastrously as the one already mentioned is the develop- 
ment of large winter fisheries through the ice in the inland lakes of Mani- 
toba, immense quantities of frozen fish being shipped from that region 
to the western markets, thus overstocking them and reducing the price 
of fish of all kinds. The winter fishery about Eastport, however, con- 
tinues to be a very important one, furnishing employment to many men 
and to a large number of vessels and boats. 
A law forbidding the capture of herring on their spawning grounds 
at the southern head of Grand Manan earlier than October 15 prevents 
fishing prior to that date, but as soon as the limitations are over a fleet 
of twenty to twenty-five vessels, mostly from that island and the New 
Brunswick shore in the vicinity of Eastport, with an equal number from 
St. John, visit the locality and engage in the fishery, gradually work- 
ing to the northern end of the island as the season advances and the 
stormy weather sets in ; these being joined by the local fishermen liv- 
ing at the northern end of the island, who set their nets from open boats 
within a short distance of the shore in the vicinity of their own homes. 
The principal fishing-grounds at this time however, are between Deer 
Island and Point Lepreaux, about 30 miles farther east, and in St. An- 
drew’s Bay. The last-named place has less important fisheries than 
formerly ; but the other grounds above mentioned are still the center of 
the fishery during the winter months. The vessels employed in the cap- 
ture of the fish are for the most part of an inferior grade and of small 
size, fully 80 per cent being under 20 tons burden and the largest only 
60 tons, while a vessel of over 40 tons is seldom employed. In addition 
to the vessels, a few of the fishermen living along the shores engage in 
the fishery from smaller craft and from open boats. The smallest ves- 
sels carry only two or three men, while the largest and best equipped 
may have a crew of ten. These are provided with small net-boats and 
an average of two nets to the man. 
They proceed to the fishing-grounds and anchor in a convenient har- 
bor, using the vessel as a home and workshop and as a storage place for 
the fish until they can be sold. The season in this locality begins about 
the 1st of December, and the Grand Manan fleet, which has been em- 
ployed from the middle of October to November 15, having mended their 
nets and made preparations, join the fleet in fishing in this vicinity. 
