mud-fish, and kept for home consumption. The other plan is, when a merchant, or any other owning a vessel, lets her to ten or fifteen men on shares. He finds the vessel and nets. The men pay for all the provisions, hooks, and lines, and for the salt necessary to cure their proportion of the fish. One of the number is acknowledged master; but he has to catch fish as well as the others, and receives only about twenty shillings per month for navigating the vessel: the crew have five-eighths of the fish caught, and the owners three-eighths of the whole. The first spring voyage is made to the banks; the second either to the banks, Gulf of St. Lawrence, or the coast of Labrador; the third, or fall voyage, is again to the banks; and a fourth, or second fall voyage, is also made, sometimes, to the banks. QUANTITY and Value of Dried and Pickled Fish Exported from 1791 to 1843. ABSTRACT of the Produce of the Fisheries, Exported from the United States, from August 20th, 1789, to September 30th, 1790. Amount of 2nd Class 127,062 309,157 7,498 22,337 4,095 37,429 3948 60,990 12,474 2,500 30,335 12,360 1,193,428 60 :: 23,162 9,274 1,243 8 120 148 58 55,137 2,990 27 :: 6,150 1,230 4,220 4,834 42 700 :: Danish West Indies. 2,187 Swedish West Indies.. quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals Dutch West Indies.... British West Indies 3,195 62,988 71,495 6,355 8,758 11,567 11,436 1,120 610 British American Colonies.. EXPORTED TO Swedish West Indies..... quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals 20,845 17,142 11,265 9,025 1,557 .... 10,200 113 Spanish West Indies 23,632 33,389 30,916 13,039 7,849 Portugal Madeira West Indies (generally) Europe...... Africa ... Italy Cuba ............ Hayti 21 1,043 38,288 27,928 34,017 52,739 19,048 226 9,676 31,199 12,217 9,941 quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals 2,355 19,929 23,736 16,274 British West Indies... 2,210 French West Indies Spain 75 Spanish West Indies 6,848 68 119 49,983 836 8 4 113 9 683 197 6,533 6,414 Portugal ............. 2,200 2,000 Madeira..................... West Indies.....(generally) 76 202 13,448 Europe.. " Africa ........... Italy 99 Hayti. Brazils, &c........... FISH, Dried, Exported from the United States, from 1834 to 1843, inclusive. Swedish West Indies. 557 284 356 252 quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals quintals 360 Hayti, and the Spanish and Danish West Indies, are the countries to which pickled fish has been principally exported from the United States. Of 102,770 barrels of pickled fish (herrings and mackarel) exported in 1831-2, there were exported to the Danish West Indies, 19,310 barrels ; Dutch West Indies, 7612 barrels; British West Indies, 1992 barrels; Hayti, 29,476 barrels ; Spanish West Indies, 21,560 barrels ; and the remainder to various places. Of 42,274 barrels of pickled fish exported in 1840, there were exported to Danish West Indies, 5078 barrels; to Dutch West Indies, 3537 barrels; to Spanish West Indies, 12,672 barrels ; to Hayti, 16,605 barrels; and the remainder to various places. The greater part of the pickled fish caught and cured by the fishermen of the United States is consumed at home. The rivers of the United States, especially those of the New England states, are frequented by salmon, shad, and various other fish. The shad fishery is rather important. Extract from report on this fishery :— 6 "The shad fishermen have been very successful the present season. It is estimated that 3000 barrels have been already taken in the Sound between Monomoy point and Bass river. The shad fishery on our shores was commenced by a few individuals four years ago. Now, between 200 and 300 men, principally from Connecticut, are engaged in it. The fish are taken with seines, of which two kinds are used; one made of great length and depth for the purpose of surrounding scools of shad where the water is from five to seven fathoms deep; and the other kind are fitted for meshing, the seine being trailed out from a boat or vessel, and the shad, in attempting to run through it, are caught by their gills. The long purse seines' require a crew of sixteen men to manage them, and are capable of holding an immense number of fish. Captain David Baker, took, at one haul, 200 barrels of shad, and Captain Judah Baker, also enclosed as large a number, but a shark broke through the seine, and made a passage for the shad to escape. Present appearances indicate that the taking of shad on our coast, will soon become as important a branch of business as the cod and mackarel fishery. We are informed that they have, at a certain season of the year, always been abundant in the waters of the Sound, but until recently, no means had been discovered for taking them in the open sea, in sufficiently large quantities to justify the expense of fitting out vessels on purpose to take them. It is believed that shad, like mackarel, in the spring, proceed northward along the coast, and that the fishermen, when they better understand their habits, will be enabled to follow VOL. II. 4 E them as they now do the mackarel. They arrive in the Vineyard sound the last of May, or beginning of June, and then, as the weather advances, proceed northward along the coast as far as Nova Scotia. But the fact that they are taken very nearly as early in the rivers of Maine as in the Sound, seems to favour the supposition that they are a deep water fish, and only visit the coast in the months of May and June, to deposit their spawn." Hansard's Register for 1841. Salmon.-The rivers of Maine are those to which salmon resort more than to others. The Portland Argus, alluding to the salmon fishery of 1840, observes, "Salmon are very plentiful this season. Dr. Drew of Augusta, says, that one morning lately, he noticed in the market, 150 that had been taken near our wharfs the previous night. Their weight, we should think, would be about seventeen pounds each. At ten cents per pound, this would make that night's fare worth 255 dollars. We understand that one has been caught in Bath this season, weighing seventy pounds. It was sent to Boston, for the epicures. They have been sold as low as eight cents per pound, though the price, when they first appear in market, is one dollar per pound." MACKAREL FISHERY OF THE UNITED STATES. This fishery is carried on chiefly from the New England states-chiefly from Massachusetts. In the ports of which there were inspected the following number of barrels of mackarel, during the years 1838 to 1842 inclusive, viz. : The following sketch is interestingly descriptive of the mode of fishing at sea for mackarel. Extract from "A Journal of a Mackarel Cruise:" "On the 6th of July, a fair wind carried us beyond the bar of Newbury port; in a few moments, and we were soon rolling and tossing on the briny deep. Before dark a thunder storm arose, which lasted all night. "We sailed south, and on Friday morning was sixty miles south of Nantucket, but did not fall in with any mackarel until Saturday, when we were called to our lines before dawn of day, by the skipper, who, holding the morning watch, had discovered that there was a scool around us. They bit well for about three-quarters of an hour, and we salted seven barrels that morning. It was at this time that I learned the process of taking them. "Every person has two lines, with two hooks on each, and even when the fish are most plentiful, an experienced hand can with perfect ease tend two lines, while a tyro finds difficulty in preventing one from becoming entangled, as he draws in the fish or throws the line out again. Mackarel always go in scools, but it is not every scool that will bite; when they will not bite they are said to be scooling.' In this case, they are seen in large numbers, with their heads nearly out of water, swimming with great swiftness, sometimes in a direct line, and sometimes round and round, having the appearance of being frightened. A scool can be seen half a mile distant, and whenever one is perceived, the vessel endeavours to run into it,' and stop it by throwing bait among them, which they some |