Sunday on fishing vessels except in the cessation of card playing. It is a day for work; but it is rarely that games are carried on by the crew on the Sabbath.1

The pursuit of the mackerel and the cod, with his allied kindred, the haddock, hake, halibut, pollock and cusk, constitute the deep-sea fishery of New England. The capture of the swordfish, the bluefish, and the herring is not commonly looked upon as possessing the same significance in the fisheries that is possessed by the aspirant for those fish that are found in the deeper and broader stretches of the ocean. The methods of pursuit and capture of mackerel may be representative of the class of vessels that fish for their cargoes by means of seines. There is another class of vessels engaged in the fisheries that may be described by using a trawler for an example of the methods pursued. Mackerel and ground fish are caught almost entirely by the two methods of seining and of trawling, respectively. Net fishing, drag nets, and hand lines are occasionally resorted to to-day in the mackerel fishery; but this is to a limited extent as compared with the amount of fish captured by the purse-seine. Handline fishing from the vessel and from the dory for ground fish is resorted to somewhat; but the wholesale method employed is that of trawling. Imagine a stout cordline a mile or more in

1 NOTE.-Some of the expense items of a mackerel schooner are ice, the quantity taken being from 10 to 30 tons; 50 to 75 barrels of salt worth $1.75 per hogshead; four hundred barrels at about one dollar each; food supplies for a crew of eighteen men that cost from $150 to $200 per month. The cost of ice, barrels and salt for the season depends largely upon the amount of fish taken. One-half the gross stock of the vessel, after deducting the value of salt, barrels and gasoline used in making the stock, is divided equally among the vessel's crew; the other half goes to the owners of the schooner. The average share per man for a crew of eighteen varies from $22 to $28 for every $1,000 worth of stock, depending on the expenses and the length of time of the trip.

length having tied to it at distances of six feet other lines smaller in size and about three feet in length, each fitted with a hook at the end. Such an arrangement of lines and hooks is called a trawl.

The build of the trawler differs little from that of the seiner except that the sails may be stronger, and there may be an extra riding-sail aboard. The complement of crew is about the same; food must be provided in abundance especially when the trawler goes to the Grand Bank of Newfoundland for several weeks or months; the icehouses of the hold are furnished with a supply of frozen herring to be used for bait; instead of many empty barrels in the hold as in the case of the mackerel seiner there is an abundant supply of salt; on deck are found eight or more dories, one stowed away in the other; and around in different places are tubs made from barrels and casks in which the trawls are neatly coiled. The trawler-fisherman pursues his calling in winter as in summer, sometimes amid the severest hardships of the sea.

When the vessel reaches the fishing ground the captain awaits a favorable opportunity to set the trawls. This does not mean calm weather or even an approach to it. Often sets are made when the sea is running high, before the full fury of a storm has abated. But the weather conditions must be clear, else there is great risk of losing some of the dories and their crews. The frozen herring are taken from the ice-house, cut into pieces and the hooks baited each with a piece. As the trawl is baited it is taken from one tub and coiled into another. With this work done the tubs are placed in the dories, these are hoisted overboard, and two men go with each dory. One seats himself at the oars and pulls steadily away while the other is busied in flinging the trawl over into the sea. The first end of the trawl is made fast to a buoy which is

usually a small cask, in order that the trawl may be readily found when necessary.

A second dory is lowered from the vessel about a quarter of a mile from the first, and so on until all have been sent away. The men in the dories set their trawls, sometimes a second one near the first, and soon begin to underrun them. This process consists in hauling the trawl aboard the dory again. The signal for underruning the trawls usually is given by the captain from the vessel in order that the trawls may be set no longer than he thinks proper, as he is a better judge of weather conditions than are the men who are busied about their work. When a trawl is thrown into the water it has a ground-line attached so that it can sink into the water the required depth and the trawl be kept in part of its length, at least, from resting on the bottom of the sea.

In the bow of the dory is placed a "gurdy," or broad wheel, over which the trawl is placed when it is hauled aboard the boat. As the trawl comes aboard fish are found on the hooks. These are freed from the hook and landed in the bottom of the boat by the one who hauls the trawl by a dexterous yank and twist. The other man receives the hooks as they come aboard, baits them, and coils the trawl again into the tubs for use at another time. When the trawl has been hauled, or all of them if more than one is used, the men seat themselves at the oars and pull for the vessel. Hauling a mile and a half of trawl from ocean bottom on a cold day in winter takes more strength and pluck than the average laborer possesses. These men who go down into the sea in winter are strong, tough, plucky fellows, the like of whom it would be hard to find in any other calling.

Usually the vessel meets the dories more than half way in picking them up. By the time the last dory is found it is dark; there may be some trouble in finding this one,

especially if the fog suddenly shuts in and the wind springs up. Then comes the terror of being lost in the fog, of rowing for hours and days at a time in order to reach land, the dread experience of having to pass sleepless nights and disappointing days at the oars in the ceaseless labor of rowing. Many strayed dories are picked up by other vessels; others reach the coast and are cared for; some are overwhelmed by storms that arise and their crew meet a quick death in the sea; while to a few that cruel fate of insanity and starvation aboard their frail craft is reserved. The hardships that befall the life of a fisherman can only be realized by following in his steps and being an active participant in the hazardous, laborious, and ill-paid calling of the followers of the sea.

The process of curing cod, haddock, hake, pollock, and cusk is essentially the same as was practiced a century ago. As soon as the dories return to the vessel the dressing of the fish is begun. The usual gang aboard a Grand Bank vessel consists of a "throater," a "gutter," and a "splitter." The first-named person cuts the fish across the throat below the gills, slits open the abdominal walls and cuts off the fish's head. The "gutter" removes the organs that are contained within the abdominal walls, the livers being thrown into a barrel to be saved for their oil, the other parts being cast overboard. The fish then passes to the splitter who, with a knife that is rounded at the end, cuts along each side of the backbone from the ventral side towards the back and removes the bone from the fish. Care is taken that the cut does not extend too deep and appear through the fish, or too far from the bone and thus leave much flesh on the bone that is removed. Sometimes the "sounds," or air bladders, are removed from the backbones and saved. The fish, after being split, are thrown into tubs of salt water and thoroughly washed. The salting of fish may be accomplished in either of two

ways, one being called the kench cure, the other the pickle cure. In the former process, the fish are thoroughly salted and placed in regular piles on top of each other, called kenches. In this way pickle that is formed can drain off freely. Pickle-cured fish are salted and then placed in large tubs or butts, where the pickle is retained. The kench-cured fish make a drier product and are better suited for a warm market. Generally the fish are salted in kenches aboard vessels and in butts on shore. The fish remain in kenches until the vessel reaches port. If the trip is a long one-the "Grand Banker" may be gone three or four months on a trip-there may be need to rekench that part of the cargo that was first secured.

After the fish are landed on the dock they are culled into different grades, the principal being large cod, which includes all over 22 inches in length when salted; medium or small cod, between 16 and 22 inches in length; and snappers, which are below 16 inches. If the cargo is a mixed one, the cod are separated from the others. The first process ashore is to wash the fish and again place them in butts, after another salting. When the time comes for them to be dried they are removed from the pickle of the butts and piled on each other in order that the pickle may drain off. These kenches of fish are about three feet high. Sometimes weights are placed on top of the kenches in order that the pickle may be pressed out quicker. This process of draining the pickle from the fish is called "waterhorsing." From the water-horsing the fish go to the flakes where they are spread out in the sun to dry. Fish flakes are raised about two and one-half feet from the ground, and are made by nailing narrow strips of wood about three or four inches apart on top of long stringers. This arrangement allows the free circulation of the air to all parts of the fish.

The time required for drying depends upon the market