Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1888 — DENIZENS OF THE DEER. [ARTICLE]

DENIZENS OF THE DEER.

COD, HADDOCK AND HALIBUT, AND HOWTHEY ARECAUGHT. Itonton ih* Greatest Fl»h Market in the World With One Exception—Mackerel, Herring and All-wives. Hot ton qpr St. Lowta Globe-Democrat. This town is, with one exception—Billingsgate—the greatest fish market in the world. From the waters hereabout is drawn the supply of cod, haddock and halibut for all the l jutted States, save only the pacific coast, off which other fields are found. Mackerel, too, and her- * « ring, with their little cousins, the alewives, and hake, scup, bntterflsh, OWtog, sea bass and eels are brought in, vast quantities to this port. The harvesting of the scaly crop each year is an industry of gigantic pro]tortious, employing the services of many thousand able seamen, and a multitude of vessels, both big and small. These vessels are the finest of their kind to he found anywhere, not a few of them vicing in tjie expensiveness of their constructsm and Hie elaborateness of their equipment with first-class yachts. "Speed, next to safety, is the chief desideratum In the modern fishing boat, and even Mr. Burgess, the celebrated designer of pleasure craft that beat the world, has not disdained to build sloops and schooners which contend with frantic emulation from season to season for the proud distinction of “high-line of the fleet.”

The fishing grounds off the New England shore are the most valuable known. To the interest felt by rival nations in securing possession of them, history mainly attributes the colonization of North America. The reports of early explorers touching the wealth of the Western seas -coming at a period when Roman Catholic Europe consumed an incalculable amount of fish in times of religious fasting —gave rise to the most intense excitement, and set on foot business speculations which were destined, in the course of years, to conjure up the spectre of> gfim-visaged war. For two centuries the French and English fought over the profitable waters, which even at the present day are a subject of international dispute. The early colonists earned their bread and butter chiefly with hook and line, and in those days the salary of the minister, the debt due the merchant, and in fact most pecuniary obligations; were paid in the staple commodity, fish. And in this present year of grace, 1888, the population along the North Atlantic shore subsists to a great extent on a fish diet, and is supported mainly by tlie sale of the jpeat ocean’s tinny inhabitants, fresh and salted. the “t” wiiarf. At this season of the year, when the fishing season is just opening, the huge . “T**. wharf—where all the fishing business of Boston is concentrated —is a scene of bustling activity. On every side schooners and sloops, whose tall masts rise like a forest of bare poles about the dock, are being prepared for sea. Mariners, more or less ancient, tanned with many a summer’s sun, and clad in overalls yet bespotted with the slime of last year’s cod and haddock, squat upon the decks, examining with anxious care the nets and drawls —mending with skillful lingers the meshes broken by lucky fishes that got away, and replacing here and there

a missing hook, as the lines are passed in coil, fathom by fathom, from one tub to another. The shops of the wholesale and retail dealers, which extend in rows the length of the wharf, are piled to the ceilings with stacks of dried codfish, smoked halibut and mysterious barrels of salt-water products pickled. “ The floors are half awash with brine, in which the corpses of freshly caught and disemboweled eels, together With manyother creatures of the vasty deep, float cheerfully around, while weather-beaten skippers in tarpaulen hats drive the hardest bargains they can with the proprietors. Nor, indeed, are they likely to come out much ahead in such deals. The fishermen are lucky if they get 5c a pound for halibut and 11c for cod and haddock. But every' housewife knows wliat a small fraction this represents of the cost of the fish when she buys them in the market. The profit of the middlemen are, as with anything else, enormous.

THREE GREAT FOOD FISHES. Of the 150,000,000 pounds of fish captured annually off this coast and landed at the “T” wharf, the bnlk consists of cod, haddock aud halibut. On the great “hanks,” or shallows, which extend for hundreds of miles in the midst of the deep ocean, far from land, these ogres of sea gather by myriads in the spring time, coming up from the fathomless waters, whither they have retreated to excape the winter’s cold, to feast upon the countless shoals of smaller fry- that are’bred for the soul purpose, seemingly, qf providing food tor rawnwnS- As the warm weather approaches, the herring. alewives. and other such fagfatonable fishes, arrive from the .Southern -watering places, where they have been spending the cOfd months, so unendurable von knowr~in~Tfifs abominable climate. Those slippery customers, the. eomP down from—the little yreeks and estuaries, where they have found comfortable beds ot nice warm mud to hibernate in. «,In brief! it is the joyous season Tn the briny depth ine well ns on the dry °p** h ' ( As a rule a vessel goes on a fishing expedition with some particular, sort of prey

in view. A “cod” rig will also serve for haddock, but for halibut stronger tackle and bigger hooks are needed, whilq mackerel ahd herring must be taken in nets. Thus it is tjiat boats usually sail from ports equipped suitably for capturing a single kind of fish, to the netting or hooking of which each craft devotes its exclusive attention. LINES A MILK i-OXG. For halibut, haddock and the toothsome cod, the banks, hundreds of miles out tosea, ah' sought by the vessels of from ninety to twice that many tons burden, which spend there as many months as are necessary to secure a load; or “fare,” as it is technically called. The system ®f angling pursued by these “pot-hunters” would scarcely obtain the approval of lovers of sport. Lines a mile or.so in length,, with hooks attached at six feet intervals, are anchored in the shallows over the banks; with buoys of wood or cork to mark them. These “trawls”— for so they are designated—are set at night and in the morning, every hook freshly baited with a scrap of fish, and twice in twenty-four hours they are hauled up hand over hand by men in dories, who detach such victims as are caught and •tenew the free lunch offered to the scaly rounders of the ocean. As fast as they are taken the cod or halibut are dried in the sun and salted down in the vessels’ holds, whence the former are shoveled out many weeks later, in the leather-like condition one buys them in at the corner grocery. The latter are delivered at the “T” wharf, and subsequently The fresh halibut and cod one mitre in the market are caught near shore A>y smacks which make two trips sMvytu* to the .less distant grounds. In this way are taken nearly all the haddock, which are sold unsalted for the most part, owing to the comparatively small number found. Halibut is by far the most profitable game for the fishermen. A fair-sized one at 5c a pound, is worth several dollars, and it is not unusual to find them weighing three hundred weight apiece. Such big fellows, at 510 or 515 each, soon make up a satisfactory cargo. But, as has been said, the “rig” for catching them is more expensive. Lines as big as your little finger are required to hold them, and other tackle of proportionate strength and size! A simple cod rig costs $25 per man for each of the dozen or so of stout sailor boys who make up the crew of a first-class sea-going fishing boat. The arrangement usually made is that the skipper who employs the men pays all the expenses of a voyage from , the sum he recieves for his cargo. One-fifth of what remains “goes to the boat,” or, in other words, is the captain's share. The balance is divided equally among the crew, each of whelm is thus made a part-

ner in the venture —an arrangement well calculated to stimulate activity- in the pursuit of edibles that swim. And this is where the swiftness of the vessels is use ful, in chasing the schools and in making trips out and home' again as short as may be. A great pest of the deep-sea fishermen is the proundshark; but now and then one is caught as big as a dory—say--12 feet long—and its liver will fill twelve buckets, at $1.50 a bucket, for oil. Even the cheeks and tongues of the cod which, in old times'w-ere thrown away, are now turned into money. Many people like to eat them fried, and one. dealer told the writer that he himself had sold $50,000 worth of them in the last eight years. The entrails of all the fish are disposed of for fertilizing purposes. FlSir SENT EVERYWHERE BY RAII,. From Boston the cod and halibutmuch less, however, the latter —are sent all over the country, the halibut most smoked and the cod dried, as you see them everywhere. In summer they are packed in ice, to keep them, and go byfast express. In winter they travel by slow freight and do not require anyartificial cooling. A good many cod are put up in boneless shape, in 40-pound boxes.

The first mackerel are now making their appearance in the market. They cqme from Nova Scotia, and such big and fine ones are not caught hereabout. The ways of this curious fish no fellow, scientific or otherwise, has ever been able to find out. They always strike the Nova Scotian shore early in the spring—coming from no one knows where—in shoals of bouncing, fat monsters, destined subsequently to be labeled “No. 1,” in boxes. They are caught in wells, a method of capture forbidden by law in New England waters. After four weeks or so they travel further north, and never come near here at all. The smaller ones taken on this coast are caught in “purse seines” 300 fathoms long, which are run out in a circle around a school, sunk by weights at the bottom, and then drawn in such a manner as to irtclose the struggling fish in & sort of bag. From the net, when pulled up to the surface, ttiby are taken with a dip-net and dumped into the boats. The most profitable fish caught inshore are the little alewives, so delicious smoked for hreakfasFarnT much prizedtor bait, which, at this time of the year, be* gin to frequent the creeks and inlets all along this coast. So valuable is this branch of the New England fisheries that -Tire rift! it to fish—sack—scasaiL.Ja_the. estuaries and streams that flow into the ■sca-i* sold-at- Ahe__.high£sL bidder, by the township which holds proprietary'rights in tho waters—--Three <Tnv« in the week the btfyer is permitted ni thoiidet qr river; but during the four remaining days the fish must be given a r clianee to increase and multiply. Any

citizen of the township, however, is permitted to catch any amount less than a bushel rif the little herring any day he pleases. Those caught in the net are hauled up on the marsh and gathered; up in baskets. The bigger herririg are captured with a net let down .over the stern of the boat. The smelt season —so important to the fishermen —does not begin until the cold inontlts, when professional anglers snake them out of holes cut in the ice with chisels; Tents or screens are used for shelter by the sportsmen, who keep warm the frogs they employ as bait by holding them in their mouths. The Nova Scotians take the smelts, by wholesale in nets, hut such foul mbans are not permitted here. These fish usually arrive aFTflii port~lrbzen and are sold fresh. It is estimated that 100,000 pounds of them come in at the “T” wharf annually. CAPTCRrXG THE ELUSIVE EEL FOB MARKET. Very early,in the spring men go out with spears in the swampy meadows that border the little creeks and tread about with bare feet until they come upon a place where the mud is soft. In such a spot there is likely to be a spring of fresh water, and the spears thrust down through the ooze bring up at every stroke, between their prongs, writhing eels. It is nothing unusual to get! three or four bucketsful out of one hole. Most of the eels marketed, however—and vast quantities of them are brought here —are taken by the familiar process known as “bobbing.” In other words, they are fished for at night with bunches of worms done up in loops at the end of a string. Many are caught in traps known as “eel-pots,” from which the poor victim is unable to make his escape, having once strayed in after the food set as a bait. Eel-skins are worth $2 a hundred for flails. They are also used as bluefish bait, and by rheumatic patients to tie around the limb affected. The livers of all the food fish are valuable for the oil they contain. Herring _ and menhaden—the latter not a food fish, of course—are tried out whole. They are first cooked to shreds in steam tanks and then run into presses in the form of much. The liquid squeezed out is poured into other tanks, where the oil rises to the top and is run oft’. The residue —called “chum”—is sold as a fertilizer. The livers of other fish are mostly permitted to undergo a fermenting process in the sun. They are allowed to rot in tanks and the oil is skimmed off as it is developed. But the steam is a quicker decomposing agent and is chiefly used in the manufacture of cod liver oil. The cod livers—only the young and* sound ones being taken —are carefully cleaned and boiled in steam tanks. The resulting oilis poured into hags and pressed, the sfearine remaining inside and the oleine oozing through. The latter is the refined cod-liver oil of commerce, and may be bought on the wliart—if you will bring your own receptacle—for $1.25 per gallon, considerably less than its selling price at the apothecary’s. Other fish oils are all used mainly for leather dressing. As a rule, they are adulterated more or less with whale oil, this being almost the only purpose to which the once-prized product of the great cetacean is now put. Gloucester, Eastport—where the great herring-sardine industry is located— Portland, and all-the famous-fishing-ports on this coast, are merely tributary to Boston. The fish they catch and prepare for market are all shipped Weßtaud South through this city. Thus, when you have cod, halibut, mackerel or herring for breakfast, you may consider-that you are permitted to enjoy a morsel of brain food from the modem Athens.