Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1880-09-08
A Maine Farmer and Fisherman.

1t was the islander who was both farmer
and fisherman, as person uniting in him.
self the two most ancient and honorable
professions, that aroused IN Middleton the
principal interest. Such one could not
take the trips Of two to three weeks with
| the seiners of the coast fleet; still less could
he so the long voyages Of the bankers, to the
| bays OF L'Escaut and Chaleurs. to Green
land and even as sometimes happens, to
| the coast of Iceland, for fresh balibut,
where they join the fleets of Northern
France, the Netherlands, and the Scandi-
navians. He must attend the lobster-traps;
set weirs for herring, menhsden, alewives,
and N ackerel; keep drag nets and travis;
perhaps, if tavorably located, make a
a speciality Of supplying bait to the fleet,
which, now that 1t must be kept iced, is
often IN great straits for it. Between times
he runs to she for day or two in his
cat-boat, his Hampton boat" or his
jigger. The cat boat, it appeared, was
the better sailor, since the more canvas in
q single sail, the closer into the wind; but
the Hampton boat-a modified pink stern,
with shoulder oi-mutton sails on its small
masts-was the 'abler," that is to say,
better qualified to stand the exigencies of
al lsorts of weather. The jIgger, however,
a small schooner of perhaps forty feet long
by ten feet beam, with considerable hold,
and a cabin with four hunks, a table, and
a rusty sheet-iron stove for
ward, seemed the most available for general
purposes, whether for taking haul OF fish,
''smacking" a load of Holsters, wood. OF
ice, or hawking load of apples at retail
from port TO port, where they were a
rarity.
A professional ''dragger" carried nearly
mile OF nets. They were straight and
not very deep. The fish was meshed in
them by the gills. Thus by the regulation
of the size of mesh only picked fish need
be taken, while the great purse seines of
the fleet take everything, destroy at every
aaul value nearly equal to what is saved
and tend toward rapid extinction of the
fish, as Middleton was told, besides having
already reduced the average size.
The trawl was another engine of formid-
able havoc, against which there was equal
complaint. Ii is the method in use among
the bankers, except on Georges, where
the tide runs too swift for anything but ly-
ing 10 an anchor, and hand-lining over the
side. The purse seine and the trawl are
the TWO methods of taking fish par erceL
teilce, the fCrI er for the mackere. the
after for all The OH rs of yea, STEER When
Middleton saw trawl, he found that it
was long cord with hundreds of baited
Looks liked at intervals along it. Ii was
sunk so as to rest on the bottom, buoyed
al both ends, and left there. a trawler
kept great numbers of these lines neatly
coIIed in tubs, and set them one after
another. After a sufficient lapse of time,
he went back to the first, and ''underran"
1t, that is drew up one end, passed it over
his boat, taking of the fish, and batting
the hooks anew, and paid it out al one
side as he took it in at the other. The
method pursued by the bankers was to
carry twelve or fourteen dories, which
were put out when the fishing ground was
arrived at, with two men in each, provided
With Tbs of travis a. discretion.
1t was the sun-cu ed salt-fish that was
the iavorite article of diet in the islanders
households, while very little account was
made of the fresh. The young people had
some merry customs of their own with it.
They represented that if certain particu-
larly salt strip in the centre called the
dream ''line," were eaten before going to
bed, the girl or the young man one was to
marry would be indicated by appearing in
a vislol and handing him OF her glass of
wafer