The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-08-12
PokpOiss CATCHING.
4 Business That Would Be Profitable II
One Could Catch Enough Porpoisess

4 Business That Would Be Profitable 10
One Could Catch Enough Porpoises.
A Groton man, Benjamin J. Gardi
ner of Poqionnoe Bridge, who dwells
at the head of the Poquontioc estuary,
in which oysters are raised on poles
stuck III the mud, is trying hard to do
a paying business Catching porpoises.
All fishermen try to catch porpeise il
chance offers, because it is a valuable
fish, but NO one ever tried to make por-
poise catching VOCATION until Gardiner
undertook to do it. His neighbors
laugh at him. A year ago or more
Captain Gardiner fitted out a couple
of sail boats, hired crew of eleven
men, had coarse seine made halt
mile in length or longer, and sailed
away to the porpoise grounds. Nearly
all saltwater harbors and estuaries are
frequented by the fish, which come
putting and tumbling into them in
chase Of their prevail kinds of small
fish But the best ground il Coecle,
harbor at Shelter Island.
In the waters of this harbor hun.
dreds of porpoises are sometimes seen
and wild and rollickfng scene it is,
with acres of the sleek, black afflmals
tipping over and over like floating car
boys, as they plunge after their food.
| To landsman they Seem to be doing
! it for fun, but it is serious fin to them
| and to smaller fish. Shoals of mackers
Ell, herring, bony fish, and, in the sea-
son, porgies, are their game, and the
sharp jaws of the porpoise, each armed
with forty-five or fifty teeth, do MUIR
| derous work that stains the sea with
crimson. Often mackerel and herring
shoals are driven nearly on the beaches
by their remorseless pursuers. or up
broad rivers almost to the head of tide
water. Porpoises have been seen in
the Thames river as far north as Kite.
maug, seven or eight miles above the
city, in pursuit of flying bony fish
Captain Gardiner sailed into Coeclet
harbor one day last summer, dropped
his big seine overheard, and next
morning his men rolled half dozen
fat porpoises upon the beach. Sew.
eral other casts were made, but none
were as successful az Captain Gardi.
ner had anticipated that they would be.
All through the summer he fished foi
porpoises, but with only partial sue.
cess. The big fellows broke through
his stout netting and away the whole
shoal rushed out through the opening.
They toppled over his seine and wound
themselves up in it, and so made IL
practically useless to stop the escape
the other fish until the snarl was
Strengthened.
i Captain Gardiner lost money tryins
10 catch porpoises last season, but he
went to work again this spring with
redoubled energy. He has not been
successful yet; the catches have moi
remunerated him for the expenses oil
the trip. A week or more ago hi
crew had two days of fine luck, taking
nine porpoises on one day and twenty
FIVE on the next. So not yet have
Captain GARDENERS efforts decided tht
question whether it will pay to system
atically hunt porpoises, but he meanl
to continue the business. The bigges
porpoise he has caught weighed eigh
hundred pounds. The little ones weigh
not more than fifty or one hundred
| pounds.
Not particle of the porpoise il
wasted in preparing it for the market
First, the skin is taken off, which ID
superior even to alligator hide for car
rage leather and for shoes. The skin
is nearly an inch thick, but it is planee
down until it becomes nearly translu
cent. The blubber is tried out, yield
ing an oil equal to the hest sperm oil
for lubricating, and two ether grade.
! are made from the head and jaw, botf
being superior to that from the blub
Der. The jaw oil is used by jewellers
and watchmakers, who pay at the rat
of fifteen dollars a gallon for 1t
The meat is cut out and soil
to those who are fond of it. There
!, is tradition that anciently it wa
, so highly esteemed that it was in de
mand for the table of royalty. In tn
times of Queen Elizabeth it was serve,
to the mobiles of England with brea,
crumbs and vinegar. 1t is chic
dainty of the Greenlanders. 1t is dark
solored and bloody. The carcass of tn
; porpoise is thrown in with menhaden
and little more oil is tried out of il
: after which it becomes fertilizer. Al
! average porpoise is worth in all abou
: forty dollars.
,, The trap commonly used to cate
them with is large netof strong rope
!, which is stretched over large area {
water, lager beer barrels being attache
to the edges at intervals. By an AZ
5 paratus worked from the shore til
: barrels are forcibly submerged Will
I the porpoises are coming into the feet
: ing grounds, and when a number I
J. them are directly over the net til
0 strain on the barrels is relaxed. an
g they rise to the surface behind the fisl
J, which find themselves imprisoned in
e pen. 1t costs about three thousar
= dollars to equip q irst-class trap.-Ne
. London Cor. NJ z. Sun.
4 e