The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1906-10-11

the production of 1t by the hardy
fishermen who go out upon our fish
ing banks at this season of the year
means. What dangers they face and
what risks they take to furnish for
our enjoyment the fish which please
our palate and add so much to our
food supplies. The supply of ocean
caught fresh fish has been of con-
tinuous but slow growth, until now
1t has reached the enormous amount
of one hundred million pounds year
landed in Boston alone direct from
the fishing boats, to which may be
added forty million pounds more
landed at other points along the New
England coast and transported by
railroads and steamboats, to Boston
to be distributed all over the United
States and the Dominion of Canada.
Tsis does not include the halibut
caught in southeastern Alaska by
Boston-owned steamers constructed
expressly for fishing in those waters
and transported by rail from Pacific
ports by express trains landing the
ten days from the time they were
caught and often in less time, of
which there were landed here about
ten million pounds, also one million
pounds of fresh salmon from the
rivers of Washington, Oregon and
California. Our fishing boats and
manner of fishing have changed very
much during the growth and develop
ment of this business, which dates
back about sixty years, when the
business of bringing fresh fish to the
Boston market first began. At that
time there were only a few small
boats, carrying four or five men
which carried on their fishing in Mas
sachusetts and Barnstable bays, fish
ing during the day and coming to
market during the night to be here
in the early morning with their catch,
disposing of what they could, which
was often small portion of their
catch, and taking those for which
there was no sale outside of Boston
light and tossing them overheard,
and catching some more to go back
to market with. At that time the
market was purely local one, and
the fish were distributed from hand
carts and pedlers' wagons in their
immediate vicinity. 1t is no exag-
geration to say more fresh fish are
often landed now in Boston in one
day than were landed then in whole
year. and it is query often asked,
where do they all go? There is hard
ly railroad train leaves this city
but what part of its capacity is filled
with fresh fish. The facilities for
distributing them has kept pace with
the production and demand, and they
are carried into every town and city
of this country east of the Mississippi
River and north of the Potomac and
Ohio, some being distributed to still
greater distances, but the territory
mentioned is the principal territory
over which they are distributed.
With the custom of packing them in
ice the business very much increased.
When this innovation was first sug-
gested the fishermen held up their
hands in holy horror. What, pack
our fish in ice!! Fresh water ice! 1t
will spoil the fish. They will not be
fit to eat. Whoever heard of such a
ridiculous thing as trying to keep salt
water fish with fresh-water ice? But
some of the more progressive skip
pers thought the experiment worth
trying, and of course in short time
proved the fallacy of the theory that
fresh-water ice would spoil saltwater
fish. This also improved the condi-
tions for distributing the fish. The
dealers found that fish packed in ice
would keep in good condition for
several days, and consequently could
be transported farther. Fish mar
kets sprang up all over New Eng
land, and the demand caught up with
the supply, and no more fish were
carried out past Boston light and
thrown overheard for want of a mar
ket. The fish at that time were all
caught by hand line, as it is called,
the boats being anchored and the
fishermen fishing with one or two
lines to a man. Soon after the gen.
eral use of ice in packing, the de-
man so increased the hand-line style
of fishing found itself unable to sup
ply the demand.
About this time the trawl came in
to use, being used by some Irish fish,
ermen who had used them on the
Irish coast. They were roundly
cursed by the hand liners, who
thought the business was doomed,
but they soon found If they were
going "to keep up with the process
sion" they must adopt the trawl, and
as the fleet of boats was increasing
they must look out for other fishing
grounds, as the waters of Massachu-
setts and Barnstable bays did not
afford grounds enough for the fleet
to fish over, and they began to go
farther out and have continued to ex-
tend the area of their fishing grounds
until at the present time the entire
coast of New England and Nova
Scotia are covered by our fishing
boats in pursuit of their business Of
catching fresh fish for the Boston
market.
There has been the same advance
and perhaps even greater in the size
and style of vessels used in fishing
as along other lines of business. The
crack American fishing vessel has at
all times stood next only to the crack
American yacht, than which there
are no safer or faster sailing vessels