Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/553

 THE S. li. OOODAL. {i:i:l �tue business has been that seamen on board steamers reoeire one-half of the catch at a tariff rate established, printed, and circulated in the winter before sailing by the Maine Oil & G-aano Asaociation. The following is the tarifif which was established on January 14, 1879, for the season of 1879 : "Voted, to pay the following priees for fish at factory: 30 cents per barrel to August Ist, 60 cents per barrel to Septem- ber 20th, and 80 cents per barrel to the end of the season in Maine." The priee of bait was fixed at $1.25 per barrel to August Ist, and $1.50 to the end of the season, to be equally divided between factory, steamer, and crew. The Maine fish are fatter and more valuable than the western fish, but do not corne 80 early in the summer, and leave earlier in the fall, consequently there is an opportunity for the eastern fleet to fish in western waters early in the season, and to retum and fish after the Maine fish have left the eastern coast. This System has gradually become prevalent, and for the last four or five years it is a universal praetice for the eastern fleet to fish also in the spring, and in the fall, if practieable, in west- ern waters, going to the east in June and staying as late as the success of the business permits. When the men are flhipped, no special contract is in general made. For the Maine fishing, the rule of payment is in accordance with the tariff of the Maine Oil & Guano Association. The western fishing was at first an incident and not a main part of the business, and the general understanding has been that the seamen should receive for their one-half of the spring western catch the "going priee," — that is to say, the established price which was being in fact paid in western waters, — and if they returned and fished in the fall they should receive what should be thereafter established by the general consent of the owners. This habit of settlement has grown up, partly because the eastern fishing was the best part of the business and the western fishing was not so much thought about, and partly because it had now got to be a habit among the own- ers of the eastern fleet to establish themselves the prices for the seamen. I cannot find that the eastern crews, when they fished in ��� �