Under this heading are listed those grounds of the innermost chain of
shoals, ledges, and "fishing spots", patches of rocky and gravelly
bottom, the deeper water between them being over the muddy ground, which
line the coast of the Gulf of Maine, making of it an almost continuous
piece of fishing ground. In the Reports of the United States Bureau of
Fisheries, on which all the statistics of the catch and value of the
various species quoted in this report are based, these figures are
grouped under the heading "Shore".

The larger and more important of these grounds are outcroppings along
the edge of the 50-fathom curve and lie at distances varying from 12 to
20 miles offshore; but there are many inside this line, and where the
deep water of the Gulf of Maine extends so far inshore some are close in
to the land. Thus, nearly all are within comparatively easy reach even
for the smaller craft (where these all now have power) and so furnish
productive fishing for a large fleet of gill netters and sloops (small
craft of from 5 to 10 tons net) and to the myriad of "under-ton" boats
(of less than 5 tons net), all these being enabled to run offshore,
"make a set," and return the same day.

With the uncertainties of the weather and the hazards of the winter
fishing, very often the large vessels also follow this practice on those
not too frequent "fish days" (when conditions permit fishing "outside ")
that intervene between the storms; and with the scarcity of fish in the
markets usual to the season and the consequent better price for the
catch, with ordinary fishing luck they are well paid for doing so.

The fish of these shore grounds, due perhaps to the greater abundance of
food here, are thought to be distinctly superior in quality to those of
the same species taken on the offshore banks. The cod and the haddock,