THE CRAB FISHERIES. 635 



Three large canneries, two located at Hampton, Va., and one at Oxford, Md., are engaged in 

 packing crabs in hermetically sealed cans during the crabbing season. This industry is of recent 

 origin, but has already assumed considerable proportions. It is described further on. 



4. COAST REVIEW OF THE BLUE CRAB FISHERY. 



NEW ENGLAND. The blue crab is not known from north of Massachusetts Bay, where it is 

 of rare occurrence, but it ranges along the entire southern coast of New England from Cape Cod 

 to New York. At no place upon this section of coast, however, is crab-catching carried on as a 

 regular business, mainly for the reason that this species of crab is less abundant here than to the 

 south of New York, where it is more easily and cheaply obtained. Blue crabs are common in 

 Buzzard's Bay, especially in the vicinity of New Bedford, and enter the mouths of the rivers dur- 

 ing the summer in large numbers. Acushnet River, near New Bedford, is described as a great abid- 

 ing place for crabs in the summer season, and as affording good facilities for their capture. In tho 

 spring the average weekly catch is stated to be about four hundred crabs, but in the fall the num- 

 ber taken is sometimes as great as forty thousand per week. Some of these crabs are used as 

 food, being retained in New Bedford or sent to Providence or New York, but by far the greater 

 portion are employed as bait for tautog. Among the other species of fish for which this crab 

 is utilized as bait in this vicinity are the striped bass, rock bass, cod, squeteague, and blackfish. 

 When shipped away, they are packed in boxes with seaweeds, ice being added in warm weather. 



In Vineyard Sound blue crabs are less abundant, and are only taken occasionally by persons 

 desiring them for their own use. The Newport markets are partly supplied with blue crabs from 

 Narragansett Bay, where they are said to be more abundant and more easily taken than the Jonah 

 crab (Cancer borealis), which also occurs there, and is the only other species of crab used in New- 

 port. Soft blue crabs are also sent to Newport from New York. 



All of the other larger towns and cities on the Southern New England coast (Stonington, New 

 London, New Haven, &c.,) make use of greater or less quantities of crabs caught in their im- 

 mediate vicinity, but these places probably receive most of their supplies from New York. At 

 the smaller towns and villages crabs are probably also collected at times, when desired for 

 home consumption, but nowhere in this region can crab-catching be regarded as an established 

 industry, nor is it possible to give an estimate of the number of crabs annually taken and disposed 

 of. The season extends from April to November, but varies according to the conditions of tem- 

 perature, some years being more favorable than others. The fishing is carried on mostly by means 

 of dip-nets or scoop-nets, the crabs being sometimes enticed to the surface of the water by the use 

 of baited lines. Incidentally crabs are obtained, often in great abundance, in lobster-pots, fish- 

 seines, and other nets. In the winter they are occasionally speared by eel fishermen, who find 

 them buried in the muddy bottoms. 



NEW YORK. Blue crabs are abundant at many places on the muddy and smooth sandy 

 shores of Long Island, and are taken in considerable quantities for home consumption and for 

 shipment to New York. Small scoop-nets, rakes, and trot-lines are used for their capture. The 

 practice of confining hard crabs, nearly ready to shed, in floating cars until they become soft shell, 

 is pursued in some localities. Soft crabs sell at from 35 cents to $1.50 per dozen, according to 

 their abundance. Hard crabs bring from 75 cents to $1.50 a hundred. The principal markets for 

 the Long Island crab fisheries are New York City and Brooklyn. Shipments are generally made 

 by rail. Hard crabs are shipped to New York from Long Island during the entire year, but soft 

 crabs are first sent to that market about July 15, the shipments continuing until about October. 



According to Mr. Fred. Mather, most of the hard crabs sent to market from Long Island come 



