352 GEOGRAPHICAL EEVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



side of Gardiner's Island ; two on Napeague Beach, and three in Fort Pond Bay; making, in all, 

 thirty-one. These pounds are changed from place to place, their position depending largely on 

 the run of fish. Fewer are fished now than formerly. Last year there were three more between 

 Culloden and Shagwong Points, and a number of others on Gardiner's Island. They are usually 

 constructed with a heart and bowl, although many have no heart but merely a funnel running into a 

 square bowl, these being locally known as " traps." In my report I shall class them all as " pounds." 

 They are all built in the usual manner of stakes and netting, with a leader running toward the 

 shore, and are often owned by men who live at a distance and who own or lease the shore priv- 

 ileges. It is proposed to build one on a larger scale with iron piles, running out into the Atlantic 

 from Napeague Beach, and circulars are out soliciting subscriptions to the capital stock. I take 

 the following notice of it from the pages of Forest and Stream of December 2, 1880, headed "A 

 Gigantic Fish-Trap": 



"We have seen a circular headed 'The Long Island Fish Company,' which is now being 

 circulated. It states that the company has been organized under the laws of the State of New 

 York 'for the purpose of leasing and owning suitable locations for the erection of weirs, and 

 erecting weirs or pounds (sometimes called traps) at such locations, and catching and selling all 

 kinds of fish, and rendering fish for the oil and for fertilizers.' 



"We also learn that the company has become the owner of a tract of land at Napeague 

 Beach, near the eastern end of Long Island and a few miles west of Montauk Point. Here they 

 propose to put out a monster trap; and as one built in the ordinary manner with poles would not 

 stand a week on this straight line of the Atlantic beach, which is so frequently storm swept, they 

 propose to put down iron piles after the manner of the ocean piers at Long Branch and Coney 

 Island. They have chosen a place where the island is only half a mile wide Napeague Bay an 

 indentation in Gardiner's Bay being on the other side, where their vessels can load for Sag Harbor 

 and where their factories and ice houses can be built. There is no question about the millions of 

 fish to be captured there, as all the fish which traverse the beach coming from the east, seeking 

 the inlets of Shiunecock Bay and Fire Island, as well as those moving to the eastward to round 

 Montauk and enter Gardiner's and Peconic Bays, or to enter Long Island Sound, traverse this 

 route, and the fishermen often make enormous hauls there when the weather permits. Here, too, 

 they come nearer the shore than at any other point, for there are no sand bars outside the beach 

 to force them out for deeper water. 



"This monstrous affair will fish night and day the year round, and take fish which should be 

 allowed to fill their mission of spawning. They say 'a weir is fishing night and day, and not 

 only catches the schools of fish accidentally seen from the shore or from the deck of a fishing 

 smack, but catches everything that comes along, and schools of fish not apparent from the surface.' 



"The weir is to run 600 to 700 feet into the ocean, into 30 feet of water, and with this they 

 suggest that persons taking stock may receive a great return, say $1,000 per annum for every 

 $100 invested, and assert that 'with the iron weir more menhaden can be caught than the whole 

 fleet of boats can catch.' We have no opinion to offer as to these statements, being content, for 

 the present, to present the facts as they appear. We do not hesitate to say, in this connection, 

 that all fish seeking our shores to spawn should be allowed to do so, and that the Menhaden 

 Association are killing their goose by allowing the fish to be taken for manure when they come to 

 spawn and are worthless for oil. 



"An article in the New York World describes the trap as follows: 'The weir will be an iron 

 pier 10 feet wide, with bents or sections 20 feet long. It will run out 700 feet, with 30 feet of 

 water. At the outer end will be the heart-shaped pound, the larger end of the heart inshore, 



