554 



GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



The following is a fairly correct estimate of the amount of mullet caught and cured at the 

 above named places in 1878. Probably three-fourths of the sum total were eaten by the fishermen 

 aiid their families, not more than one-fourth being sold: 



According to the above proportion, this would give abont 59 barrels as the number sold, and 

 the remainder, 178 barrels, as the amount consumed by the fishermen. 



201. THE FISHEEIES OF WAKULLA COUNTY. 



SAINT MARK'S RIVER. The principal fisheries of this county are carried ou at the mouth of 

 the Saint Mark's River. Ten miles above this point is the town of Saint Mark's, situated at the 

 junction of two streams, which rise but a few miles above the town. These are fresh water 

 streams, deep, pure, and clear. The average temperature of the water in the summer is abont 70 

 Fahr. Many salt water varieties of fish have been observed at Saint Mark's, such as the sheeps- 

 head, sailor's choice, mullet, and silver gars. There are no white shad in either of these rivers. 



All the fishing which is prosecuted by the fishermen of Saint Mark's is carried on at the mouth 

 of the river which is formed by the combined streams above mentioned, and to which the, name of 

 Saint Mark's River is still preserved. At this point, i. e., the mouth, the water is always salt. 

 The shores are low and weedy here, as they also are throughout the coast-line of the entire bight, 

 called Appalachee Bay. The water is shoal for several miles out into the bay, only 3 fathoms 

 being found at a distance of 4 or 5 miles out directly opposite the mouth of the river. On either side 

 the water is only half that depth, and continues so for a long way farther out. On these shoals 

 all the fishing is done with either gill- nets or hook and line for sheepshead and sea-bass, or, as the 

 people there call them, "blackfish." 



On the west side of the mouth of Saint Mark's river are many shoal bays. Journeying west- 

 ward, they are met with in the following order: Goose Creek, Purity Creek, Spring Creek, 

 Skipper Creek, Oyster Bay, Dickinson's Bay, and Ocklockonee Bay. These are all bays of consid- 

 erable size, and are, without an exception, very shoal, and therefore very difficult of navigation, 

 except with a flat-bottomed boat. The water in these bays is quite fresh at low tide and brackish 

 at high tide, and has a rise and fall of about three feet. 



METHODS EMPLOYED AT THE SAINT MARK'S FISHERY. The number of professional fisher- 

 men at Saint Mark's is twenty; nearly every one of them is American born, white or colored. The 

 most profitable season at this place for fishing is the summer, for then the coast is teeming with 

 all kinds of salt-water fishes. Immense schools of bluefish, Spanish mackerel, jackfish or jurel, and 

 cavalli are then passing by. The fishing is carried on as long as practicable, until about the 

 beginning of June. 



During the warmer months in which fishing is done the well-boats are used with very great 

 success. Many of the twenty boats at Saint Mark's are provided with these wells. All the boats 

 are flat, sharp skiff'-boats, from 18 to 20 feet in length and G in width. They are of the same model 



