RHODE ISLAND: WASHINGTON COUNTY. 309 



worth $80 each. They arc used from November until June, eight men to the seiue. There are 

 also fifteen fyke nets set inshore. The same kinds of fish are taken in pounds, seines, and fykes. 



Most of the fish, one-half of which are herring, are shipped to New York. The remainder are 

 eels, perch, flatfish, and bass. The herring are salted, dried, and smoked, and are retailed at 1 

 cent each. Four days intervene between the capture and sale of the herring. 



Menhaden fishing in this vicinity was commenced thirty years ago, and has been increasing 

 ever since. Until 1870 bass fishing was good, but it has been partially destroyed by the steamers 

 fishing with purse-seines. Sixty barrels of young bass have been taken at one haul, and the whole 

 lot consigned to the oil-works. 



ROCKY POINT AND SANDY POINT. At Rooky Point, a small place on the waters of Long 

 Island Sound, there is one square trap used, employing six men and stocking about $2,500 annu- 

 ally. Sandy Point is the dividing line between the sound and Little Narragansett Bay. In the 

 sound, between Rocky and Sandy Points, one hundred and two men find employment in the fish- 

 eries, twenty being hook-and-liners, forty-two pound-netters, and forty seiners. 



Six pound nets are set in from 20 to 30 feet of water east aud west of Watch Hill, during May. 

 Scup and mackerel are taken. The leaders range from 200 yards to half a mile in length. The 

 size of the pound is about 40 feet by 60 feet. The mesh in the pounds is l.J inches, in the leaders 

 2 to 2 inches. 



Five seines, averaging 100 fathoms each, of 25 feet depth and IJ-inch mesh, are used, each 

 requiring eight men. In the fall these seines are set for bass, in the spring for scup. They haul 

 the seines in May and October. Formerly $1,000 was regarded as an average year's earnings for 

 the owner of the net by the capture of bass alone. 



The boats used by pounders and seiners are not fitted with sails; they are called "double 

 cnders," and are about 18 feet long. 



Hook-and-liners catch cod, haddock, bluefish, blackfish, bass, and squeteague. In the fall only 

 the first two species mentioned are caught. All the scup, bass, and bluefish are sent to New York 

 Some of the cod was cured, but most of it sold green. 



LITTLE NAEEAGANSETT BAY AND PAWCATUCK RIVEE. The varieties of fish caught in Little 

 Narragansett Bay aud Pawcatuck River are scnp, eels, flounders, smelts, menhaden, bluefish, weak- 

 fish, shad, backies, and alewives. 



Pound-nets are set west from Watch Hill Pier to Sandy Point Channel, and on the north from 

 Stouington to the mouth of Pawcatuck River, and for a distance of three miles up the river. It is 

 claimed that these pound-nets kill forty young fish for ea,ch one fit for market. If this be true, 

 then the fisheries must decrease in importance, inasmuch as the pound-nets are increasing in num- 

 ber every year. 



Of the seventeen pound-nets now in use six are in the river and eleven in the bay. They arc 

 set between the first and the middle of September, and remain down until the ice forms too great 

 an obstruction. Some few remain down throughout the winter. They are seldom set in spring. 

 Three men are required to lift a trap. These traps are from 25 to 40 feet in diameter, 6 to 12 feet 

 deep, with a leader from 25 to 200 yards in length. The mesh is so close that none but the smallest 

 fish can possibly escape. 



Four shore-seines, called also bass-seines, averaging 100 fathoms in length and 22 feet in depth, 

 with mesh from 1 J to 2 incjies, are in use. From six to eight men are required to haul one of these 

 seines; bass, weakfish, and shad being the principal species caught. 



One or two gangs of gill-nets, altogether about 2,000 fathoms in extent, are also fished for blue- 

 fish in summer and fall. 



