VIRGINIA: FISHERIES BY COUNTIES. 457 



give employment to a considerable number of men, women, and boys. The men and boys are 

 employed in catching the crabs, and the women and children work in the factory. Back of Old 

 Point, at the mouth of Back River, is the large menhaden factory of Darling & Smithers, probably 

 the most extensive on Chesapeake Bay. It gives employment on the water or in the factory to one 

 hundred and thirty men. The value of the annual product is $31,620. 



Quite a number of diamond-back terrapins are taken in the swamps and rivers; they find a 

 market at Old Point and Norfolk, or they are reshipped thence to Baltimore. The fish caught by 

 Look and line are consumed mainly at the pleasure resorts lying around Hampton Roads, though 

 some go to Norfolk. The section of the country termed the Poquosin is inhabited by a people who 

 subsist entirely from the water. They are famous for the production of the canoe (locally known 

 as kuuuers), a sailing craft hollowed out of logs and specially adapted to the mode of fishing pur- 

 sued by these people. Oysters are planted quite extensively in Back River, Hampton Creek, and 

 in Hampton Roads. Hampton Bar formerly yielded, from natural oyster-rocks, many thousand 

 bushels of oysters, which had a great reputation in the restaurants, but the beds have now become 

 practically exhausted. Twenty-five years ago two men with a 'boat could procure 30 or 40 bushels 

 in a day. Now they could scarcely procure one or two. 



163. YORK, GLOUCESTER, AND MATHEWS COUNTIES. 



YORK COUNTY. York County, which is 30 miles long and 5 wide, lies on Chesapeake Bay 

 and York River. The surface is level and the soil sandy and moderately fertile. The country is 

 drained by numerous creeks and coves, which abound in oysters, fish, and fowl. The population 

 in 1880 was 7,351, of which 35 are regularly engaged in fishing and 604 in oystering. The product 

 of the river and shore fisheries is 534,000 pounds, having a value of $22,592. The value of the 

 oyster fisheries cannot be given, as the men of the county prosecute their work in the James and 

 Rappahaunock Rivers, and some even go as far as the Potomac. York River, which bounds the 

 northern edge of the county, was once famous for its oyster-beds, but now these are practically 

 exhausted. Planting to a considerable extent is pursued in this river, and the product now foots 

 up to from 200,000 to 300,000 bushels annually, which find a market principally in Boston. The 

 product of the fisheries in York County tiud their way to York town and the neighboring landing 

 of Gloucester Point, whence they are shipped by steamer to Baltimore and the northern markets. 



GLOUCESTER COUNTY. Gloucester County lies on the Chesapeake Bay and York River. The 

 surface is level and the soil productive. It is 30 miles long and about 10 miles wide, and is deeply 

 penetrated by salt-water creeks which drain into Mobjack Bay and York River. The population 

 in 1880 was 11,678. The numerous creeks of the county formerly abounded in fish and oysters, 

 but overfishing and the spoliation of the oyster beds have exhausted them to such an extent that 

 it is no longer profitable to work them. The principal fishing interest is pound-net fishing for shad 

 and Spanish mackerel, but large quantities of bluetish or tailors are also caught. The accompanying 

 tables show the catch and value of the pound-net fisheries from York River to Piaukatauk River. 



The number of men engaged in the fisheries proper in Gloucester County is eighty-seven; in 

 the oyster fisheries, six hundred and forty-two. The capital invested is $18,600. 



MATHEWS COUNTY. Mathews County is a peninsula connected with the mainland by a 

 narrow neck of land. It lies between the Piaukatank River and Mobjack Bay. Its surface is 

 dead level ; the soil is light and sandy, but some is quite fertile. The population in 1880 was 

 7,507. The number of men employed in the river and shore fisheries is one hundred and seventy ; 

 number engaged in the oyster fisheries, six hundred and eighty. 



At New Point is the guano factory of O. E. Maltby & Co., which gives employment in fishing 



