NEW JERSEY: SOUTHERN COAST. 397 



the business has increased until, in the winter of 1S80-'S1, there are thirty-eight men with six ves- 

 sels and several boats engaged in the cod fisheries from this city. This is the only point between 

 New York and Charleston, S. C., where vessels are engaged in the shore line fisheries. The fishing 

 is iu 7 to 8 fathoms of water, from one-half to 5 miles from the shore, the average catch being 

 about 100 pounds of fish daily to the man. 



Tuckerton is also engaged in the cod fisheries to a limited extent. The fishery here is said to 

 be of recent origin. Small open boats are exclusively employed, and the fishing is carried on with 

 little regularity, the men goiug out only one or two days in each week. 



THE POUND-NET FISHERY. The pound fisheries of Southern New Jersey are confined wholly 

 to that portion of the Delaware Bay lying between Cape May and Dyer's Creek, and, with the 

 exception of a pound fished for several years in Great Bay, none are known to have been fished else- 

 were in the district. These pound-nets are much smaller and less expensive than those at Sandy 

 Hook, having an average value of only $90. According to M. J. W. Gaudy, of Cape May Court- 

 House, pound-nets were introduced into the region by Mr. Holmes, of Green Creek, about 1870. 

 Iu 18SO there are nine of them on the flats along the shore, some having 2 or 3 feet of water at low 

 tide, while others are entirely dry. They differ considerably from the pouud-nets of other portions 

 of the coast. The leader is about 50 fathoms long, and in the place of the fore-bay are two wings each 

 25 fathoms in length. The pound proper, or bowl, is divided into two compartments, the first being 

 intended for king-crabs (Limulus polyphemus] that are taken in enormous numbers during the early 

 summer. The second compartment is connected with the first by means of a funnel shaped opening- 

 large enough to allow the fish to enter, but too small to admit the crabs. The lower part of the 

 pound is made of stakes imbedded in the mud aud extending a foot or more above it. To these 

 stakes the netting is attached, the object being to keep it above the crabs that would otherwise 

 destroy it. 



The pounds are fished only from the 1st of March to the middle of June, after which they are 

 taken up, as the water on the flats becomes so warm that the fish retire to the deeper channels. 

 Weakfish constitute fully three-fourths of the entire catch, the remainder being mostly rock and 

 Cape May goodies. Often enormous quantities of weakfish are taken, the catch being so great 

 that it is found desirable to save only the largest individuals. It frequently happens that the 

 price is so low that the fishermen are not warranted in shipping the fish, and the entire c;itch is 

 often turned back into the bay. On account of the difficulty of finding a market for their catch 

 the net stock for each pound is quite low and iu 1880 averaged only $400. 



THE GILL-NET FISHERY. The gill-net fishing is quite unimportant, and there are no profes- 

 sional gill-net fishermen in the district-. A number of small nets are owned at various points along 

 the shore, and fished irregularly, for local supply; and at several of the inlets nets of CO to 100 

 fathoms are allowed to drift with the tide over the feeding grounds of the sheepshead, and longer 

 ones are used as sweep-nets in the principal channels. 



FisniNG FOR BLUEFISH OFF CAPE MAY. Off Cape May there was formerly a limited amount 

 of gill-net fishing for bluefish between the 1st of October and the middle of November. Mr. J. W. 

 Gandy says that large bluefish may be taken within a few miles of the shore during a greater part 

 of the summer, and that they follow the menhaden into the shoaler water iu October. These fish 

 vary from 5 to 18 pounds in weight, the average being about 10 pounds. 



In 1875 the fishing vessels, while en route for the bluefish grounds of the North Carolina 

 coast, found these fish and set their nets for them. For two or thiee years the vessels fished in 

 tbis locality, as many as thirteen being counted at one time. For the past two seasons, however, 

 the vessels have abandoned these grounds as the fish have been less abundant. The boat fisher- 



