NORTH CAROLINA: TI1E MORE IMPORTANT DISTRICTS. 487 



KINDS OF FISH SALTED. TLe principal species salted, arranged in the order of their import- 

 ance, are mullet, spot, hogfish, trout, bluefish, drum, Spanish mackerel, and sheepshead. Mullet 

 are by far the most important species on the list, and, including all that were eaten, shipped, and 

 carted into the country, there were not less than 13,000 barrels salted by the fishermen of this 

 district. These net the fishermen about $3 per barrel. The total quantity of other fish salted is 

 about 3,000 barrels. 



The trade in salt fish is largely with the eastern portion of North Carolina, though a few find 

 their way to other parts of the State and to South Carolina and Virginia. 



THE SALT FISH USUALLY EXCHANGED FOE COEN. During former years the fishermen de- 

 pended wholly upon small vessels to carry the catch to market, and it became customary for the 

 captains to exchange the fish with the farmers of the river towns for corn. This practice grew 

 almost universal, and the fishermen thus laid in their "bread" each fall as regularly as the ice 

 merchant of the North cuts and houses his stock of ice for the following summer. The same prac- 

 tice is still quite common, even though it frequently results to the disadvantage of the fishermen, 

 who argue, and with considerable force, that if they sold for money they would spend it for other 

 things, and come to want for bread before the close of the winter. 



DIFFEEENT SPECIES TAKEN AT DIFFEEENT SEASONS. About the 20th of January many of 

 the fishermen of Beaufort and vicinity go to the Netise, Tar, and Cape Fear Rivers and to Albe- 

 marle Sound to fish for shad and herring. By the 1st of February one hundred others resort to 

 the outer beach to engage in the shore whale fisheries, which continue till the 20th of April or the 

 1st of May. The remainder are engaged in oystering and clamming. Early in March the salmon- 

 trout (G. maculatum) appear and are captured with drag-nets. This fishery lasts till the middle of 

 May, when the drag-nets are laid aside and those owning drop-nets begin fishing for mullet, hogfish, 

 and spot for salting. Others catch a few terrapin and crabs, and the remainder seek employment 

 on the shore. About the middle of August the mullet seines are "set in," and most of the fisher- 

 men, with a good many farmers, are employed in the capture of mullet till the 1st of November,, 

 while others continue to fish with drop-nets and drag-nets for mullet, trout, hogfish, and spot till 

 the middle of December. At this time the fish become scarce in the sounds, and most of the fisher- 

 men turn their attention to oystering and clamming, while others go to Cape Lookout and fish 

 along the outer shore with seines for red drum, which are quite abundant at this season. Those 

 living at a distance from the markets are engaged, to a greater or less extent, in farming. They 

 fish but little during the early summer. When the mullet arrive in August, however, they engage 

 extensively in their capture, and after the season is over they turn their attention to oystering and 

 clamming till time for the spring trout fishing. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE MULLET FiSHEEiES. The mullet fisheries of this region are very im- 

 portant, and the fishermen of Carteret County put up more salt mullet than those of all the other 

 counties of the State combined. In fact the shipments of salted mullet from this region exceed 

 the total shipments from all other portions of the Atlantic coast. The small mullet first appear in 

 June, the number gradually increasing till August. At this time they begin to gather in schools, 

 but no tendency toward migration is noticeable till the middle of the month. They then move 

 slowly southward, and the schools follow one after another, the size of the fish constantly increas- 

 ing until the middle of September, when the old or roe mullet arrive. The largest of them are 

 said to weigh from 4 to 5 pounds and to measure fiom 24 to 26 inches. These gradually work 

 southward, and at the approach of the first cold storm usually disappear. A school of smaller 

 individuals called "frost" or "winter" mullet follow in their wake, and by the 1st of January the 

 greater part have left the region, though a few may be taken at any time till the following spring. 



