29 G GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



of tbe buoy Hues is raised by the occupants of one boat, the fish retreating to tbe farther end of 

 the net. The pockets attached at the sides and end arc movab'e, and when filled with fish can be 

 detached and brought singly into harbor. The use of these pockets will readily be understood 

 when it is learned that from a single one 3,000 barrels of fish were lauded. The end pocket is 

 mostly used, those at the sides ouly coming iuto play after the eud one has been filled. In 1879 many 

 of the nets had the three pockets full at once. These traps are set so as to catch the fish when 

 they are traveling eastward, the reverse being the case on the east shore of Rhode Island. In 

 heavy blows fish "hang" to windward; the nets on a lee shore then fail to draw. The Sakonnet 

 traps catch only the spring fish that coiue in to spawu. 



A single fishing gang consists of six men and a cook. Sometimes the gangs double and even 

 treble up, using but one cook. When trap fishing is over most of the men go on the menhaden 

 steamers. In 1879, 7,000 barrels of scup were taken in these traps. The assertion is made that a 

 single trap in one season has taken 0,000 barrels. The catch is sold at from 50 cents to $5 a barrel 

 according to their abundance. About three-sixths of the fish go to New York, two-sixths to Phil- 

 adelphia, and about one-sixth is taken by local trade. In 1879 the seven traps numbered alpha- 

 betically stocked as follows: A, $2,000; B, $1,500; C, $1,200; D, $1,200; E, $1,000; F, $800; G, 

 $500; total, $8,200. 



During the season one saluiou only and several porpoises were caught. Lobsters are taken 

 from 5 to 10 miles off shore; four men follow this fishery, setting sixty pots. Their catch in 1880 

 was 12,000 lobsters. The capital invested here in traps, boats, and buildings is about $12,000, and 

 the value of the products in 1S80 was $9,040, including 12,000 barrels of scup worth $8,200. 



SACHTJEST NECK. The fishing at Sachuest Neck, opposite Little Comptou, has been carried 

 on for many years. Capt. Ben. Tollman has fished here for 70 years. He employs six men 

 engaged in fishing with a trap that cost, when new, 81,000. The catch of this trap in 1880 sold 

 for about $350 iu the New York market. As an instance of the voracity of squeteague Captain 

 Tollman says he has frequently taken from 40 t<> 50 and occasionally 100 young menhaden out of 

 the stomach of one fish, and he says that bluefish are equally destructive. 



In 1879 the number of squeteague, bluefish, and small menhaden was extremely large. The 

 assertion is also made that fish of all kinds are as abundant as ever, but that one kind will absent 

 itself for a year, whose loss is usually compensated by an immense supply of another species. 

 This alternation, often irregular, conveys the impression that fish are diminishing in numbers. The 

 average price obtained here for scup was 50 cents a barrel. 



THE TOWN OF TIVEKTON. The menhaden fishery is the principal one carried on from Tiver- 

 ton. This fishery employs twelve steamers, owned here, and five schooners, with their large boats, 

 to carry their catch to the factories. In the line fishery for tautog there is emyloyed au old fash- 

 ioned well-smack of 13.98 tons, with a crew of three men. This vessel iu 1880 caught 10,000 

 pounds of tautog, valued at $800. From 2 to 7 miles below the Tivertou stone bridge, on the east- 

 ern shore of Sakonnet River, there are nine heart-pounds fished from the last of April until the 

 last of Juue. The catch consists of scup, squeteaugue, tautog, alewives, aud butterfish. 



Nonguit Pond, just in the rear of the pounds, is fished from the last of April until Juue 1 

 for alewives, four seines being used in the pond by sixteen men. The alewife catch of 1,200' 

 barrels or 480,000 fish is sold mostly through the interior by peddlers. The fish are smoked, or 

 haviug been well struck with a salt pickle they are strung on sticks and hung up for a few days 

 until dry. Quite an amouut are also sold to the hand-line fishermen for bait. 



Twelve men are engaged in working the flats and beaches in this vicinity for clams and qua- 

 haugs, aud iu 18SO dug 900 bushels that were peddled in the surrounding country for $720. 



