GULF OF MEXICO: WESTERN FLORIDA. 567 



3 inches. Four or five uieii are required to manage a seine. The fish taken are pouipano, blue- 

 fish, mullet, redfish, spotted trout, Spanish mackerel, sheepshead, and many other kinds of shore 

 fishes. The average annual catch of a seine here is estimated at 1,000 barrels. 



FISHING BY PILOTS. The pilots living near the mouth of the harbor, whose daily duty it is to 

 go to sea to look for vessels in need of pilots, own four or five open boats. They generally catch 

 with hook and line and bring home in the evening large loads of fish. These boats are very 

 small, not over 16 feet long, and carry a crew of four or five men. The boats are anchored on the 

 " snapper bankr," some G or 8 miles from Peusacola Bar. Their daily average catch is placed at 

 500 pounds, and this would amount (for five boats fishing two hundred days in the year) to 500,000 

 pounds of fish. These fish are sold at the navy-yard, or to the dealers at Pensacola. 



THE SALT-FISH TRADE. The salt fish trade at Pensacola has been of no importance since the 

 close of the war of the rebellion. For twenty years, from 1840 to I860, a flourishing trade of the 

 kiiitl was prosecuted by New England fishermen who spent the winters on the coast of Florida. 

 They traded with the planters of Alabama and Georgia. When this trade was most prosperous, 

 about 700 or 800 barrels of fish were annually sent inland, and, as good prices were paid, such a 

 trade must have represented $8,000 or $10,000 per annum. Now, there is but one man, Captain 

 Leonard Distin, at Choctawhatchee Inlet, who puts up salt fish. He has been in the trade from 

 its start and is well informed on the subject. Much of the information acquired concerning the 

 fishermen of Pensacola has been given by him. He now puts up about 50 barrels a year, receiving 

 small prices, part of which he is forced to take in country produce. The principal kinds of fish 

 salted are sheepshead, bluefish, pompauo, redfish, mullet, sea trout, and Spanish mackerel. 



FRESH-FISH DEALERS. At Peusacola the only dealers are the Pensacola Ice Company and 

 W. C. Vesta, the former of which is the older and larger firm, having been in the business seven 

 or eight years. Their trade has increased year by year. This company owns a large packing- 

 house with good arrangements for handling fish, ice-boxes capable of caring for 25,000 pounds of 

 fish. Connected with the packing-house is the ice-house with its conveniences for handling ice. 



The dealers do not keep fish on hand for a long time, not more than four or five days at any 

 time. They pack the fish in barrels to be shipped into the interior, and in casks to go to New 

 Orleans. For two winters the Pensacola Ice Company ran refrigerator cars, loaded with fish, to 

 all points on the railroad as far north as Cincinnati, where they were reshipped in barrels to more 

 distant markets, but the high rates of the railroad company brought that business to a close. 



LAY ON VESSELS. On vessels where the crew are fishing on shares, the following is the 

 understood arrangement regarding the division of the proceeds of the catch : The vessel receives 

 40 per cent., 5 per cent, of which is paid by the owner to the captain. The crew receive the 

 remaining GO per cent, which, after store expenses, &c., have been paid, they share equally, captain 

 and men. The owner pays dockage bill and bills fqr the vessel's gear. When crews are paid 

 wages, the captain receives $75 to $100 a month ; the mates, $40 to $50 each ; the cook, $30 ; and 

 each of the crew, $20 to $25. In this case the owners pay all bills. 



LAY AMONG THE SEINE-BOAT CREWS. In the seining boats the proceeds of the catch are 

 divided into equal shares, the boat and seine taking one each, and each of the crew one. The 

 seiners are never paid wages. 



THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. The oyster season here begins in September and ends in April. The 

 banks worked (only with tongs) lie in Escambia Bay, and are scattering and very poorly stocked 

 uot so well as formerly. The absence of shell-heaps on the adjacent shores show that the Indians 

 did not resort to this for a supply of molluscau food to any great extent. 



The boats serving here are open, flat-bottomed, roughly-made skiffs, not exceeding 24 feet in 



