NEW JERSEY: NORTHERN COAST. 



385 



Detailed statement of capital invested and apparatus employed. 



Detailed statement of the quantities and values of tlie products. 



Including 200,000 pounds used for fertilizing purposes. 



142. GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE VARIOUS FISHERY INTERESTS. 



The material for the following description of this district and of its more important fisheries 

 was gathered during a personal visit to the locality in the fall of 1880: 



THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE REGION. That portion of the coast lying between Sandy Hook and 

 Barnegat Inlet, for convenience of treatment called Northern New Jersey, has, for the most part, a 

 low sandy shore, which is interrupted at several points by shoal and narrow inlets that open into 

 shoal- water bays or rivers, extending a short distance from the sea. The Shark and Squan Rivers 

 are the most important ones in the section. These have extensive tide-flats along their shores. 

 They receive a limited amount of fresh water from small and unimportant streams that reach some 

 distance into the interior, but are affected to such an extent by the ocean tides that in their lower 

 portion they are usually quite salt during a greater part of the year. There are also shoal- water 

 bays or lagoons of larger size extending parallel with the coast at a short distance from it. These 

 are fed chiefly from the sea, but they also receive a limited quantity of fresh water from the small 

 creeks that drain the surrounding country. 



The bays running parallel with the coast often expand into large sheets of water, and fre- 

 quently separate the outer shore from the main land by a considerable distance. Such is the case 

 at Sandy Hook, where the outer shore is reduced to a low and narrow sand bar, some 10 miles in 

 length, formed by the action of the tides and currents. This bar is separated from the main laud 

 by the waters of Sandy Hook Bay and its two important branches, known as the North and .^outh 

 Shrewsbury Rivers. 



The southern portion of the district is of similar formation, the outer shore being reduced to 

 a low barren sand bar separated from the main laud, for a distance of 20 miles, by the northern 

 arm of Barnegat Bay, which varies from one-quarter to 1 miles in breadth. 

 25 G R F 



