666 



HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Wiuthrop Buck, by whom a small haul-seine is employed. The following statistics of the fishery 

 at this point will be interesting, as they serve to show the extent of equipment necessary to make 

 the operation profitable. The seine (nine-thread) is 75 fathoms long, and is hauled by windlass. 

 The crew consists of four men. About oue-tweutieth of the fish taken are consumed fresh, the 

 remainder being salted, and packed in barrels, each capable of holding five hundred fish, and 

 shipped to New York. The highest point at which alewives are takeu on this river is at Windsor 

 Locks, and all these fisheries lie between there and Middletown. The season commences about 

 the second week in April. In 1880, however, it was earlier than usual, the run beginning in the 

 last week of March. 



STATISTICS OF CONNECTICUT RIVER FISHERIES IN 1880. The following statistics of the 

 fisheries of the Connecticut River for 1880 have been prepared by Mr. R. B. Chalker, of Saybrook, 

 who is extensively engaged not only in fishing but also in buying and marketing the product of 

 the river, and who is therefore eminently fitted to give exact data on this subject: 



The larger proportion of the shad product of the Connecticut River is sent to packers iu 

 Lyme, Essex, and Saybrook. Thence they are shipped in ice to various points, but chiefly to Kc\v 

 York City. There are 10,420,000 pounds of menhaden taken iu the pounds. These are composted 

 for conversion into manure. 



From the statistical returns made by the pound-net fishermen, iu response to a circular 

 issued by the U. S. Fish Commission, has been selected that of Mr. S. A. Chalker, who operated a 

 single pound at Cornfield Point, in Long Island Sound, and 5 miles west of the mouth of the Con- 

 necticut. These figures represent a fair average of the necessary pouud-uet equipment, of the 

 product of the fishery, and of the cost of operating the same during one season. 



2. THE HOUSATONIC RIVER. 



Formerly valuable fisheries for the capture of both shad and salmon were operated on this 

 river. Those for the latter, however, no longer exist, the species having been exterminated by 

 the erection of dams, and the upward movement of shad is now limited to a reach of about 30 



