THE MULLETS. 369 



seventy to ninety fathoms long and forty meshes deep. The size of the 

 mesh varies with the season. Very few are used from December to July, 

 but where they are used the mesh two and one-half to two and three- 

 quarters inches is preferred ; from August 1 to October 1, for "Fat Mul- 

 let,'' the mesh is three and one-half to three and three-quarters inches, 

 and in late October, November, and December, for "Roe Mullet," four 

 inches — at least so said my informant, an intelligent negro fisherman. 

 At Mayport there were in 1SS5 two sweep-seines, seventy-five fathoms long 

 and thirty feet deep, belonging to Kemp, Mead & Smith, used in the Mullet 

 fishery. 



There is a large trade in fresh Mullet iced, of the extent of which I 

 could gain but little idea ; they are shipped chiefly to Central Florida and 

 Georgia. Some have been sent in ice to Atlanta. About twenty thous- 

 and are shipped from Yellow Bluffs, by way of Jacksonville. 



It is the general opinion of the fishermen that the Mullet have greatly 

 diminished in abundance of late years, and that they are not one-third as 

 plenty as they were ten years ago. This falling off is attributed to the 

 presence of steamers, to the changes of the season, and, most of all, to the 

 use of small-meshed seines, which catch the young fish in great numbers, 

 and to the constant fishing by numerous nets, which destroys a large 

 proportion of the mother-fish from year to year. Mr. Isaac Calsam, of 

 New Berlin, told me that ten or twelve years ago a man with a cast-net 

 could easily take four or five hundred Mullet in a day, while now it is 

 difficult to get any ; this is due in part to their shyness. Mullet were 

 comparatively scarce in the St. John's in 1877, though plentv in 1S76. 

 The fishermen with whom I have talked favor the passage of laws pro- 

 hibiting the use of gill-nets with a smaller mesh than three inches, and 

 thus to allow the escape of the young fish, and of a close time during 

 which fishing shall cease — for instance from Saturday night to Monday 

 morning. And then they say, with a regretful shake Of the head, that the 

 Mullet always run best on Sunday. There are probably one hundred or 

 more Mullet nets on the St. John's, yielding an average of perhaps five 

 thousand Mullet each annually. The fisheries are chiefly carried on by 

 negroes in small boats, dug-outs, and skiffs, although every resident fishes 

 for Mullet in summer when there is nothing else to do, and when the 

 Mullet is the best food and the easiest obtained. There is no saltiner 

 business of commercial importance in East Florida, though considerable 



-4 



