12 CRAB INDUSTRY OF CHESAPEAKE BAY. 
The crabbing industry in this county and that of Westmoreland, 
Northumberland, Lancaster, Middlesex, and Mathews Counties, Va., 
is greatly hampered by the entire lack of railroad facilities in any of 
the counties and by the very inadequate boat service. The Baltimore 
boats touch at points in these counties only three times a week. The 
bulk of the crabs have to be taken to Crisfield by run boats. If 
transportation facilities could be improved, the size of the industry 
could doubtless be much increased in this region. 
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, VA. 
There are here 44 crabbers and no crab houses. The crabbing 
grounds are the Potomac River, most of the catch going to Crisfield. 
NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, VA. 
There are in this county 200 crabbers, but no crab houses. The 
crabbing grounds are the Potomac, the Great Wicomico, and smaller 
rivers. Nearly all the catch goes to Crisfield. This is one of the 
important counties in the crab industry, the catch of soft crabs 
being quite large. 
LANCASTER COUNTY, VA. 
This county has 53 crabbers. There are no crab houses. The 
crabbing grounds are the Rappahannock River, on the south. The 
catch is sent to Crisfield. 
MIDDLESEX COUNTY, VA. 
There are here 39 crabbers, but no crab houses. The crabbing 
erounds are the Rappahannock on the north and the Piankatank 
River on the south, the catch being sold to Crisfield. 
MATHEWS COUNTY, VA. 
This county has 46 crabbers and 6 dredge boats. There are no 
crab houses. The main crabbing grounds are the Piankatank River 
on the north, the coves and inlets of the bay on the east, and Mob 
Jack Bay on the south. The dredge boats operate in the entire lower 
part of the bay. Their catch is taken directly to Hampton, Norfolk, 
or Cape Charles. The soft-crab catch, mostly taken from the Pianka- 
tank, goes to Crisfield; the trot-line catch of hard crabs from Mob 
Jack Bay is taken by run boats to Hampton. 
GLOUCESTER COUNTY, VA. 
There are here 29 crabbers, but no crab houses. The main crabbing 
grounds are the Mob Jack Bay on the east and the York River on 
the southwest. No soft crabs are handled. The trot-line catch is 
sold to run boats from Hampton. 
KING AND QUEEN COUNTY, VA. 
This county has 19 crabbers, but no crab houses, the catch going 
to 2 crab houses at Westpoint in King William County, Va. The 
crabbing ground is the York River. 
