THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. i ys 
As the beam-trawl can only be used to advantage in the capture of 
the flat-fish and flounders, what it may take of cod and other fishes con- 
stituting but a small percentage of its catch, it is not likely that its 
use will be introduced into the United States until these fish assume a 
greater proportional value. With the great number of more or less de- 
sirable species of the flat-fishes in our waters there is no doubt that im- 
mense catches could be made by this means, and the day is probably 
not very distant when we shall find trawlers at work along Vineyard 
Sound and off the coast of New York, New Jersey, and the States 
farther south. Here there are thousands of square miles of sea-bottom 
admirably adapted to its use, where a rich harvest awaits its introdue- 
tion. 
Weirs and pounds.—The various forms of this most wholesale mode 
of taking fish will be found fully figured and described in the first re- 
port of the U.S. Fish Commission. I may, however, briefly recapitu- 
late some of the more prominent varieties. These are, the floating trap 
or madrague, the heart-net or pound, the stake-net, and the weir in its 
various forms. 
These all depend upon the movement of the fish in bands, and are 
sometimes worked in deep water, in which the apparatus is constantly 
immersed, sometimes depending upon the retention of the fish which 
come in at high water until the water runs out, leaving the fish high and 
dry, or else concentrated in small inclosed pools. 
The Seconnet (Rhode Island) traps consist in a succession of inclos- 
ures held by anchors, and are similar in general character to the 
madrague of the Mediterranean. While in America the nets scarcely 
take anything else butscup, sea bass, tautog, and similar fish, thoseof the 
Mediterranean are especially used for the capture of tunnies or horse- 
mackerel. A corresponding difference in the size of the net and in the 
thickness of the netting is to be found. The heart-nets, or pounds 
proper, are principally in use in Vineyard Sound and Buzzard’s Bay. 
In these a wall of netting supported upon stakes extends perpendicu- 
larly from the shore and ends in a heart-shaped apartment, the pointed 
end of which passes into what is called the bowl. The fish, in their 
movements along the coast, come to the wall of netting and are ar- 
rested and turned seaward. Their course along the line of netting 
brings them to the main inclosure, which is so constructed that in cir- 
cling round in schools they cannot readily find their way out, owing to 
their indisposition to turn an abrupt corner. Their only escape is into 
the bow], which constitutes a second apartment having a bottom of 
netting. Here they remain until the fishermen come on the scene, and 
closing up the narrow entrance to the bowl secure whatever it may con- 
tain. They proceed to lift the netting of the bowl in which are the liv- 
ing fish, and throwing away the refuse, the desirable varieties are put 
‘in a boat or smack, or else placed in what is called a pocket, another in- 
closure, in which they can be kept until marketed. Of this apparatus 
there are many varieties. 
