378 REPORT OF COMMISSIONKR OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



fatlioin. One usually lasts about two years, ])ut rccjuircs constant 

 inendiuii' and icpairinj;-. 



The lisliornion }j;encrally work on shares and sell their cateh to the 

 nuirketnien at a ju-ice which is usinilly lixed lor the season. In divid- 

 ing the prolits as well as in meeting the expenses all the crew share 

 alike. The captain receives no more than any cue of his men, and his 

 duties are equally laborious. The boat and seine, which are generally 

 owned by the captain or some relative or friend of his, count as one 

 share. The seine is kept iu good order by the crew, and the owner pays 

 for such expenses as repairing the boat, painting, etc. Formerly 

 at some of the j^orts, and particularly at Galveston, in order to more 

 easily control the trade of the fishermen, the marketmen owned some 

 of the boats and apparatus and rented them to the fishermen, the mar- 

 ketmen recei^■ing their i)roportionate share of the catch 5 but the prac- 

 tice has been discontinued to a considerable extent, as the fishermen 

 fail to take the best care of the boats and seines when they have no 

 in'()perty interest in them. 



The average annual income of the bay-seine fishermen of Texas, de- 

 rived from their seining operations, is about $325. This is increased 

 somewhat by hunting and marketing ducks, geese, and other food or 

 plumage-bearing . birds with which the bays along the Texas coast 

 abound during certain seasons of the year. The profits are quite regu- 

 lar, not varying much from year to year, although steadily increasing 

 with the development of the fisheries and the constant advance in the 

 market price of the catch. 



Occasionally two crews " doulde up," that is, combine, uniting their 

 seines, and two of the men run the catch to market Miiile the others 

 continue fishing. The proceeds from the catx'h are then divided equally 

 among the men and boats. At times, when fishing in comparatively 

 deep water, four and even five crews combine for several hauls, fasten- 

 ing the seines end to end. 



The men always get in the water to haul the seine without regard to 

 the temperature. They may begin to haul it from the boat when in 8 

 feet of water, but the fish are landed where the water is from 10 to .'iC 

 inches deep. On account of the men having thus to stand in the water^ 

 the imiuactieability of their fishing where the bottom is very muddy 

 will be readily observed, although lish may be fiuuid there in abun- 

 dance, as in Mescjuit Uay. 



After a haul of the seine the fish are transferred to the live-fish car; 

 the crabs and "poor fish" are thrown away; one of the crew is left to 

 tow the "car," and tho others seek another hauling berth in the imme- 

 diate neighborhood. ( )r, if the next hauling site be distant L* or 3 miles, 

 and the wind is favorable, all of the crew return to the boat and sail 

 to the next local it\'. 



The bay-seine lisheiy is ))r()se('nled during all seasons of the year, 

 but less zeah)usly in the summeion aci-ountof the smaller demand for 

 fish. The principal species of lisli tiikcn by means of these seines ai'e 



