COMMERCIAL FISHERIES. 411 



employed chiefly in fishing for blue-fish and, less often, gray trout. The hauling net is put 

 over and boat and net drift with the tide until the fish strike and are meshed. The shoals 

 in Beaufort Inlet offer a favorable place for this plan of fishing. A variation of this is the 

 "drop-net" method; the net is dropped overboard when fish are detected and the fish are then 

 frightened into it. Seines of different mesh may be in readiness to be used according to the 

 size of the fish expected. Two nets may be used in "setting," one running out perpendicu- 

 larly to the beach, the other making a loop or sort of pound at the other end. The fish swim- 

 ming parallel to the beach strike the "leader", where some are meshed, while others turn out, 

 going into the "pound", where most of them are meshed. "Footing them up" is the method 

 commonly used inside with all fish except mullet, where it is not practicable to land them. 

 The school or scattered fish are first surrounded with the seine (drag net), one man overboard 

 holding the staff at one end of the seine while the other rows the skiff, "shooting the net" 

 around the region to be dragged; when the circle is complete one staff is stuck into the ground, 

 and the other placed in the skiff; the seine is then gradually pulled in and, if the haul seems 

 to be light, arranged on the stern; but if there is a good catch, the seine is put in over 

 the side of the boat and is afterwards cleared and placed on the stern ready for a new haul. 

 In pulling in the seine one man handles the cork line, the other, standing opposite, the lead 

 line, pulling it under the ball of his foot, which he uses to hold the line to the bottom and, 

 if it comes hard, to paw, or "foot", the line to him. 



A purse seine may be 700 or 800 meshes deep and 100 or more fathoms long, with mesh 

 of .75 to 1 inch bar. A purse line passes through rings at the bottom. Such a seine is usually 

 worked by two "purse boats", each with a crew of 6 to 10 men, the whole pertaining to a 

 two-mast schooner or schooner-r.gged sharpie. The purse boats are heavy double-ended row 

 boats 25 feet long or longer, and 7 or more feet in width. 



OTHER ECONOMIC WATER ANIMALS. 



Besides the fishes, the only water animals of noteworthy importance are 

 03'sters and quahogs, or round clams. The value of the oysters exceeds that 

 of any fish except the shad, and within a comparatively few years 03'sters may 

 become the leading fishery product as a result of cultivation and conservative 

 methods. Oystering is conducted in 12 counties, but is of greatest extent in 

 Beaufort, Carteret, Dare, Hyde and Onslow counties. The output in 1902 

 was 1,022,813 bushels, which sold for $268,363. Quahogs are taken for market 

 in 7 counties, the largest quantities being obtained in Brunswick and Carteret. 

 In 1902 the total yield was nearly 147,000 bushels, which brought $86,662. 

 The increase in the output of this species in the past 15 years has been marked. 

 The only other mollusks now taken for sale are scallops; small quaiitities are 

 gathered in Carteret County, the product in 1902 being valued at $980. 



Among crustaceans the common blue crab is the only species of importance. 

 It is taken chiefly in Carteret County, and almost the entire catch is sold in the 

 soft-shell stage. The value of this fishery in 1902 was $14,653, a sum that 

 could be largely increased if the fishery were more actively prosecuted. Limited 

 quantities of shrimp are caught in New Hanover and Pender counties, the yield 

 being 84,160 pounds, valued at $2,700. 



The reptilian resources of North Carolina comprise alligators, green and 

 other sea turtles, diamond-back and other terrapins, and frogs. At the present 

 time alligators do not exist in sufficient numbers to be regularly sought, and 

 they have ceased to figure in the commercial fisheries. The diamond-back 

 terrapin is taken mostly about Roanoke Island, but the catch of it and of other 



