N'otes and Queries. 



289 



There are several ways of getting a day's 

 fishing at Barnegat bay, but none more satisfac- 

 tory than going direct to Forl<ed River where 

 there are four well kept hotels and thirty-five 

 or forty yachts maintained for the accom- 

 modation of anglers. Forked River is on the 

 line of the New Jersey Southern liailroad, 

 eighty miles from Newark by way of the Central 

 road. It is a quaint old town and has many at- 

 tractions for those who do not care for fishing, 

 but desire a restful place to spend a few weeks 

 in Summer, and not the least of these attrac- 

 tions are the meals served at the hotels, each of 

 which vies with all of the others in trying to give 

 a great variety of delicacies which are unusual 

 and consequently attractive to dwellers in cities. 

 The hotel keepers have no monopoly and as a 

 consequence must strive with each other to get 

 and keep their share of the patronage. As a 

 consequence the visitor will find four or five 

 stages drawn up at the station when the train 

 stops at Forked River station. Three of the 

 hotels are within a quarter of a mile of the rail- 

 road, and the fourth is down at the landing, a 

 mile and a half from the station, and the same 

 distance from the bay. This is the Riverside 

 Hotel, kept for many years by B. E. Eno. 

 Everybody must come to this landing to take a 

 boat for a day on the bay. It is a double land- 

 ing, and outside of Mr. Eno's enclosure is 

 another line of wharves, to which patrons of the 

 other hotels have access. The Lafayette House 

 is the oldest in the village, and was kept for 

 many years by ex-Sheriff Joseph Parker, who 

 died suddenly three years ago and left it to his 

 son-in-law, Asa Tilton, who is trying to keep 

 up the traditions of the place by strict attention 

 to the table. His son, John B. Tilton, helps 

 him most intelligently. Mr. Eno has two sons, 

 Harry and Russell, to aid him in taking care of 

 the guests. The Parker House is operated by 

 two daughters of ex-Sheriff Parker, and is as 

 attractive as the old place was under their 

 father's management. 



Lots of people who would like to go to Forked 

 River or Barnegat, do not go because they think 

 that it is at least a two days' trip, and an ex- 

 tremely expensive one. The fact is that it can 

 be made easily in a day if one will get up early 

 enough for the start on any day of the week 

 except Sunday. It is necessary to be at the 

 foot of Liberty street. New York, in time for 

 the 4.30 A.M. train to Red Bank. The Long 

 Branch train connects with one on the Southern 

 Railroad at Red Bank at 6.45, which is rather 



slow for fa distance which other trains cover 

 easily in an hour and a quarter, but at this hour 

 in the morning it does not make so much differ- 

 ence. At Manchester another change is quickly 

 made to a train in waiting which leaves at 

 7.52 and reaches Forked River at S.31. While 

 the captain of your boat is getting ready, you 

 can get a most substantial breakfast at one of 

 the hotels for fifty cents and have a big basket 

 of lunch made up to take out upon the boat, 

 for once you start you do not get on land again 

 for eight hours or more. The lunch which 

 the Barnegat bay hotel keepers provide for 

 each boat is one of the institutions of the bay. 

 It usually consists of two or three kinds of cut 

 mea^ including fried or boiled chickens. Then 

 there are boiled eggs, sardines, pickles, fruit 

 cakes and pie, together with a liberal supply of 

 home-made bread and butter. If it was only 

 half as good it would be welcome by the time 

 the sun was cfirectly overhead. The meal is 

 spread upon a hinged shelf attached to the cen- 

 tre-board trunk under the half cabin of the 

 typical Barnegat catboat. There is ice water 

 and ice-cold beer aboard if you have taken the 

 precaution to provide the latter, and if you 

 desire it the captain can make a cup of hot 

 coffee for you over his little oil stove. One of 

 the things in the favor of the Barnegat boats is 

 that they are all well found. The equipment is 

 the result of experience in the wants of patrons 

 and a healthy desire to keep up with all rivals. 

 The boats are safe and comfortable, and the 

 owners are thoroughly capable sailors. The 

 uniform charge is I4 a day. The captain cuts 

 bait, baits hooks, removes and cleans the fish, 

 and a man in a suit of white flannels might 

 catch fifty or one hundred weak fish in a day 

 without getting a spot on his clothes or a scent 

 of fish on his fingers. He hooks the fish and 

 the captain does the rest. The fish are biting 

 well just now aud it is not much of a feat to 

 catch eighty or one hundred in a day. The fish 

 are of fair size, too. They run from one to two 

 and one-half pounds and it is a fair average 

 when a basket of twenty-five fish weights forty 

 pounds. 



Now let us see what it costs for a party of 

 four to spend one day at Barnegat and return 

 to Newark by 9 o'clock in the evening. The 

 fares will be I3. 45 each. Then there will be $2 

 for breakfasts and I4 for the boat with 

 perhaps I1.50 for shedder crabs for bait, and $2 

 for lunch, making the whole cost less than |6 

 each for the day. What the excursionist gets 



