REPORT ON MOSQUITOES. 421 



The area from English Creek on the east side of the Great 

 Egg Harbor River to Patcong Creek is another bad breeding 

 place and filled with pools swarming with mosquito larvae. There 

 are several good creeks and many natural ditches in this territory-- 

 which will make good outlets for the narrow drains. 



The south side of Patcong Creek to Somers Point has an 

 abundance of breeding holes and here are produced the swarms 

 which supply Somers Point and other nearby towns. This 

 meadow is narrow, however, and can be easily dried out, putting- 

 out of existence the source of an immense supply. 



For so large and pernicious a breeding area the amount of 

 work required to clean it up is surprisingly small and simple. 

 There are two points only where large, long main ditches are 

 necessary, all other parts of the marsh area being well supplied 

 with creeks and natural ditches, from which short narrow ditches 

 may be run into the depressed areas, draining off the surface 

 water and admitting fish into the larger pools. 



CHAPTER IV. 

 BARNEGAT BAY. 



a. THE PROBLEM AS A WHOLE. 



Barnegat Bay is noted for its fishing and its mosquitoes, and 

 the stories told of both are equally startling. It is certain, how- 

 ever, that the mosquitoes b.ave driven away more visitors than 

 the fishing has been able to keep. From Bay Head to Mana- 

 hawken Bay is a stretch of about thirty miles, while to the end 

 of Long Beach is pretty close to a fifty-mile reach. 



On the narrow strips of land known as Island Beach and 

 Long Beach are several flourishing shore resorts and a number 

 that are not doing so well. Several places have been started 

 and kept up for a year or two, but few who came one year ever 

 returned, and those that failed to return did not encourage others 

 to go. Parties who arrived intending- to remain for weeks, found 

 mosquito conditions so unbearable that they left the day after 

 arrival. It is not too much to say that mosquitoes have been and 

 are the curse of the Barnegat shore, a shore which in other re- 

 spects offers unequaled attractions for those f<md of sailing, fish- 



