100 'Thirty-tScroiiil Annual Meeting 



of the river, or head of x\lbemarle Sound, the fall in the river 

 is very great, perhaps fiftj^ feet perpendicular in a distance aboui 

 six miles; and it seems as if the. striped bass make for those rap- 

 ids on which they deposit their eggs. They go up there in the 

 months of March and April, and if there is water enough they 

 distribute themselves over the falls this distance of five or six 

 miles. While they are in those falls they are practically inacces- 

 sible to fishermen, '^rhe river in this distance of five or six miles, 

 where this fifty feet of fall takes place, is very rapid, and is full 

 of islands, boulders, rocks, etc., and the current is so strong that 

 it is apparently dangerous to go in there even when the river is 

 at moderate stages, and when it is high it is really very danger- 

 ous ; and these fish get up in these numerous channels that past, 

 between the islands, and are inaccessible until the water l)eginf 

 to fall. Wlieii it falls to a certain stage the fishermen use finger 

 traps and begin to take those fishes. They are swept out by tlie 

 current on the finger boards and are captured. As soon as th(- 

 river falls somewhat lower the fish become uneasy on account of 

 the light covering of water on the falls, and drop below the foot 

 of the falls at Weldon, and from that point down 2 miles there 

 is fishing t'arried on with dip nets; they are after the manner of 

 the shadskim nets: they are there called drag nets; and these- 

 nets are riggt'd on a how, and one man sits in the bow of the boat 

 and the other in the stern. ])addling, and they float down the 

 river one or two mih^s and then turn back. There are quite a 

 nundier of boats engaged in this business, and they catch v<'ry 

 considerable numbers of fish there. 



With an inade(|uati' crew of men this season — of course not 

 knowing what oui- needs wen' there we cut things down as close 

 as possil)le to determine what was there — from the 6th day of 

 May for a week following we encountered the spawning fish, and 

 1 was amazed at the great (luantity of eggs that we obtained from 

 the individual fish, and also at the enormous field which seems 

 o])ened u]) thei'e foi- practical work by the Pnited States Fish 

 ( 'oinniission. 



Although the fish were extraordinarily numerous at Weldon 

 this \-eai- thev got into those Falls and the fishermen were unsuc- 

 cessfid in catch'ng them, so that financially it was a very yioov 



