6 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS 



men there and every facility was sliown us to examine the traps and 

 method of fishing. A glance at map No. 3 will show how these traps 

 are set and give an idea of the locality. By the 10th of May the traps 

 were all in, but very few scup were taken before the 15th when they 

 began to make their appearance, some of the traps averaging twenty bar- 

 rels a day and finding a sale at $3.00 per barrel. By June 1st the scup 

 came in vast shoals and of large size, and on the Gth very large num- 

 bers had been taken. Attached to the sides of a trap is a square of 

 netting, say thirty by fifty feet, called a pound, and as a trap has three 

 sides an equal number of these pounds can be attached. Into these 

 the fish are turned when the fishermen wish to hold them for better 

 prices. By June 10th these pounds were full, one, two or three to 

 each trap. Such large numbers were taken to the westward (on the 

 Island of Rhode Island,) that prices fell off from $1.50 to twenty-five 

 cents per barrel, several of the gangs landed their fish and sold them 

 to the farmers for manure. On June 15th there were four traps in 

 with their pounds full, holding for better prices, and on June 25th 

 two. 



Capt. Place says, "There were seven different gangs of men that 

 had set (traps) at Seaconnet Point this spring. The gangs were 

 doubled up, one containing fifteen men and the others not less than 

 eight. Their shares varied much owing to the location of the sets, and 

 the prices obtained for the fish. I was told of one gang that did not 

 clear their expenses while others made $75.00 per man. One of the 

 men who was in the gang of fifteen said the shares were about $25.00 

 per man. As regards the observing of the close time law it was gen- 

 erally complied with as far as came under my observation. Certainly 

 there was no raising of the traps during daylight. There may have 

 been times when the mouths of the traps were not tied up as the law 

 required. There was no necessity to evade the law for they had more 

 fish than they wanted toward the last of the fishing." 



Thus we see that at Seaconnet, and at Newport and Middletowti as 

 well, the fishing this year began about May 15th and Avas kept up to 

 June 25th. In the early part of the season owing to scarcity of fish, 

 prices were high, but as few were taken profits were not large. Later 



