282 BLUE-FISHING. 



the fishing has been much, reduced by the use of 

 pound-nets in and near the inlets, which not only 

 capture fish in immense numbers but of immature 

 size. So Mr. Seth Green, the State Superintendent 

 of Fisheries, and one of the Commissioners, took a 

 yacht and set out on an exploring expedition, deter- 

 mined to investigate the possibilities of the entire 

 bay. I went along to see that they made no mis- 

 takes. 



On the 8th day of August, 1881, the good yacht 

 Au Eevoir started from the neighborhood of Islip, 

 well provisioned for a two weeks' trip, and carrying 

 its load of piscatorial science safely housed in its 

 comfortable cabin of some ten feet square and five 

 feet high. Extensive accommodations are not a 

 feature of the yachts of southern Long Island, for 

 the reason that while the bay is sixty miles long and 

 four wide it is for the most part less than two feet 

 deep. The true yachtsmen, however, can "stow" 

 himself, and a prodigious deal besides, in a very 

 small space, and " our voyagers" were naturally 

 good yachtmen as well as great fish culturists. Un- 

 fortunately the Commissioner is fond of gunning, 

 and has long held the theory, which no amount of 

 experience has removed, that there will some time 

 or other be a great flight of snipe along the beach 

 on the south of the bay. So he insisted on bringing 

 guns, cartridges, snipe decoys and all that along ; 

 and, more unfortunately still, he made up his mind 

 from the signs in the heavens, the direction of the 

 wind, or the motion of the tides, that the ninth day 



