WITH FISH-LINES AND NETS 



BESIDES my oystering, the fishing that I 

 have done has proved to be of no small 

 value as part of our scheme. Unfortunately, 

 since settling down by the water the fishing ap- 

 pears to have become somewhat scarce in my 

 neighborhood as compared with former years. 

 Forty years ago, so old men tell me, the whole 

 Great South Bay was full of salt-water fish ; there 

 were inlets from the ocean at several points be- 

 tween Fire Island and Moriches, and the sea- 

 water ran in through deep channels which years 

 ago became choked up with sand. To-day there 

 is no opening in the Great South Bay to the 

 ocean except at Fire Island. At the other end 

 of the bay, twenty-five miles eastward, the 

 water has become so fresh that clams will not 

 live in it, and most fish are shy about going so 

 far from deep water. Nevertheless, we catch 

 crabs by the hundred, and in the autumn many 

 96 



