We Go A-Fishing 121 



seems to be only a matter of time when these 

 bays will become wholly land-locked. Fifty 

 years ago there was a large outlet to the 

 ocean in the Great South Bay nearly opposite 

 Patchogue, whereas now the boats have to go 

 twenty miles farther down the bay to Fire 

 Island inlet before they can go out into the 

 ocean. Year after year, this Patchogue inlet 

 grew narrower as each great storm washed up 

 thousands of tons of sand. At last a great 

 storm closed up the inlet, and it was only when 

 the people went to work with shovels and carts 

 that any communication between the bay and 

 the ocean was maintained. For several years 

 there was a day appointed, usually in the 

 spring, when the farmers and fishermen within 

 ten miles of Patchogue and Bellport were called 

 upon to meet at the inlet and put in a day's 

 work at digging. If the response to the call 

 was a satisfactory one, the work of clearing 

 out the channel to a depth of four or five feet 

 right across the sand-bar took but a few hours ; 

 then, if there came up no great storm, such an 

 inlet would last all summer, giving plenty of 

 salt water to the bay. In the autumn the first 



