We Go A-Fishing 127 



men eating their dinners in the sunlight on 

 deck rather than keep to the cabin on a bluster- 

 ing December day. The worst that can be said 

 of the life of the professional oysterman is that 

 it does not pay, and even this may be called in 

 question. The crew of a smack devoted to 

 fishing in the bay, whether for "bony-fish" for 

 the oil factories, or for oysters, usually consists 

 of two men and a boy ; the boy sails the boat, 

 while the men attend to the nets or the dredges. 

 The smack is worth from $600 to $1200, ac- 

 cording to size and appointment. I have 

 known the profits of a season, which begins in 

 June and ends when the bay freezes over in 

 January, to be $2500 for one smack. The 

 fishing lasts till October, when the oystering 

 begins. The boats are usually owned by the 

 men who sail them, and the boy who goes as 

 sailor gets a percentage of the catch, whether 

 of fish or of oysters. One young fellow who 

 sailed in a Patchogue smack last summer got 

 $600 as the returns of his summer's work. 



To-day, as the morning breeze dies away 

 about ten o'clock, leaving us in the middle of 

 the bay, two miles from land on either side, it 



