70 COMMERCE, KAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. 



would go down to Jacksonville to get sheepshead for Charleston or to Key 

 West to get groupers for Cuba. One of the first smacks built, the Venus, 

 Capt. Simeon Price, with a crew of four foundered in Charleston Harbor, 

 inside of Sullivan's Island, and was never seen afterwards. 



Blue-fish, now so prominent as a food fish, were not much thought of 

 till about 1852. [In the course of the inquiry before the U. S. Senate 

 Committee investigating the causes of the alleged scarcity of food fishes, in 

 1882, Samuel H. Wilier, a Brooklyn dealer in fish for 49 years, testified that 

 he could remember when 2,000 pounds of blue-fish could not be sold in 

 New York in one day, at 2 cents per pound ; and Caleb Hale}', a veteran 

 fish dealer in Fulton Market, testified that it was only within ten years pre- 

 vious to that date that blue-fish had become a desirable market fish. 

 Striped bass were abundant along the south shore ; immense 

 hauls, sometimes amounting to many wagon loads, were taken in 

 seins and often sold for 2 or 3 cents per pound ; they ranged in weight 

 from I to 80 pounds, and tradition tells of one one-hundred pounder. * 

 Sometimes better prices prevailed and good profits rewarded the fishermen's 

 labors. At and near Smith's Point, for the use of the shore to low water 

 mark as a landing place for the use of their nets, bass fishermen have paid the 

 owner as high as $500 in a year. The privilege at that place is still paid 

 for. In early times there were three inlets into Great South Bay east oi 

 Patchogue, the last one of which did not close till 1820. In consequence 

 the water was salt and all the better sorts of fish abounded, as did oysters 

 and clams. The fisheries were productive and valuable ; the\- were held 

 under the Smith patent and the patent to Brdokhaven town — the latter in 

 its agreement with William Smith assuming a penal obligation of $20,000 to 

 duly attend to the fisheries. About the years 1S25 to 1840 bass fishing in 

 the bajs and ocean was extensively carried on during the Fall and \Mnter. 

 Large quantities were convened to New York m wagons. It is estimated 

 that the quantity sold would net at least $5,000 yearly, though at times the 

 price was only lor ijj cents per pound. Eels were also plenty and many 

 thousands of dollars' worth were annually sold : eeling is still a large in- 

 dustrv, though less than at that time. Sheepshead were sometimes abun- 

 dant, but were not the high-priced luxury they have since become. In 

 1828. the East Bay being full of bass, there came on a hard storm early in 

 the winter and drove all the bass into Quantuck Bay, a body of water cov- 

 ering some 200 acres. During that winter, by a count kept by a resident 

 of Quogue, 75,000 bass were taken out of that bay, all the barns and out- 

 houses "being filled with them through the winter. When gray-beards of 50 

 or 60 years were boys, eels were so numerous that, even at 7 or 8 cents per 

 dozen, any industrious m^n could earn $100 with his spear in a winter. 

 Of recent years large quantities of perch have been taken in the East Bay, 

 and in the winter of 1 882 over $10,000 worth was sold. Crabs in the 

 same bay have also become an important item, as many as 200 barrels hav- 

 ing been shipped in a day from one station. 



Within a few years the taking of codfish in the ocean from Quogue to 

 Moriches has grown to large proportions, about 150 men being engaged 

 last winter and from West-Hampton depot 285,000 pounds of cod were 



♦Subsequent to this writing the largest cod fish on record — a fish weighing over 100 

 pounds, whose dressetl weight was S9 pounds — was caught in the ocean off Montauk by N. 

 Doniiny's company of East-H;unpton fishermen. 



