WITH FISH-LINES AND NETS. 



OESIDES 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 between 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 east- 

 ward, 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 young bluefish, known in the 

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