WE GO A-F1SHING. 115 



become so choked up that to-day it would cost 

 thousands of dollars and months of labor to cut 

 an opening at the place where half a century 

 ago vessels sailed through. 



In Shinnecock Bay, twenty-five miles farther 

 along, exactly the same experience has been 

 gone through within the last ten years ; but 

 the people of that neighborhood still keep up 

 courage, and work at the inlet every spring, 

 with the hope that nature will some day come 

 to their assistance and restore the old channels. 

 The canal, which the government is now cutting 

 through the neck of land separating Shinnecock 

 and Peconic bays, may create a current ocean- 

 ward which will carry the sand out to sea. The 

 reason for this greater activity upon the part of 

 the Shinnecock people is that without commu- 

 nication with the ocean, Shinnecock Bay would 

 soon become a fresh-water and a very unhealthy 

 pond. Even now it is impossible to grow clams 

 in Shinnecock Bay, once the best clamming 

 spot along the coast, because the water is not 

 salt enough, and if the canal does not help 

 matters, the time is not far distant when, not- 

 withstanding the yearly cleaning-out of the 

 inlet, all fish and oysters will disappear. 



