WE GO A-FI SUING. 1 1/ 



boats. As for the fishing part, it has grown 

 less and less, until to-day it is not what might 

 be called a good fishing-ground, except within 

 a few miles of Fire Island inlet, where the blue- 

 fish still run in the right season. Perhaps the 

 number of fishermen has had something to do 

 with the scarcity of fish. The fame of Fire 

 Island inlet has spread so far among lovers of 

 bluefish that not a day passes from late June 

 until late September when there cannot be 

 found a fleet of from twenty to two hundred 

 boats on the look-out for bluefish. The 

 fishing industry of Babylon is entirely de- 

 voted to taking out parties for bluefishing; 

 the professional fisherman scarcely professes to 

 fish at all. His duty is to keep his smack in 

 order, to furnish bait and lines, and to be ready 

 to pilot his patrons to the best place in the bay 

 for a catch. Whether fish are caught or not, 

 the fisherman gets his dollars, and finds it more 

 profitable to take people fishing than to fish 

 himself. 



Oysters, of course, have remained one of the 

 great resources of the Great South Bay. The fa- 

 mous Blue Point, so named because of the blue 

 tint of the weeds which formerly covered the 



