RHODE ISLAND: NEWPORT COUNTY, INCLUDING BLOCK ISLAND. 297 



Fyke-nets arc fished to a limited extent clnriug the fall and winter. The catch is almost 

 entirely flounders, of little value or amount. On both sides of the river from Tivertou to the point 

 there are forty-three fyke-nets set more or less of the time during the fall. The catch by the 

 heart-pounds is much less than from those used on the south and west side of Newport Island. 

 Pounds and fyke-nets are made from the old, condemned purse-seines of the menhaden fleet. The 

 catch by pounds is marketed at Newport, New York, Providence, and Boston. 



The capital invested in the fisheries of Tiverton, exclusive of the menhaden interests, is 

 $3,458. The catch of fish by the pounds, nets, and seines in 1380 is valued at $7,274, and includes 

 814,000 pounds of the various kinds, the catch of alewives being 240,000 pounds. The menhaden 

 fleet took 800 barrels of mackerel in addition to their other catch. 



Mr. D. T. Church, of Tivertou, in a letter dated September 15, 1879, says: 



"Most of the fishermen from here go to Sakonnet in the spring and trap there for about a 

 mouth, then they dry their traps and put them away for the year, and don't take them cut until the 

 next spring. The balance are purse fishermen that take menhaden, and that is a large business. I 

 am wrong in saying the balance, for there are some old patriarchs that take fish with a hook and line, 

 but they are a poor class in worldly goods, and they cannot compete with the pounds or weirs ; in 

 fact, Look-aud-line fishing in this vicinity always was a poor business, and the record proves that 

 all families that depended on making a living by taking fish in this vicinity in this way weie 

 always poor, and that was the fact before the weir or pound-nets were set. My father was a hook- 

 and-line fisherman, and he educated his seven sous in that calling, and by industry he made more 

 than a living, but we all left it when we left him and went to taking fish with nets, and I think 

 hook ami-line fishing stands to net fishing as walking stands to railroad traveling. The trouble 

 with hook-and-line fishing is this, that early in the spring the fish don't bite; during the hot 

 weather the small sharks that infest this coast drive them into the eel grass for protection, and it 

 is hard work to catch them while there. In fact it is a poor business, and always was and always 

 will be." 



In Nannaquacket Pond, Tiverton Four C.oruers, four seines, worth $50 each, are used mostly 

 for the capture of herring or alewives. Sixteen men follow this fishery and peddle the fish, which 

 arc mostly smoked, at an average of 50 cents per hundred pounds. In the spring they get 3 

 or 4 cents apiece for the fish, but the price soon runs down to 1 cent or less. Nearly all the 

 people at this place are interested in the menhaden business, cither working in the factories or 

 runuiug on the steamers from this vicinity. When large schools of bluefish strike in, some men 

 fish for them fora few days, and two or three men follow the hook-and-liue fishing more or less 

 during the summer, peddling their catch about the country. 



PORTSMOUTH AND BRISTOL FERRY. The fishing interests of Portsmouth, opposite Tiverton, 

 are centered in the menhaden industry. One of the largest menhaden oil and guano factories in 

 the United States is located here. A fleet of steamers hailing from Tivertou and Newport 

 annually supply this factory with from 50,000 to 90,000 barrels of menhaden, that are manufactured 

 into scrap and oil. The statistics of the fisheries of this town are included in the summation 

 for the State. 



Between April 1 and May 25 two sea-traps, owned at Bristol Ferry, are set, one at Sachuest 

 Beach and the other at the "Wash Bowl," on the west side of Rhode Island. Nineteen men in all 

 are employed. In 1879 the nets were set a little too late, many of the schools of fish having passed 

 by. It is here asserted that squeteague and bluefish are more destructive to the fisheries than arc 

 the sea-traps. Tbese fish have increased immensely of late years. After the spring fishing of 



