358 GEOGRAPHICAL EEVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



fishing for menhaden oil July 4, 1850, and was the first person in the business. He put up steam 

 oil works on Shelter Island. The fish were at first taken wholly in shore-seines. In 1852 he went 

 into the purse-net fishing, with small boats; later he employed yacht steamers. ""We built," says he, 

 " the first steam factory in the State of Maine, at South Bristol. The firm was Wells & Co. We also 

 built the first steam works in Virginia, on Tanner's Point, where we staid one year, after which we 

 returned to South Bristol." He thinks the business varies from good to bad, as other business 

 does. The catch for 1880 was better than that of the previous year. He thinks it would be better 

 policy not to capture any menhaden before June 1, so as to allow them to spawn. In August, 

 1873, he took one boat load of menhaden in Little Pecouic Bay which yielded 24 gallons of oil per 

 thousand fish. 



Bluefish. aud wcakfish have been abundant this season, but Spanish mackerel were very scarce. 

 Some shad have been caught in the pounds during the past few years. The schooner Storm Child, 

 a well-smack running to the New York market, is owned here, and from the middle of April to 

 the 1st of October fishes for lobsters aud then goes to Nantucket for cod. Lobsters taken at Gay 

 Head (Martha's Vineyard) are easily kept alive in the well, but those taken from the colder waters 

 of Maine often die. The captain says : "This season would have been a good one had it iiot been 

 for the 10-inch law, which has -worked disastrously. If this law affected the canneries it would be 

 an excellent one, but under it they can work up small lobsters, while the market is closed on them 

 to us." When fishing for cod he gets his bait (sea-clams) from Eockaway. His catch being taken 

 outside the limits of the island and marketed in New York, I have not included it here. Five 

 smacks sail from this place, and two belonging to New York marketmen are often laid up here. 

 They have not been out much this season, as they say it was too dull to pay expenses. Exclusive 

 of the menhaden business there are forty men engaged in fishing here ; twenty of these are married, 

 and, including their families, one hundred and fifty pel-sons are dependent on the fisheries ; $15,000 

 are invested in boats and $5,000 additional in nets and implements. 



Ten boats with twelve men were employed in the scallop fisheries. The season begins the last 

 of September and ends about March 1. In the winter of 1S7G-T7 some of the boats took 50 to GO 

 bushels per day. They are opened by boys from nine to sixteen years old and are sent to Fulton 

 market by express ; 15,000 bushels, averaging a half gallon of meat each, were taken in the season of 

 1879-'SO. These sold at an average of 60 cents per gallon. In July the young scallops are as big as 

 a man's thumb-nail. In November they have increased to the size of an old-fashioned copper cent. 

 The fishermen think that they spawn iu June. 



The yield last year, including the products shipped to New York aud Connecticut, aud those 

 consumed at home, was 3,000,000 pounds of fresh fish, 20,000 pounds of eels, 80 barrels of lobsters, 

 75 barrels of hard crabs, 10,000 pounds of scallops, 1,000 bushels of hard clams, aud 400 bushels 

 of soft clams. Ten men take scallops and 14 women and 40 children devote their attention to 

 opening the catch. The soft clams are not considered very good until snow comes; the fresh water 

 from snow is said by the claminers to fatten them. 



125. THE FISHING TOWNS BETWEEN EAST MARION AND SOUTHAMPTON. 



EAST MARION. There are seventy-five men engaged iu the fisheries from this point. The 

 pound fishers living here fish in Orient Bay, along the sound, at Niantic, Conn., and at Napeague. 

 Capt. Henry Bellost formerly owned two pounds in Napeague Bay, just inside Rocky Point. He 

 fished them regularly for nine years, but has now given up the business. He sent his fish to New 



