NEW YOEK: SOUTH SHORE OF LONG ISLAND. 365 



CENTRE MORICHES. Twenty of the residents of this town are engaged iu taking bard crabs 

 from June to November. Twelve are married, and sixty persons depend upon their labors. The 

 men make from $10 to $15 per week during the season. Crabs are sold on commission, sometimes 

 netting them 25 cents per barrel after all expenses and sometimes as high as $2.50. The average 

 is about $1. The business is only three or four years old and is growing. At the approach of 

 winter the crabs go into deep water and the men turn their attention to the capture of eels and 

 other fish. 



Besides the crabbers there are thirty other fishermen here, two-thirds of whom are married. 

 About eighty persons are dependent upon their exertions. There are two gangs of surf-fishermen, 

 numbering six men each, who fish with seines on the outer beach from October to December. 

 Each gang has an 18-foot boat propelled by three pairs of oars. The seines used are 175 fathoms 

 long and 2 fathoms deep in the middle, with a 2-iuch mesh, and are hauled without the help of 

 horses. Five hundred dollars arc invested iu boats and 82,000 in nets and traps. The year's catch 

 was: Fresh fish, 200,000 pounds; eels, 250,000. 



MOEICHES STATION. This place is quite inland, and only six fishermen live near here. It is, 

 however, the principal shipping point for all the surrounding region. Four-fifths of the shipments 

 of fish are made by express, and the remainder by freight. Eels are commonly shipped on Thurs- 

 days, as many being sent on that day as iu all the rest of the week together. On October -S, 

 1880, 3,000 pounds of eels -were shipped, and on November 4 1,980 pounds. The figures for hard 

 crabs in 1880 were as follows, each barrel containing from 225 to 250 crabs: 



Barrels. 

 June 126 



July 403 



August 1,194 



September 1,941 



October 905 



November (to 10th) 92 



Total 4,661 



129. GEE AT SOUTH BAY. 



Great South Bay is a body of water 3G miles long and from 3 to miles wide. Its waters 

 mingle on the east with those of the bays of Moriches and Bellport, extending westward to South 

 Oyster Bay, from which it is separated solely by an imaginary line. The only direct communica- 

 tion with the sea is at Fire Island Inlet, which opens well to the westward, opposite Bay Shore. 

 There are but few islands, and these are near the beach or ocean side. The region is a famous 

 resort for anglers, but its commercial fisheries arc not large. Oystering is extensively carried on 

 in the western half and clamming iu the eastern. 



The winter of 1880-'81 was a severe one, the bay being frozen nearly solid, but the oysters did 

 not suffer as much as was expected. One of the old oysterinen, Mr. Floyd R. Skinner, of Sayville, 

 has noticed that a long hard winter leaves them weak and in bad condition, but that the losses by 

 death are less than when the weather is changeable with high winds. The winter of 1879-'80 was 

 mild and but little loss occurred. As no dredging is allowed in the bay, all oysters are taken with 

 tongs except the few which are gathered with rakes in shoal water. The bay lies in the townships 

 of Brook Haven and Islip, the oyster district extending from Brook Haven on the east to Ford's 

 River on the west. The oyster beds in the former township are free to citizens of the town on 

 payment of a "toleration fee" of $1 per year. The beds are places where there are deposits of 

 old shells. The " grounds '' are staked off or buoyed into 4-acre lots, which are leased to citizens. 



