NEW YOEK: SOUTH SHORE OP LONG ISLAND. 367 



bay. One-half are married, and about 3,000 persons, altogether, are dependent upon the products 

 of the salt water. 



Besides the oyster, claui, fish, and menhaden industries, a little revenue is derived from the 

 "horsefeet" (Limuhis polyplicrnvs) and the common mussels (Mytihts edulis). Smith's Point, on 

 Bellport Bay, is the eastern limit of the horsefeet on account of the freshness of the water. They 

 are used to bait eel-pots, feed chickens and hogs, and for manure. Farmers pay 50 to 75 cents per 

 hundred for them. Eelers pay 2 cents each for females, but will not buy males. The season is 

 .May and June, when they "crawl" or come ashore to lay their eggs between tide marks. They 

 are picked up on shore at night or speared with an iron pike in the water by day. If speared in 

 the carapace, the juices run out and they die and are worthless. A man can load a small boat at 

 low tide in season. There are probably 10,000 caught in a season, which, at $1 per hundred, 

 would only net $100, and yet their actual value must be much more. 



Mussels are taken around the islands with oyster tongs principally, although a few are caught 

 with rakes. They are worth 3 cents per bushel for manure. Probably 200,000 bushels are taken 

 between Moriches and Babylon. A very few go to market for pickling, but the demand is small. 

 Minnows, "silversides" (probably Engraulis rittatits and other species), are taken with a net made 

 of milnet for eel bait, but usually by the eelers themselves, so that there is no regular price. 



Hard clams are taken from the opening of the bay in spring to its close. The season is more 

 active when oysters are out, from the middle of June to the middle of September. The same boats 

 are used, probably two hundred, ranging from 2 to G tons each. During the height of the season 

 five hundred men and two hundred boys are employed. A good day's work for a mau is 1,000 

 clams (about 3 bushels). They sell for $2 per thousand or 70 cents per bushel. The yearly 

 production is about 150,000 bushels, of which about 20,000 bushels are put up by the cannery at 

 Islip. The tongs and rakes used are made rather heavier than those for oysters, and cost $5 

 and SO, respectively. Three-fifths of the catch is taken with tongs the heads of which are of iron. 

 Gill nets, or set-nets as they are here called, are used, to a certain extent, in the fisheries of the 

 bay. They are GOO fathoms long and G feet deep, being made of cotton twine, 12-thread, and having 

 a 3-inch mesh. A "fly-net," another common kind of apparatus, is a seine not hauled to shore; 

 one end is fastened to a stake and the boat pays it out and rows around to the starting point. 



Oft" Fire Island Inlet about seventy-five men fish for cod in winter. They use hand-lines and 

 bait with sea clams and razor clams. Three or four men fish from one boat of about half a ton 

 burthen. The twenty boats take 2,000,000 pounds in the course of a season. A portion of the 

 catch, perhaps 500,000 pounds, goes to New York by boat, the remainder is sent by rail and is 

 included in the figures for the different stations. 



In addition to the products already mentioned, 50,000 barrels of soft clams and $10,000 worth 

 of menhaden are taken in the bay, the latter being used for manure. 



BBOOKHAVEN. The shipping station on the railroad is Yaphank, 3 miles north. Twenty five 

 fishermen live here (not included above), of whom fifteen are married, and seventy persons in all 

 are dependent upon the water. Ten of the men fish outside and the remainder in the bay. There 

 is no hand-lining for cod. Seines are used outside, and set-nets, fykes, and "run-arounds" or 

 "fly-nets," inside; $500 are invested iu boats and $2,500 in nets. Eeliug has been poor this year, 

 the catch amounting only to 2,500 pounds; 25,000 pounds of fresh fish of other species have been 

 taken. 



BELLPORT. At Bellport fifteen men are engaged in the fisheries proper; nine of these are 

 married, and have thirty-five persons depending upon their exertions. In addition to these, fifty 

 oystermen are numbered among the residents of the village. No fishing is done outside ; $2,HOO 



