NEW YOEK: WEST END OF LONG ISLAND. 375 



used for bass and fine-meshed seines are employed for eels. Crabs are taken in winter by means 

 of rakes, similar to ordinary clam-rakes. These have a 4-foot bar with 32 to 30 fingers, and a 

 handle 30 feet long. Hard and soft clams are taken, bnt no oysters. 



NEW UTRECHT AND BATH. Forty men are engaged in the fisheries of these places, of 

 whom 18 are married. Including the families of these, 100 of the inhabitants are dependent 

 on the fisheries. Six boats of 10 tons each are used. These are worth $800 apiece. Last 

 year 60,000 shad were secured; 35,000 of these were taken by 5 fyke and pound fishers, while the 

 remainder were caught by the 25 gill-netters. In the season of 1881 a fisherman named Stephen 

 Morris took 12,000 shad prior to May 12. There are $10,000 invested in nets in the two villages. 

 The yield of th*e fisheries last year was: Eels, 100,000 pounds; fresh fish, exclusive of shad, 

 150,000 pounds; hard crabs, 1,200 barrels; hard claius, 5,000 bushels; soft clams, 300 bushels. 

 Fifteen men fishing from an equal number of small boats average about 3 bushels of hard clams 

 per day during the mouths of May, June, July, and August. 



FORT HAMILTON. Eight of the 10 fishermen of Fort Hamilton are married, and 30 persons, 

 are dependent upon them for support. The methods of fishing are similar to those employed at 

 Bath. William J. Cropsey owns a pound and 20 shad-fykes, while another pound is fished by other 

 parties. About $4,000 are invested in nets and $1,500 in boats. Two 10-ton boats are used, and 

 many smaller ones. The catch last year was 20,000 shad, 20,000 pounds of eels, 30,000 pounds of 

 other fresh fish, 400 barrels of hard crabs, 2,000 bushels of hard clams, and 100 bushels of soft 

 clams. 



F. NEW YORK HARBOR. 



135. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE FISHERIES. 



This section does not include the fisheries of Graveseud Bay, which are given with those of the 

 western end of Long Island. It refers chiefly to the fisheries of Stateu Island and the Upper 

 Bay, though it naturally includes fishermen from New Jersey that fish in New York waters. It 

 has been a difficult matter to separate these fisheries and to assign them to their respective States, 

 as men living in one State fish during the shad season in the waters of both. This is especially 

 true of the drift-netters. In this matter the only way seemed to be to credit each State with the 

 fish caught by its citizens, no matter where taken, and this system has been followed. Another 

 difficulty has beeu the migratory character of the fishermen who take shad in the harbor, and the 

 impossibility of interviewing any considerable portion of them. This has been overcome by intel- 

 ligent estimates of old and reliable native fishermen. The drift-netters come from many parts, 

 especially from up the Hudson, even as high as Catskill. They come down and "drift" in the 

 Narrows as long as it suits them to do so, and then follow the shad up the river to or even beyond 

 the Highlands. Shad are taken in fykes and in gill-nets. There are two forms of gill-nets; but in 

 the local idiom one is a "drift-net," while the stationary form of stake-net is technically a "gill- 

 net." In drifting they use two nets. They put one in at near the last of the ebb tide and drift 

 down until the first of the flood, when that net is overhauled and the fish taken out. The other net 

 is then dropped in and drifted up stream. These nets are from 200 to 250 fathoms long. They are 

 fished in deep water, and sunk about 25 to 28 feet below the surface. They are weighted so heavily 

 that the float-lines are sunk to this distance, where they are held by occasional buoy-lines which 

 keep them from going deeper. Even at this distance the suction of large steamboats often draws 



