DELAWARE: DESCRIPTION OF FISHERIES BY TOWNS. 413 



station at Bowers' Beach, on the shore of Delaware Bay. Sixteen men from this place engage in 

 the fisheries, employing themselves both in the capture of salt and fresh water species at various 

 seasons of the year, though the principal part of the work is done in the spring and summer. Mag- 

 nolia has ten boats, valued at $200, and four seines, valued at $400, employed in the fisheries. The 

 catch, according to the estimates of the most intelligent fishermen of this locality, is 252,500 pounds 

 of sea and auadromous fish, 3,500 pounds of fresh-water fish, 72 terrapin, 30,000 clams, and 3,600 

 crabs. 



152. FREDERICA, MILFORD, AND MILTON. 



THE FISHERIES OP FKEDEKICA. About 5 miles directly south of Magnolia is the village of 

 Frederica, having between 700 and 800 inhabitants, while the town includes within its limits 

 between 1,400 and 1,500 persons. The village of Frederica is situated on Murderkill Creek, about 

 7 miles from its mouth, where it empties into the Delaware Bay, on the south side of Bowers' 

 Beach, which lies between this and Jones' Creek. Bowers' Beach, one of the principal fishing 

 stations of Delaware Bay, and having a small resident population, is within the limits of Frederica, 

 and its fisheries, fishermen, &c., will be considered in this connection. 



Frederica has seventy-two men employed in the fisheries, to a greater or less extent. Sixty- 

 two of these are engaged principally in the spring, thirteen of them fishing wholly in Murderkill 

 Creek for fresh-water or anadromous species, while the other fishermen depend chiefly on catch- 

 ing such species as may be taken in the waters of the bay, though occasionally they may resort to 

 the streams to fish when a favorable opportunity offers. Many of the fishermen of this section 

 depend largely on agricultural pursuits for their livelihood, changing from fishing to farming and 

 vice versa, as the prospect of making money in one pursuit exceeds that of the other. There are 

 twelve peddlers at Frederica, who make a business of hawking fish about the villages and farming 

 districts within a radius of 20 or 30 miles. They buy their stock from the fishermen at Bowers' 

 Beach. According to Mr. James Wyatt, a resident of Bowers' Beach, many of the fishermen of 

 this place are employed in catching oysters during the winter. 



There are three fishing stations on Murderkill Creek where shad, herring, and other species 

 are taken with seines, and at each of these places is a small shanty for the accommodation of the 

 fishermen and the reception of their catch and fishing apparatus. The total value of these build- 

 ings is $00. Five small buildings have also been erected at Bowers' Beach for the same purpose, 

 the total value of these being $150. 



The residents of Frederica, as well as those of the adjacent small settlements, resort to Bowers' 

 Beach in the spring and engage in the trout fisheries, capturing at the same time a greater or less 

 amount of other species. 



In the fisheries of Frederica are employed forty boats, valued at $800; twenty-nine gill-nets, 

 valued at $89; fourteen haul-seines, valued at $1,315; and seven bow-nets, worth $7. 



The products of the fisheries are 1,170,750 pounds of sea fish and anadromons species, 11,950 

 pounds of fresh-water fish, 1,000 pounds of turtle, 120 terrapin in number, and 6,000 crabs. In 

 addition, about 600,000 pounds of horseshoe crabs for fertilizing purposes are taken by the fisher- 

 men of Frederica and the adjacent towns along the shores of Delaware Bay, between Kitt's 

 Hammock and Lewes, an important part of the capture being made by the residents of this town. 



Like Dover, the most important fishery of Frederica is for trout (Cynoscion regale). The 

 quantity taken by the fishermen of this town is 1,097,250 pounds of this particular species, exceed- 

 ing that of the catch of any other locality in the State. Next to the trout fishery in importance 



