462 GEOGRAPHICAL EEVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



however, are within easy reach of salt water, and the majority, even of the farmers, own small 

 boats for catching a supply of fish for their own use. 



The large flats and shoals in different parts of thes.e two counties abound in oysters, clams, 

 crabs, and terrapin, while the months of the creeks and the outer shoals are the feeding and spawn- 

 ing grounds of large numbers of fish, the supply being practicably inexhaustible. Were it not for 

 the lack of a convenient market and the absence of suitable means of transportation, the fishing 

 business would doubtless assume important proportions. As it is, the fisheries throughout the 

 greater portion of the region are confined to supplying the local trade, and many of those who 

 would follow the business regularly can fish only one or two days in the week, as they would 

 overstock the market should they go out oftener. These, together with the farmers, often own 

 small seines, and fish exclusively for several weeks in the fall, salting their catch for home use or 

 for sale to people in the vicinity. In the neighborhood of the steamboat landings and about the 

 southern end of the peninsula, where the fish can be sent to market by sailing vessels, the fishing 

 is more extensive, and a considerable number of men follow the business regularly during the 

 greater part of the summer; all of them, together with many of the farmers, engaging in the 

 oyster fisheries as soon as the weather is sufficiently cold to warrant the shipment of their catch. 

 These continue regularly in the work during the entire winter and well into the following spring, 

 many of them deriving a large part of their income from this source. 



"The clam and terrapin fisheries, and such others as are not dependent upon a convenient 

 market, have been quite extensively developed, and the fishing is prosecuted with considerable 

 vigor, the catch being retained until such time as an opportunity presents itself for selling or 

 shipping. About 2,300 dozen terrapins, valued at nearly $10,000, are taken annually, while over 

 8,000,000 of quahaugs, equal to 27,500 bushels, netting the fishermen $11,500, are shipped or eaten, 

 in addition to over 1,000,000 clams purchased by parties at Oapeville, to be canned and shipped 

 to the Western States. Formerly the clamming interest was even more extensive than at present, 

 and a considerable fleet of vessels came regularly to Hog and Cobb's Islands to purchase cargoes, 

 which they carried to Philadelphia and New York. The vessels still visit the region, but the 

 number is somewhat reduced, and many clams are carried in small boats to Franklin City, whence 

 they are shipped by rail. 



The fisheries proper of the region are chiefly confined to the bay shore, the fishing being most 

 extensive about the mouths of the numerous creeks and near the southern extremity of the pen- 

 insula. Many of the fishermen use hand-lines, others seines, and within the last few years purse- 

 nets and gill-nets have been very successfully employed. The hand-line fishermen catch sheeps- 

 head (Diplodus probatocephalus), trout (Cynoscion maculattim), spot (Liostomus xanthurus), mullet 

 or merhead (Menticirrus sp.), and a few bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix), all along the shores from 

 May to November. The greater part of their catch is sold fresh in the vicinity of their homes, many 

 of them fishing for a few hours in the early morning and spending the rest of the day in peddling 

 their catch. At certain seasons they engage more extensively in the work, salting considerable 

 quantities for winter use. There are about three hundred men engaged in the hand-line fishing 

 for about five months in the year, with four hundred others who fish and clam occasionally during 

 the same season. The total hand-line catch is valued at about $39,250. 



Gill-nets were formerly much used in the spring shad fisheries of the eastern shore of Virginia, 

 and they were also employed to a limited extent in the fall by the farmers for the capture of spot 

 and other of the smaller species, to be salted for their own tables. Leaving out the shad fisheries, 

 the business was of little importance until quite recently, when it became known that the better class 

 of fishes, including Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatvs), sheepshead, porgee (Parephippus 



