486 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



dispensed with, and the communication between different sections is carried on by means of boats. 

 Indeed, such is the peculiar relation of land to water, that, according to Sheriff J. D. Davis, one 

 can go in a boat to within a mile of any house in the county. 



The principal settlements are Beaufort and Morehead City. These are situated on opposite 

 sides of Newport River, just abreast of Beaufort Inlet, with a population of 1,600 and 400, respect 

 ively. 



THE INHABITANTS LARGELY DEPENDENT UPON THE FISHERIES. Fully three-fourths of the 



people of the county are largely dependent upon fishing and oystering. For many years large 

 quantities of mullet, trout, hogfish, and spot have been annually salted for shipment to the 

 interior. Prior to 1858, when the railroad was completed to Morehead City, the fish were salted 

 and carried in vessels to Norfolk, or to various points on Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, where 

 they were exchanged for corn; but now many are sent by rail to the markets of the interior. 



THE SHIPPING OP FRESH FISH IN ICE. Up to 1870 no fresh fish were shipped, and at that 

 time only an occasional box was sent out in midwinter to some of the larger cities of the State. 

 In 1874 the iced-fish trade was inaugurated by Mr. George, N. Ives,- of New Haven, Conn. Mr. Ives 

 came to Beaufort to engage in the oyster trade, but finding that fresh fish of excellent quality could 

 be readily obtained, he decided to establish a business in this line. From that date this branch of 

 the business has grown very rapidly, and though most of the larger dealers have found it con- 

 venient to locate in New Berne, the fish are usually packed and shipped direct from the station 

 at Morehead City. During the year ending May 30, 1880, there were 250,000 bunches of fresh fish, 

 equal to 892,000 pounds, netting the fishermen $25,500, either shipped from or consumed in Car- 

 teret County. Of these, 90,000 bunches were trout (Cynoscion maculatum), 40,000 were mullet (Mugil 

 albula and M. braziliensis), 20,000 were bluefish (Pomatonms saltatrix), 5,000 were sea-mullet (Men- 

 ticiirus alburnus). The remaining 100,000 bunches included red drum (Sciccna ocellata), spot 

 (Liostomus xanthurus), star-fish (probably a species of Trachynotus), Spanish mackerel (Scombcro- 

 morvs maculatus), and other species. There are five firms engaged in the fish trade at Beaufort, 

 and four additional at Morehead City. These occupy property worth $3,000, require a capital of 

 $5,000, and furnish employment to thirty men and boys for eight months of the year. The ship- 

 ping season lasts from the middle of August to the middle of December and from the 20th of Jan- 

 uary to the 1st of May. 



EXTENSIVE SHIPMENTS OF SALT FISH. The combined salt-fish trade of Beaufort and More- 

 head City is more extensive than that of any other city on the Southern coast. These places 

 handle nearly all of the fish put up by the fishermen living between Ocracoke Inlet, on the north, 

 and New River, on the south. The trade is confined to no one class, but is open to general com- 

 petition, so that the regular fish dealers, the merchants, and many of the citizens buy and ship a 

 considerable quantity, while thirty-three vessels, ranging from 5 to 20 tons each, are engaged in 

 carrying salt fish to the various river towns and to Norfolk to exchange for corn. 



THE BARRELS USED FOR PACKING THE FISH. Formerly the fish were salted in almost any 

 barrel, keg, or kit that would hold pickle, and there was no uniformity in the size of the package. 

 To overcome this difficulty, the State legislature, in 1879, passed a law requiring the fish barrel to 

 have a stave 25 inches long and a head 13 inches in diameter. This regulation barrel, which is 

 quite generally, though not universally adopted, is calculated to hold 100 pounds. 



The difficulty, however, is that the law does not state how many pounds it shall contain, and 

 people inclined to dishonesty, by packing the fish with the backbone toward the center, can make 

 a barrel seem full when it contains but 85 or 90 pounds; when the fish are carefully packed with 

 the backbones outward the barrel will hold about 11.0 pounds. 



