EASTERN FLORIDA: PRINCIPAL FISHERY DISTRICTS. 531 



Jacksonville and Palatka in ice. This fishery has been occasionally prosecuted by Northern fish- 

 ermen since that time, and during the winter of 1879 one seine was fished regularly on the bar, 

 the catch, which amounted to 2,500 shad, being sold to the hotels in the locality. The fishing 

 season lasts from the 1st of December to the middle of April. Another seine and two or three 

 gill-nets are owned in the region, but the fishing is very irregular and mostly for family use. 



LAKE HARNEY. Lake Harney, about 2G5 miles above the mouth of the Saint John's, is the 

 highest point on the river where the fisheries have been prosecuted, and even here the fishing has 

 been very limited. The lake, which is only 5 or G miles in diameter, is so shoal that a common 

 seine will scrape the bottom in almost every part. It was first visited four or five years ago by 

 Palatka parties, who were successful in taking a large number of shad and mullet, which they 

 salted and shipped to Jacksonville. 



In the winter of 1S79-'80 two crews came from Jacksonville, with seines and other necessary 

 apparatus, to catch fish for shipment in ice to that market; but after three or four weeks they 

 gave up the work, owing to the unusually high water which covered the surrounding country and 

 allowed the fish to escape into the grass of the swamps. The catch amounted to almost nothing, 

 though under ordinary circumstances the lake is said to be an excellent location for a fishery. 



