GULF OF MEXICO: WESTERN FLORIDA. 



565 



and stop at every town and plantation until all their fish were sold. This mode was much more 

 profitable to the fishermen than the other, for, of course, if the buyers sent after the fish, they did 

 not expect to pay as much for them as they would if they were delivered at their houses, and 

 the value of the time spent in peddling the fish was not considered, for the summer months in that 

 region were of but little practical use to the professional fisherman. When several wagons had 

 preceded a later comer, it was frequently necessary to go as far as Columbus, Georgia, before sell- 

 ing all the fish. The best inland customers were planters, who bought the fish to feed to their 

 slaves, whose diet was half bacon and half fish. 



After the fish caught by a crew were sold, the division of the proceeds was made. The seine 

 and boat drew one share, the captain two, and each of the crow one. Some men from Alabama 

 not accustomed to fishing, but owners of a fishing outfit, would often hire by the month captain 

 and crew to fish for them during the season. For such work there was no regular proportion 

 paid, but the men who were hired usually managed to make more than they could have made had 

 they been fishing on the ordinary plan. There were at least two crews of this kind here in the 

 year 1879. Of the crews working on shares, there were only five in 1879, but when the war broke 

 out there were many more. Some of these were not fishing for market, but in order to catch fish 

 for their own consumption. 



It was impossible to find out the exact amount of fish taken and the number of boats 

 employed between 1850 and 1860 ; an estimate has been made which, owing to the care taken in 

 forming the same, is probably not far from correct. The total number of barrels of fish salted and 

 sold at Saint Andrew's Bay and vicinity is reckoned at 21,000. The fish included in this estimate 

 were such as have been already named in this section, and, with the exception of pompano, were 

 of equal value. The pompano were then much more plentiful than now, and even at the present 

 time they form one-eighth of the total catch of fish. 



Value of the Saint Andrew's fisheries for the ten years from 1850 to 1860. 



It is readily seen that the 21,000 barrels above given is in the table divided thus : One-eighth 

 pompano and seven-eighths mixed fish. 



PRESENT FISHERIES OF SAINT ANDREW'S BAY. In the year 1863, as above stated, Saint 

 Andrew's city was bombarded and destroyed by the Federal gun-boats, as also were the fisheries 

 and salt-works about the bay. This event, and the continued presence of the gun-boats, stopped 

 all fishing in this bay until after the close of the war. The fishermen still resident were without 

 outfits ; the greater part of them had heard of or experienced better fields elsewhere, and had gone 

 away. In a few years after this the poorer classes of the inland country began to call on those 

 living at the bay for fish, for which they paid by giving in exchange sirup, corn, sweet potatoes, 

 &c. The new class of fishermen was formed from the people who, since the war, had come there 

 for the purpose of farming. They found but a scanty living and were only too glad to be thus 

 called on by those living in the interior of the country for fish. Those who were able to buy seines, 

 did so immediately, and every spring and fall they spent two or three months in fishing, the 

 profits of which exceeded those realized from farming for the remaining nine months of the year. 



