570 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



At Mobile there are twenty stationary gill-nets, whose average length is from 30 to 50 fath- 

 oms, and depth G to 12 feet. The mesh of their central web measures 2 to 2| inches, and their 

 outer web 12 inches. These are in use for nine months of the year, from September to May. The 

 principal varieties caught in them are mullet, trout, redfish, sheepshead, pompano, croakers, and 

 other bay fishes, and black bass, bream, and perch from the fresh and brackish bayous. Each 

 boat carries from one to four of these nets, according to the size of the boat and of the nets. The 

 average catch for one net is 100 pounds a day, that is, one basket, making the annual catch 24,000 

 pounds. 



There are fifteen seines, averaging in length CO to 100 fathoms, and in depth 10 to 12 feet. The 

 average stretch of mesh is 1 to 1 inches. Four or five men are required to each seine. These nets 

 are used chiefly in summer when the fish are schooling. In them all kinds of bay fish arc caught, 

 but no fresh-water varieties. The average annual catch of each is 35,000 pounds. 



There are two distinct fisheries, the catches of which are brought to Mobile the open sea 

 hook and-line fishery and the inside net fishery. The former of these has already been detailed 

 in the paragraphs on the fisheries of Pensacola, since the smacks fishing for the Mobile market 

 form a part of the Peusacola fleet of fishing boats. 



THE INSIDE-WATER FISHERIES. In the inside- water fisheries an open yawl-boat, about 20 feet 

 long, is used. The net may be seine or sections of trammel-netting. Those who use trammel or 

 gill nets fish about the marshes at the mouth of the Alabama River. They camp anywhere along 

 the shore, and are gone from one to six days. The result of their trip is as uncertain as is the 

 length of the time for which they may be absent. 



They work their trammel-nets thus: When a school of fish, or, more generally, a good feeding 

 place, is found, the nets, in one, two, or three sections, are placed around the fish or the likely 

 spot, and the fishermen beat the water inside the nets, in order to frighten the fish so that they 

 will run against the net and become entangled. Large fish are caught by the outer web of the 

 net, while the smaller ones are gilled or entangled in the inner web of small mesh. Trammel-nets 

 are never dragged as seines are. 



Another method of using these nets is to set three or four sections from the shore outward in 

 a straight line, and to leave them so set for several hours. Bottom fish, such as redfish and trout, arc 

 the principal kinds taken in this way. Set-nets do not, however, work well in these waters, for as 

 soon as a fish which has been caught in the net is dead, the alligator-gars, small sharks, and crabs, 

 which are always present in large numbers, begin to eat it, and while doing so often cut holes in 

 the net. Trammel fishermen usually carry cars with them. In these they keep all the uninjured 

 fish alive. 



The seine fishermen go much farther from the city than the gill-netters, for by so doing they 

 find better places at which they can drag their seines, and probably also a greater abundance of 

 fish. These fishermen camp along the shores from Bon Secour Bay, which is to the east of Mobile 

 Bay, to the Chandeleur Islands, fishing at one place one week and at another the next week. Some 

 of these men have small farms near to the fishing grounds, and thus combine fishing with farming. 

 They display but little energy in their work, and consequently make a poor living at it. In the 

 day-time they fish for school fish and in the night for bottom fish, doing neither when there is no 

 supply of ice at hand or some safe mode of sending their fish to market. One or two small ves- 

 sels carry fish from the camps to the city. These are not the only means whereby the men can 

 transport their fish to market, for there are oyster-boats, smacks, and steamboats constantly 

 passing. 



DISPOSITION OF CATCH. The kinds of fish which they catch are always sold by the basket, 



