THE MULLET FISHERY. 561 



Bogue Sounds, there are regular seining beaches that have been visited each season for many 

 years. These are fished by the parties owning the land, or are rented out to fishermen, the price 

 paid for the privilege depending largely upon the record of the shores in the past. 



Charleston, S. C., is the next point where mullet are extensively taken. Here during the 

 migrating season the fishing is chiefly along the southern shores of Sullivan and Long Islands, 

 but when the weather is rough the fish seek the inside passages, and the seines are hauled at any 

 point where the character of the bottom will admit. In winter smaller individuals are taken in 

 the deep holes of the numerous creeks, some miles front the ocean. 



Though the fish are taken in considerable numbers farther south, there are no important mullet 

 stations until the Saint John's Eiver is reached. Here, as already stated, the fish ascend to Lake 

 Monroe, -40 miles from the sea, and their yearly migrations to and from the ocean give opportunities 

 ior extensive fisheries along the entire course of the stream, though, owing to the swampy character 

 of the banks and to the limited population of the region, comparatively few are taken except at and 

 near the mouth of the river, where the fishermen of Jacksonville, New Berlin, and Mayport secure 

 large numbers. In the Matanzas, Halifax, and Indian Rivers, still farther south, the fish are abun- 

 dant, and many are taken for local supply. In the Gulf of Mexico, according to Mr. Stearns, the fish- 

 ing grounds are confined largely to the Florida coast, comparatively few mullet being taken else- 

 where. Within the limits of this State the fisheries are widely distributed, though the bulk of the 

 fish are taken by the fishermen of Apalachicola, Pensacola, Cedar Keys, and Saint Marks, in the 

 larger bays of central Florida. 



In California, according to Prof. D. S. Jordan, the only fishing grounds are at San Diego. 



4. THE FISHERMEN. 



Along the New England coast we find a class of professional fishermen who follow fishing 

 for a livelihood, deriving their entire support from this source. These parties, being wholly 

 dependent upon the fisheries, which they follow during a greater portion of the year, naturally take 

 a deep interest in their work, and give considerable thought to the apparatus and methods for 

 catching the fish, as well as to curing and marketing the products. In order that a man may be 

 successful in the fisheries of this region it is necessary that he be fully equipped with the apparatus 

 best suited to that particular fishery in which he is engaged. New kinds of apparatus are fre- 

 quently introduced, and if these are found to be more suitable than the old they are soon quite 

 generally adopted. In this way the fisheries are being rapidly developed, and they become more 

 profitable to all concerned. Many of the fishermen of the Middle States also may be regarded as 

 professional fishermen, and, though they are decidedly below the New England fishermen in the 

 amount of energy and skill displayed, many of them are provided with the most modern appa- 

 ratus and manifest considerable energy in their work, and are rewarded by large profits. Along 

 the southern coast for half a century prior to 1870 the fisheries remained almost stationary; but 

 with the change wrought by the Rebellion they have more than doubled in importance. Even 

 now, however, if we except the States of Maryland and Virginia and the shad and alewife fish- 

 eries of Albernarle Sound, the increase is due rather to the greater number of persons engaged 

 than to any improvement in the apparatus employed in fishing or to improved methods for the 

 preparation of fishery products. With a few notable exceptions, as at Beaufort, Charleston, Key 

 West, and Cedar Keys, the coast fishermen of the South make fishing a secondary matter, some 

 fishing merely a few months each season, and others only when necessity compels. At Saint Au- 

 gustine, Fla., the primitive cast-net introduced by the early Spaniards is still used, to the exclu- 

 sion of all other methods except the hook and line. Thus waters that, if properly fished, would 

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