THE CAPE FEAE RIVER, NORTH CAROLINA. 625 



it was packed in ice and shipped by steamer to Charleston, thence to New York. The boats em- 

 ployed for "gilling" were the ordinary Whitehall boats. Two men fish a net. These average 

 about one hundred fathoms in length. The sturgeon which are taken at each drift are transferred 

 to floating pens made with slatted sides and bottom, so as to permit a free circulation of water. 

 The pens, or live-boxes, containing the male sturgeon, or "bucks," are kept tied close up to the 

 scow. It is, however, necessary to anchor the pens containing the female or "roe," sturgeon out 

 in the bay, remote from shore; otherwise the eels, which are abundant in the creeks and along 

 shore, would enter their vents and eat out the roes, and thus destroy the most valuable part of 

 the fish, which is prepared as caviare for market. 



Twice a week the fish that have been taken in the interval are slaughtered on the scow, the 

 heads and tails being first cut off. While the fish are still alive their belly is ripped open and the 

 roe taken out, placed in buckets, and handed over to the expert who is charged with the prepara- 

 tion of the caviare. The fish are then skinned and split down the backbone, divided longitudinally 

 into two halves, and stacked up until the slaughtering is completed, when they are transported to 

 the schooner and shipped to Georgetown. 



A great deal of mystery enshrouds the preparation of the caviare. In fact, however, it seems 

 to consist simply in passing the roe through sieves, in order to separate the fibrous matter which 

 adheres to it, and then salting it down in barrels capable of holding 100 pounds each. The quan- 

 tity and kind of salt used could not be ascertained. 



Statistical summary of the fisheries of Winyah Bay and its tributaries for 1880. 



Number of men employed 97 



Amount of capital employed $4,050 



Product of the fisheries: 



Shad pounds.. 78,400 



Sturgeon do 224,000 



Mixed fish do 300,000 



Value of the products $23,028 



2. THE RIVERS AND SOUNDS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



BY MARSHALL MCDONALD. 

 1. CAPE FEAR RIVER. 



The basiu of this river and its tributaries lies wholly within the State of North Carolina. It 

 is navigable for steamers up to Fayetteville, N. C. ; a short distance above this point are the first 

 falls of the river. Here a dam has been erected in connection with the slack-water navigation of 

 Deep River, the main tributary of the Cape Fear. This obstruction, of course, prevents the fur- 

 ther upward migration of the shad. From Fayetteville to the mouth of the Cape Fear River 

 organized fisheries are prosecuted for the capture of shad. In 1880, when the examination of the 

 river was made, the importance of these fisheries had decreased very much, the product at that 

 time not exceeding 45,500 in number for the whole river. This entire quantity of fish found a 

 local market on the river at good prices, the average being about 30 cents apiece. 



Drift-nets, skim-nets, and haul-seines are operated on this river, the different kinds of appa- 

 ratus for capture being adapted to the locality. In the viciuty of Fayetteville several haul-seines 

 are in use; there is also another at the mouth of the river in the vicinity of New Inlet. 

 SEC. v 40 



