378 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
fathom. One usually lasts about two years, but requires constant 
mending and repairing. 
The fishermen generally work on shares and sell’their catch to the 
marketmen at a price which is usually fixed for the season. In divid- 
ing the profits as well as in meeting the expenses all the crew share 
alike. The captain receives no more than any one of his men, and his 
duties are equally laborious. The boat and seine, which are generally 
owned by the captain or some relative or friend of his, count as one 
share. The seine is kept in good order by the crew, and the owner pays 
for such expenses as repairing the boat, painting, etc. Formerly 
at some of the ports, and particularly at Galveston, in order to more 
easily control the trade of the fishermen, the marketmen owned some 
of the boats and apparatus and rented them to the fishermen, the mar- 
ketmen receiving their proportionate share of the catch; but the prac- 
tice has been discontinued to a considerable extent, as the fishermen 
fail to take the best care of the boats and seines when they have no 
property interest in them. : 
The average annual income of the bay-seine fishermen of Texas, de- 
rived from their seining operations, is about $325. This is increased 
somewhat by hunting and marketing ducks, geese, and other food or 
plunage-bearing birds with which the bays along the Texas coast 
abound during certain seasons of the year. The profits are quite regu- 
lar, not varying much from year to year, although steadily increasing 
with the development of the fisheries and the constant advance in the 
market price of the catch. 
Occasionally two crews ‘double up,” that is, combine, uniting their 
seines, and two of the men run the catch to market while the others 
continue fishing. The proceeds from the catch are then divided equally 
among the men and boats. At times, when fishing in comparatively 
deep water, four and even five crews combine for several hauls, fasten- 
ing the seines end to end. 
The men always get in the water to haul the seine without regard to 
the temperature. They may begin to haul it from the boat when in 8 
feet of water, but the fish are landed where the water is from 10 to 36 
inches deep. On account of the men having thus to stand in the water, 
the impracticability of their fishing where the bottom is very muddy 
will be readily observed, although fish may be found there in abun- 
dance, asin Mesquit Bay. 
After a haul of the seine the fish are transferred to the live-fish ear; 
the crabs and “poor fish” are thrown away; one of the crew is left to 
tow the “car,” and the others seek another hauling berth in the imme- 
diate neighborhood. Or, if the next hauling site be distant 2 or 3 miles, 
and the wind is favorable, all of the crew return to the boat and sail 
to the next locality. 
The bay-seine fishery is prosecuted during all seasons of the year, 
but less zealously in the summer on account of the smaller demand for 
fish. The principal species of fish taken by means of these seines are 
