FISHERIES OF THE NEW ENGLAND STATES. 371 



lobsters, and sea bass. The yield of the shore fisheries was 14,468,762 

 pounds, valued at $419,021, the principal species, in the order of their 

 importance, being- 03"sters, squeteague, lobsters, scup, quahogs, clams, 

 eels, flat-fish and flounders, blue-fish, striped bass, cod, scallops, ale- 

 wives, mackerel, and tautog. 



The most valuable and effective forms of apparatus employed for 

 the capture of fish proper in the vessel and shore fisheries were trap 

 nets and pound nets. In the vessel fisheries 27 trap nets were operated, 

 having a value of $41,900. The value of all other forms of apparatus 

 used by the vessels, including purse seines, snap nets, lines, pots, har- 

 poons, dredges, tongs, etc., was $8,863. In the shore fisheries there 

 were 175 trap nets and pound nets used, valued at $68,495; all other 

 apparatus, consisting of seines, gill nets, fyke nets, lines, pots, spears, 

 dredges, tongs, etc., being valued at $31,407. 



Some of the ocean trap nets have a weight, including the leader but 

 exclusive of anchors, of about 3,000 pounds. The construction of one 

 of these trap nets requires about 2,000 pounds of rope, varying from 

 2-inch to the large cable size, and costing 7 cents a pound, and 8,000 

 corks or floats worth $3 a hundred. About eighteen anchors, weighing 

 from 200 to 700 pounds each, are also necessary for setting one of these 

 nets. The names " trap " and "pound" are often used interchangeably 

 by the fishermen, but the former relates more properly to the floating 

 trap net held in place by anchors, and the latter to the pound net set 

 with stakes. 



The trap-net fishery centering at Sakonnet Point and in the vicinity 

 of Newport is of considerable importance. In addition to the small 

 boats ordinarily used in the fishery, there were nine steamboats 

 (some of them not owned in the State) engaged in tending the nets 

 and transporting the fish. Three steamboats not owned in the State 

 were employed in the pound-net fishery between Point eludith and 

 Watch Hill, in Washington County. The trap nets, with perhaps a 

 few exceptions, were set in deep water. 



The season for fishing trap nets and pound nets extends from the 

 latter part of April to about the 15th of July, the best fishing being 

 from May 1 to June 15. There is also more or less pound-net fishing- 

 carried on in different parts of the State in the summer and fall, but the 

 catch is not so large as it is in the spring. The spring fishing is often 

 called ^' scup fishing," on account of the predominance of that species 

 in May and the early part of June. A large deep-water trap net is 

 capable of holding thousands of barrels of fish at one time; but the 

 scup were so abundant in 1898 that some of the nets were closed at 

 times to allow them to pass by. When the fish are so plentiful prices 

 are very low and shipments can not be made with profit. The products 

 secured with trap nets and pound nets in 1898 aggregated 14,385,126 

 pounds, valued at $220,791. Of this quantity 6,387,925 pounds, valued 

 at $75,528, were scup, and 7,997,201 pounds, valued at $145,268, 



