618 — HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
The organized fisheries are prosecuted exclusively with gill-nets, which are either floated with 
the tide or staked across where the fish ron. Skim-nets and dip-nets are used at various points 
along the river, but the product thus obtained is insignificant, and we have no returns of it. 
No regular fisheries exist above Doctor Town, at which point four men, fishing five gill-nets, 
take annually about 1,200 shad and 4,000 pounds of other fish. Parties from Brunswick, fishing 
for shad to supply the local market, take 3,000 shad and 6,000 pounds of other fish. At Darien, 
Ga., eleven men fish eleven nets. The product is 4,400 shad and 8,000 pounds of other fish, all of 
which goes to supply the local market. 
The following summary will show how disproportionate to the magnitude of the river is the 
importance of its fisheries: 
Number of men employed in the fisheries. ..-... .... -2.- .2--- + cee ene cece cence ee ceene 49 
Amount of capital employed ...... 1.222. cone cane cee c ee cnn e cece eee rene cone tees nee ceee $2, 990 
Product of 1880, in pounds: 
SYA scceisiss cinainiaie nererne die eiciaieie sd pieisioe wiew die sie euisereeeeeenedei esas ps sdicecaaccecseees 30, 100 
Sturgeon... 22. eee cewek cee eee cee cee cone cree cen n rene cee e cee e cone cece teens 88, 500 
Mixed! tight 0% veav dice acicis-gaiste wicle'steariciee iene Gicisisaie osteeenineesewvemeus adsees Sonetsccces 38, 000 
Value of product .... 222. 22.0 ne cee ee eee cee eee ce ene te mesivebiestse saatinedecemens $10, 123 
Fully one-half of the fish taken and sold as shad are hickory-shad (Olupea mediocris). 
The statistics of the important sturgeon fisheries at the mouth of the river are given in the 
chapter on the sturgeon trade of Savannah. 
4. THE SATILLAS. 
The Satillas traverse in their lower reaches an extensive region of alluvial swamp, which, by 
levees, has been converted into productive rice-fields. Both these rivers, like the Ogeechee, take 
their rise in the sandy belt which lies between tide-water and the Piedmont section of the South 
Atlantic States, the result being that they are never muddy, as are the Savannah or the Peedee. 
There are no obstructions to the ascent of fish. No organized fresh-water fisheries, however, exist 
except for sturgeon, which are taken immediately at the mouth and a short distance up the river. 
The product and value of the sturgeon fisheries will be given when treating of the sturgeon trade 
of Savannah. 
5. THE OGEEOHEE RIVER. 
The Ogeechee River rises in the sandy belt of Georgia. Its waters, which drain through 
extensive swamps, are never muddy like those of the Savannah or Altamaha, nor, like them, is the 
stream subject to sudden floods and changes of temperature, which in the Ogeechee is higher than 
for the corresponding dates in the Savannah. This is to be explained by the fact that the former 
rises in the tide-water belt, instead of having its sources in the mountains. 
As a result the run of shad and herring commences very early in the Ogeechee, and the fish 
mature their spawn at an earlier period than in the Savannah. So true is this that any one at all 
familiar with shad can, on seeing them exposed in the Savannah markets, tell at a glance, judging 
only by the degree of development, from which of these rivers they came. The run of shad be- 
gins in the early part of January and ends about the last of March. 
The run of alewives, according to local report, begins about the 1st of March. 
Although no permanent obstructions to the ascent of fish exist in the Ogeechee, only a small 
proportion of the fish which enter the river reach spawning-grounds, being excluded by the gill- 
nets, which are sufficient in number to almost,totally block the way. To their agency must doubt- 
less be attributed the very decided decline which has occurred in the last few years. 
