THE FISHERIES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 637 
market in a fresh condition, the greater portion being packed with ice in boxes, cach containing 
about 225 pounds of fish. From Edenton and other landings the fish are transported by steam- 
boat up the Chowan and Blackwater Rivers to the intersection of the Seaboard and Roaroke Rail- 
road, or by the Dismal Swamp Canal, or yet again by the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal to 
Norfolk. The fish are usually consigned directly from the shore to their point of destination. 
Agents are employed by the owners of the shores to attend to the packing and handling of the fish 
at Norfolk. Early in the season considerable numbers of herring also are shipped fresh, mainly 
to Philadelphia and Baltimore. The great bulk, however, is either sold fresh on the shore to the 
farmers, who carry them to the interior in carts and wagons, or is salted down in barrels and 
shipped, usually in sailing vessels, to Norfolk. The salt fish are prepared for market in three 
ways, being known, respectively, as “gross herring,” the entire fish being salted down, as “split 
herring,” the head and entrals being removed before salting, or as ‘roe herring,” the head alone 
being removed, the main gut drawn, and the roe left in the fish, The manipulations connected 
with this preparation do not differ from those in common use all along the coast. 
STATISTIOS OF THE FISHERIES OF ALBEMARLE SOUND. 
The following statistics show the extent and value of the fisheries of Albemarle Sound and 
its tributaries for the season of 1880: 
Number. | Value. . 
Men employed* D225" | sinccisiaeacigee 
Boats.......---.. ae 295 $42, 950 
ADPATALUG vee scexaismcccesemciecesiccisee es ajcnciecicceeee 92, 280 
Shore property nena sncnssecnunann dacnanleaasawnsieene 55, 800 
Products. Pounds. 
BAG csc sccesre seankcnwene wes Sreaeses 2, 255, 823 172, 969 
Herring ccjocacoesesaacane voc eeassiesxes 14, 478, 000 125, 080 
Sturgeon ........2.--.cee eee eee e conan 114, 400 1,144 
Miscollancons —.......02206 cence waren 313, 200 30, 620 
* Fishermen and shoresmen. 
3.—THE FISHERIES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY AND ITS TRIBU- 
TARIES. 
By MARSHALL MODONALD. 
1. GENERAL REVIEW. 
. 
The Chesapeake is a great highway for the commerce of the world. In contemplating its 
possibilities in this direction we are apt to lose sight of the fact that it is itself an area of vast 
and profitable production. 
The fresh waters brought down by its grand system of tributary rivers, commingling with 
the salt waters of the bay, produce those peculiar conditions of salinity which are most favorable 
to the growth of the oyster. Consequently we find the shores of the bay itself, the mouths of all 
its rivers, and the bottoms of the tributary sounds—such as the Pocomoke and Tangier—thickly 
occupied by natural beds of oysters, the dredging of which furnishes profitable occupation for vast 
