10 



REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Newport, Ehode Island, August 2, 1871. 



J. M. K. SOTJTHWIOK : 



I am not now a practical fisherman, although I have fished many 

 years with traps and nets of different kinds. The question is one which 

 excites considerable feeling. We have two styles of nets ; what is called 

 the trap, and the heart-seine or pound. 



[These were illustrated by drawings in this manner :] 



There is no bottom to the trap-net, and it must be watched all the 

 time. Fish, when not excited, will remain in it some time, especially 

 scup ; but menhaden are apt to get out unless they are closely watched. 



The first trap is set at Franklin Hollow, to catch the fish as they run 

 south, on the eastern shore of the West Passage. It has a leader of 

 something like a hundred fathoms. Traps have been tried on the west 

 shore, but no fish are caught there in the spring. 



There is a heart-seine in Mackerel Cove, which has a leader of about 

 seventy-five fathoms. There are two set near Fort Adams. I set one 

 five years at Piue-Tree Beach, having a leader of forty-five fathoms. 

 The leader is generally set perpendicular to the shore. There is a heart- 

 seine at Coddington's Cove. The rest are usually traps. I catch fish 

 usually by the 10th of May. This year the fish came earlier, and prob- 

 ably could have been caught by the 1st of May. The fish were ten days 

 later at Coddington's Cove than at Pine-Tree Cove. When the fish first 

 come in the spring, we catch a few at first, and then a hundred or two, 

 and then pretty soon several hundred barrels. The first run is generally 

 larger than the later. The first run of scup that comes in, is generally of 

 large scup, all large, weighing from two to three pounds. Then, per- 

 haps a week afterward, the smaller scup, two-thirds the size of the 

 others come in ; and two weeks later they come that weigh from half to 

 three-quarters of a pound. The last run are smaller, and many not 

 worth saving, and many pass through the meshes of the net. 



