APPAEATUS USED IN CAPTURING FISH. 



27,' 



Fig. 19. 



LOCATION OF TRAPS, WEIRS, AND, POUNDS, IN THE 



UNITED STATES. 



I have thus indicated briefly the principal devices by which fishes are 

 captured in the United States, 1 without attempting to represent all the 

 individual modifications. The variety in the construction of traps, weirs, 

 and pounds, is 

 almost endless, 

 depending very 

 much upon the ex- 

 posure, the nature 

 of the bottom, the 

 depth of water, the 

 currents, the kind 

 offish to be taken, 

 &c. I have given 

 enough . to illus- 

 trate the extent to 

 which the simpler 

 devices of the 

 spear, the bow and 

 arrow, and the 

 hook, have been 

 replaced by appa- 

 ratus for a more 

 wholesale destruc- 

 tion. 



As already re- 

 marked, the sea-, 

 coast weirs or 

 pounds are used 

 almost exclusively 

 east of Connecti- 

 cut, although fixed 

 nets are in opera- 

 tion in or near the 

 rivers of that' State 

 as well as of New 

 York, principally 

 for the capture of 

 shad. The accom- 

 panying diagram 

 (Fig. 19) is a plan 



the eastern side of 

 Narraganset Bay, 

 as furnished by Mr. 

 South wick, and 

 the details of 

 which are given on 

 page 261). In the large map of the south side of New England,, accom- 



1 1 am indebted to Dr. H. C. Yarrow for the account of an ingenious method employed 

 in New York Harbor for trapping the Morrhnapruinosa, (" Tom-cod,") and which does not 

 come under any of the classes of fishing referred to in the preceding pages. 



A sufficient quantity of good rye or wheat straw is gathered into a sheaf and firmly 



S. Mis. 61 18 



