244 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
spawn fences are built of green spruce branches arranged so as to leave gaps at the 
deepest parts of the channel. At these gaps the fisherman stations himself with a 
scoop net large enough to fill the opening and having meshes so fine that the smelts 
can not slip through. This net, which is distended on staves, he lets down into the 
opening and takes up after a longer or shorter interval, according to the numbers 
of fish that come up, the take being turned out of the net into a “catte” held in 
readiness. 
When the smelt spawns on shores or off headlands, it is taken in dragnets, which 
differ from the ordinary seine only in the comparative fineness of the meshes. This 
fishery is pursued only at night, bonfires not infrequently being lighted on shore 
by the fishermen in the belief that the fish, enticed by the glare, come nearer land. 
ATLANTIC COAST OF NORTH AMERICA 
In former years of abundance the smelt generally was regarded as of minor 
importance as a food fish, and except in a few localities no use was made of it except 
as fertilizer, a limited amount only being used for home consumption. However, the 
aborigines evidently used them as food, for Capt. John Smith, in 1622, records that 
“of Smelts there is such abundance, that the Salvages doe take them up the rivers 
with baskets, like sives.” In more recent times the fishery gradually assumed impor- 
tance. Forty years ago Goode (1884, p. 543) wrote: “The smelt fishery is increasing 
yearly in importance, owing to the greater facilities for the transportation of fish 
in ice.” Nine years before this Scott (1875, p. 340) wrote: “ Trade in smelts is confined 
to six months, or to the inclement season of the year, for which time the sales in 
Fulton Market averaged 1,352,000 [pounds ?] at 16 cents — $216,320.00.” 
In former years it appears that the smelt fisheries of New Jersey and Long 
Island were of the greatest importance, few if any smelt being caught south of those 
localities. However, over 60 years ago Norris (1862, p. 59) called attention to 
smelts in the Delaware River. He said: 
I have been told that these fish can be taken occasionally in February along the wharves and 
in the docks of the Delaware with a cast net. They are taken with case and scoop nets at Fair- 
mount dam. They are common and abundant at New Brunswick, New Jersey, on the Raritan, 
and it is said also in the Passaic, though during some winters they even there are comparatively 
scarce. 
John A. Thomas, of Reading, Pa., under date of March 7, 1876, contributed a 
short article to Forest and Stream concerning New Jersey and Long Island smelts, 
from which the following is an extract: 
In the creeks of Long Island, they are found in perfect condition from February 20th to 
March 20th. In the Jersey river, for a long period in the early spring and fall, they are not taken 
with the hook, I believe, but [are dipped] up in quite large quantities by those who know their 
value. I remember once buying in Jersey nearly one half bushel for seventy-five cents, which was 
more than the boys asked for them, fresh, not an hour from the water. These fishes might be 
cultivated wherever they can reach the salt water. It is supposed that they love to keep near the 
shores on sandy bottoms. I have seen them at least twelve inches long, playing in the bays of 
New England and in the harbor of New York, about Communipaw. 
As this fishery, like other fisheries, depends upon an adequate supply of fish, 
those more southern localities once noted for abundance of smelts, such as the Raritan 
