March i6, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
331 
up as they ascend, sometimes as many as a half 
dozen or more at a time. Occasionally there are 
rude windlasses fashioned of unpeeled logs and 
poles to he used in hauling drag nets across the 
mouths of the creeks. On the White Oak and 
New rivers in Onslow and Carteret counties 
bordering the sounds, fishermen often make big 
earnings. The ■ fish business of Newbern alone 
occupies four or five big shippers. Vessels from 
the outside and boats from the Neuse and Con- 
IN THE INCLOSURE. 
tentena rivers are constantly arriving with fish 
and oysters, and the market slip at the foot of 
Middle street is usually crowded with craft. 
Winter fishing for sea fish is always active from 
Nagshead to Bogue Sound. 
All through December weakfish are abundant. 
So are drum, spotted trout, mullets, croakers, 
catfish, redhorse, pickerel and black bass. From 
Jan. I to July i fishing improves daily and 
Spanish mackerel, hogfish, sheepshead and blue- 
fish afford good fishing for hook and line. July 
and August are poor fishing months. Fall fish¬ 
ing begins in September with a big run of mul¬ 
lets. With November comes the rockfish and 
perch. 
Angling is a dead art in North Carolina waters. 
Occasionally a venerable negro will take his 
rickety old punt and steal away to a deep cove, 
but sportsmen seldom follow the fish in this way. 
In the autumn they go to the beaches and troll 
for bluefish from a sailboat or fish with hand 
lines for weakfish. Pickerel are plentiful in the 
spring, but are of little account. 
The larger number of the fish of North Caro¬ 
lina are taken in long seines, and there are many 
enormous fisheries on the shores of Albemarle 
Sound, Roanoke and Chowan rivers. At certain 
seasons of the year 80 per cent, of the tonnage 
of the Norfolk and Southern Railroad is fish, 
shipped from Edenton, Newbern, Elizabeth City, 
Manteo, Beaufort, Morehead, Flatteras, Swans- 
boro and Nagshead. The common length of the 
seine is 6,000 feet. Horse and steam power are 
required for these, the lines running into sheath 
blocks on the beach, and from time to time 
shifted to blocks nearer the center of the sein¬ 
ing shore as the net draws together. The lines 
lead up from there to windlasses or drums. For 
greater economy of time two boats are used in- 
Fish by the Million 
By FRANK A. HEYWOOD 
T he water indented State of North Carolina 
has over 3,000 miles of riparian rights, and 
the fisheries are the most important of any 
in the East, if not in the United States. Nearly 
half a million yards of seine are operated in 
Albemarle Sound alone, in addition to thousands 
of stake, pound and drift nets. Some seines are 
nearly four miles long. The investment in a 
large fishery of the Albemarle section sometimes 
reaches $30,000, and the annual profits aggregate 
$50,000. The statistical review of the fisheries 
hereabouts represents that they employ some 10,- 
000 people and 5,000 boats, and that the pounds 
of fish taken yearly exceed fifty million. North 
Carolina shad command the highest prices be¬ 
cause they begin to run first and are early in the 
market. Leading industries of Dare, Chowan, 
Tyrrell, Hyde and Washington counties are the 
taking of fish. The beds of the five sounds are 
covered with oysters. Formerly there were oper¬ 
ated along the shores of Tyrrell county some of 
the largest seine fisheries in the world, but they 
were destroyed in the Civil War and have never 
been refitted. 
The great variety of edible fresh water fish 
taken from the North Carolina rivers is. some¬ 
thing remarkable. The drag nets of the Trent 
River often capture twenty different specTs. In¬ 
cluded are large and small-mouth black bass, 
striped bass, blue and yellow catfish, yellow 
perch, mudcats, white perch, croppies, mullets, 
redhorse, sunfish, white and hickory shad, her¬ 
ring, drum, rock, weakfish, pickerel and garfish. 
Where the streams meet the tide, the anadromous 
masses of green. Touches of white in them in¬ 
dictate houses, and patches of gray the weather¬ 
beaten wharves. Their deep waters cleared of 
cypress knees and stumps are of the pleasant 
colors that painters love. Then touches of mist 
here and there give a mystery to the atmosphere 
and soften over-rugged outlines. Sailing in upon 
such lovely vistas in their favorable mood, one 
can have little reason for the disparagement of 
WHERE THE TEXAS QUAIL ARE KEPT. 
species come up from the ocean to spawn. The 
fresh water fish drop down from the water sheds 
to disport in the brackish inflow. Flerring choke 
all the streams. Pickerel sport on the very 
edge of the tide, and weakfish spawn in the deep 
fresh water pools in those coves having obvious 
connection with the ocean. 
Of the sound fisheries there are multitudes. 
The channels leading down 'among them are of 
the lovely soft brown of the juniper. The 
cypress forests draw toward them like . single 
the first glimpses of North Carolina in the 
memories of any scene he may have left behind 
him. 
There is no such nursery for fish of all species 
and proclivities as the Trent River. Most of the 
channel ways are paved with shell rock, and 
spawn find choice depositories in the hollows 
and crevices. All the way up the river for forty 
miles or more there are fishing stands made of 
poles projecting from the banks where negroes 
stand with long-handled dip nets and scoop them 
