The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1880-05-08

fall out Of the abdominal cavity Of a shad.
when no eels were visible when the fish
came over the gunBel. They had deyour-
ed the viscera, which seems almost to be
the first portion sought by them.
The habit is to run the net as soon as
i IS out, and take the fish Immediately,
before they can be Injured by the eeis.
The GELS never mesh, they are too slippery
to get entangled. Ia the shoal fishing,
when the weather becomes warm, the "eel
cuts, as these are called, often outnumber
the marketable shad. The fishermen salt
down the better ones for their winter food.
The net is 'run" twice or three times
and is then taken up Little else than
shad are taken; few striped bass and a
few suckers are occasionally found. The
captures, to each boat with two men, mum
Der from "water hauIs" to several hundred
shad.
After the first tides fishing, the boats
anchor. Very often several tie fast to an
anchored one, and the men while away
the hours to the next tide in gossip aud
yarn spinning, or 60 TO sleep ia the
bottom Of the boat Il often happens,
when anchored apart from the rest, that
the two boatsmen "oversleep the tide, f"
aud find themselves in the small hours of
the morning, chilly and solitary in the
middle Of the bay
Quiet and harmony is the ordinary state
Of their communion, although the strife
for good berths sometimes arouses a dis
sension. An attempt to anticipate the line
OF boats in laying out the nets at too early
a stage Of the tide calls forth sudden and
certain penalty. Not only the boats on
each side, but some of those from dis
lance crowd around and unite their
, protests, and when these are unvail
f ing, the offender is hemmed in by the
hoatmen, who in half jocose manner. yet
with fully in earnest purpose, set then
/ nets across the line Of direction he has
started surrounding him" II he i,
/ still obstinate enough to persist, or at
} tempt TO cut the nets which are in his wa,
a melee ensues, and some sturdy boatmaI
is apt to belabor him into reason with al
. oar, public opinion favoriug eertair
d amount Of this kind Of punishment.
The boats used in the head of the ba,
! are small, and the "muttou-leg' sails hav,
e no provision for reefng. The fcresail /
$ much the larger, and sail is shortened b,
!, unstepping the foremast and putting tn
e mainsail in its place. At the approach O
. u squall, they hurriedly pull in the net:
# and scatter like a shoal Of mulets whel
II a porpoiso appears among them. The
i get caught out occasionally, and getting I
the lee Of the shoal or the island, the
N sometimes lie with the kilock out all da,
d As the season draws to close the er
II thiasm flags. The rivers to the north ar
d no% at tho height Of the season, whic
G lessons the demand in their home maj
o kei. The boats drop of nightly, the MOI
/. industrious fishermen, and the lazier onci
II who have idled while the season passe
t, unheeded, continue the longest. TIL
d once populOus bay, with coal northeaste
y blowing, becomes a desolate extent
k water, lonely and cold to the strayin
e boatman, and 50 it remains until well O
is in the autumn, when the migration Of th
l. vast aocks of wild fowl, streaming in col
IS tinuously from the north, gathers the due
/. hunters TO the vacated hauuts Of the fsI
y, erment.-HdrPer's Magazine for Nay.