Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-06-14
How Shad Are Caught.

Drawing near to the Gloucester fish
ing station an hour before high water
there is little to betOken the coming
scenes of activity and excitement which
attend the drawing of the net. The
muddy Delaware 'dashes persistently in
the wind against the reach of yellow
sand half a mile long that fringes the
duh bank. A few ragged Ioafers or a
bevy of boy truants wander about list
lessly or dangle their legs from heaps
of brown timber. Two or three wood
en- windlasses with spaces for men and
a horse, al set several hundred feet
apart from each other, but rough,
weather-beaten and out of plumb, one
scarcely cah tell at first whether they
are mementoes of old fisheries or are in
present use. A little way further down
the shore there are more animated signs
of coming events. A meditative horse
1iitched between the poles of windlass
awaits with dropping ears and sleepy
eyes the call to labor There is u stout
band of twenty dusky Africans sleeping
on grassy bank, each with a coil of
network over his shoulder. A nervous
old salt. dry as cask, little clock in
his hand, is seen constantly entering
and emerging from a rough board hut.
Within the hut is a little wheel, and a
cord doubled around the axle with a
float at one end and a weight at the
other. records the lifting tide. :. But not
satisfied with this device the bronzed old
fisherman watches anxiously a set of
pegs which he has set along the marge
of one of the still inner pools connecting
with the river, The function of this old
fellow is an important one, for in haul
ing a net half a mile long every freak of
the tide must be watched, or the two
hours labor of half hundred men will
go for nothing.
A stout rope, perhaps three-quarters
of all inch in diameter, circles around
great wheel at the bottom of the wind
less and trends out into the river. Fol
lowing with'the eye the direction of this
rope, vision lights on strange craft
half a mile out in the stream; Manned.
by eighteen oarsmen, each grasping a,
big sweep, pointed at the bow and with
blunt, high popped stern. it. looks TO rail-
the world like an old Roman trireme.
A'heap at the stern rises to the proper
tons of respectable railroad embank-
ment. This heap is the net, one of
whose ends is joined to the rope men
toned heretofore. A net of such mag
nitude IS curiosity by itself. 1t is a
seine almost half mile long. or in
round numbers, twenty-five hundred
feet. Itsswidth varies from ten feet at
the extremities to fifty in the centre.
Its meshes are about two inches square,
and in weaving the whole about lis
miles of strong cord are required. The
cost of one of these big seines is some
$4,000. and its usefulness ends by rot
and breakage in three years The net
is buoyed by floats as large as a mans
head, but no leads are used, as the
weight of the under-run rope suffices
for sinking. In the course of season
the breakage of the meshes by snags on
the river bottom, and by ordinary wear
and tear, is very serious. But the chief
marplot of the fisherman is the stur-
gcon. One of these armored fishes,
with his sharp adamantine nose. passes
through a seine like an arrow through
air. and he leaves. every time he