The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-07-19
Fish-Catehing.

lave You ever watched a large river
seine, worked by hundreds of men engag
ed in catching ishi The largest ever
saw was on the Potomac rlver. 1t was
said to be nine miles around, and was
worked by what seemed to he countess
number of colored men.
1t was a wonderfully interesting sight
for one coming upon it for the first time,
and one not easy for those not engaged in
the work to fully witness. Through the
courtesy of ore of the men conducting it,
however, our party, consisting of three,
were allowed to secure a boat and row ont
past the workers and in and around the
sinuous windings of the great net; for, of
course, this net or seine was not stretched
smoothly out, but curved in numerous
zigzag points around the river. 1t was at
t &ed to windlasses at eitherend, worked
by O'7Ostalwart colored men, who, as they
saw it grow heavy with the weight of
fish, SLOWLY worked the windlass that
drew 1t in
While they did this other men, num-
boring scores, waded out into the river,
mp to their very necks and arm pits, to
catch the fish in their arms from the net,
and fling them, with what seemed like
tightening speed, into an immense flat
bottomed boat, have huge pit, which
sailed inside the seine for that purpose
Still other men in small boats sailed
around the net in places too deep to wade,
caught the fish, and threw them into the
huge receptacle in the same way
In order that we might have the full
benefit of the sight, the conductors of the
enterprise kindly allowed US to get out of
our boat and stand upon the deck-a bare
outer rim only few feet in width-ofl
this great fiat boat, lit was in shape very
much like the old-fashioned mudscow
seen on our New England rivers, only
many times larger) and lock down into
this deep pit where the newly caught fish
struggled for existence.
1t was an unique sight above and below
As the shoals of fish came flying into the
boat from every direction with a speed
and impetus that made one almost dizzy,
myuads of scales flew upward from the
captured fish below and came down again,
covering our heads and faces and clothes
and the waters around us as if the heavens
were shOwering silver. 1t was a truly
magnificent sight The description may
make you fancy the reality to have been
unpleasant CT unclean, but 1t was not so.
The splendor of this light fleece of silver
ascending, lowering and sparkling in the
air. and then shimmering down again,
made one forget everything but its beauty
as it spread and waited for great space
over the w ters.
But mere h on us! As cold-blooded as
a fish, is al expression have often heard
bat,I say q sh Whose. blood vas -uHathat
they srFfgsss -si and gouged and tore in
among one mother, was half vocal, half
kissing. tn majority of the finny tribe
were shad, ~ithlarge numbers of herrings,
pickerel, founders and other fresh water
and a goodIy supply of eels. The latter
were the hardest fighters of all; sOabsolute-
ly fierce, in fact the men on the boat deck
had to take the large ones up, grasping
them strongly by the middle, and knock
their heads on the boat edge-else they
would tear the other fish to pieces.
While this was going on, several men
at either end of the boat were engaged in
catching up some of the fish as they came
in, taking from them some of theirspawn,
and putting it to little pitfalls. These
phials they deposit in certain tempera-
ture, letting them remain certain num-
Der of hours or days, and when the spawn
is fully alive, they throw it into the PotO
mac again, and thus that great river is
kept constantly stocked, despite the mil
lions that are caught daily during the
season.-Mary Twombly, in June Wide
Awake.