Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1890-06-25
CATCHING THE PoRGY.
A Curious Salt Water Fish with q De
clGlodly Curious History.

AJSGtutNSs4& LITE T0na1s
Curious Salt water Fish with q De-
cldodly Curious History.
1t is one Of the favorite traditions Of
the Rhode Island coast that one day in
the spring Of 1900 q good old Seconnet
deacon went out to the beach to fish.
What 1t was that he went out to fish for
the tradition does not state, but he went
fishing. A few minutes later he re-
turned hurriedly and in great excite
ment home,
Mother" he exclaimed to his wife,
''there's fish swimming over yonder
in the Seconnet river that's more than
a mile long, bluer than the heavens, an
with black fms like the spikes the
blessed Martyr was made to jump on to-. :"
''Deu tell" said the deacon's good
wife.
The deacon and his wife and some Of
their neighbors went over to the beach,
and, sure enough, there was the NOV
ing streak Of blue, with spikes all over
1t. The astonished old Seconnet citi-
zens soon discovered, however, that it
was not one Ash mile long, but moro
fish than there was sand ON the beach.
''Waal, l swaow!" exclaimed the dea-
cons neighbors, and the deacon and his
wife said:
II vum!"
Then they raked some Of the fish out
OF the water with garden rakes. The
deacon took some home, and his wife
cooked them. The deacon tasted one.
Then he took a bigger bite. Then he
went at the fish so eager-like that in
less than no time there was nothing left
but their bones.
'Mother," said he, rolling his eyes to-
ward the ceiling, 'it's nanny in the
wilderness!''
Jefferson had been elected President
when this great visitation Of fish
swarmed along by Seconnet beach. The
deacon was great Jefferson man, and
he declared that these fish were bless
ing following the great Democrats
election, and he gave them the
name of Jefferson fish. Old resi-
dents call them by that name yet,
but they are known to the people at
large, as porgies, and to the men who
make business of catching them for
market as Soup. The coast of Rhode
Island is its favorlte haunt, and the cry
that nine out of ten people one meets at
any point on Narragansett Bay await
anxiously every spring is the one Of
"Scup's GOMEZ
From the first year of this mysterious
f1sh's appearance in Seconnet river,
ninety years ago, it came annually
along the coast in never-decreasing
numbers until 1867, when the annual
cry of Soups GOMEZ was not heard,
for not a porgy nor sign of porgy
appeared anywhere along the coast.
1t was the same in 1868 and in 1862 and
no one ever expected to see porgy
hereabouts again. In the spring Of
1870 soup came again, but in most un-
heard-of way. Instead of coming in the
old-time rush Of full-grown fish, they
were all young porgies, none more than
two inches long. The water along the
coast, from Sandy Hook to Cape Mala.
bar, was filled with these porgy fry,
and in their wake came immense
schools of their natural enemy, the
weak1sh. This peculiar influx OF
young porgies was but nine days
wonder, for they disappeared
as suddenly and mysteriously as
they had appeared. 1t was not
until 1873 that the cost was again
visited by soup, and this time it came
in millions, all big, fat fish, the growth
of the fry of 1870. The next year the
run OF porgies was the biggest on roc.
ord, and every year since then soup has
come in one solid, compact school OF
millions, in spite of the enormous nu m.
bers of the fish that are taken in the
fish ponds along the coast. There are
interminable labyrinths of nets into
which the fish are turned by funnel.
shaped leaders of netting that inter.
cept their course along the shore. New
York, through Fulton Market, is the
one great distributing point for the
spring porgy catch, and there is great
rivalry between the owners of the boats
that carry the fish from the different
points to New York, as an early arrival
there and quick sale of cargo is of Vita
Importance in the porgy business.
The porgy fishermen live on shore
near the fishing grounds, and devote all
their time to setting and hauling thei,
nets. In favorable seasons it is not an
uncommon thing for these fishermen
to clear $1,000 cash during the season,
which rarely lasts longer than from the
last week in April until the first week
in July.-Cor. N. Y. Sun.
A0r WHAT GLE WANTED