The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1894-07-21
ON THE JERSEY COAST.


Ihere are Two sorts OF nShfng on the
Jersey coast that are peculiar. One
sort is the catching of frost fish that
are thrown up on the beaches in win
ter time. They are usually found at
night, and the men are directed to the
fsh by the peculiar slapping noise that
the creatures make when they find
themselves landed high and dry above
the waves. The frost fish are picked
up like kindling wood and carried
away in baskets. No nets are used.
They are gathered like ripe apples that
drop from the trees.
To give an idea how the herring are
caught description of recent scene
on the Asbury Park shore will suffice.
Between the park and Loeb Arbor, a
large body of fresh water, called
Great Pond by the natives and
Deal lake by city folks, empties into
the ocean through a wooden
sluiceway. The herring taste tins
outrunning fresh water a long way out
at sea, and make for it to leave their
eggs in the lake. When this happens
the men at the life-saving station tell
buC uOWA OOyS, aho Vic uOWh OOyo VII
the town. On the occasion referred to
fifty or sixty men and boys, armed with
nets, gathered on the sluiceway and on
the beach beside ito get the herring.
The fellows on the sluiceway, where
the water is deep, could not see the
herring, but held their crab nets
against the side of the sluiceway and
trusted to luck. Herring were so thick
and so often got in the nets that there
was steady shower of the beautiful
silvery fish as the fishers slung them
out of the nets over the heads of the
crowd on the beach. Each fisherman
had helper on the sand, and to him
he flung his fish. The silver-like
bodies of the fish cleaned in the
sun as they flew through the
air and fell with slap on the
sand. Every helper had made little
round bowl in the sand to store his fish
in, and many yards of the beach were
dotted with these nest-like bowls filed
with dying fish of one to three pounds
weight, that writhed and leaped and
fluttered as they died.
But the most fun and the truest sport
was enjoyed by the fellows who fished
in the breakers. There were a dozen
of these men and boys, and they wore
rubber boots that reached up to their
thighs, and they carried long-handled
crab nets. They stood about yard
apart and watched the swash of water
beyond the breakers, where it shoots
upon the beach and thins out, and then
rushes back again to the sea. The
herring could not be seen on the in
ward rush. The water was too deep
But then the water thinned and began
to return to the surf line the herring
could be family located by the slight
disturbance they made in the soapy
froth on the water. In trying to swim
in too shallow water they exposed their
backs and showed wriggling break in
the ''soapsuds"
The fishermen have trained their
sight till it is as keen as that of fish.
hawk, and at the faintest sign of a
herring the man nearest to it would
scamper through the water and strike
at it with mis- net. Perhaps at that
very moment bitlow would break
right over the fish, and then the man
with the net would have to guess
where it had gone, and to keep on
guessing and spooning with his net in
the water, again and again, till he got
the herring or gave it up for lost
With astonishing dexterity they often
scooped up fish that they could not
see. With even more astonishing fair
ness each man kept to his section OF
the beach, without attempting to run
in on his neighbor Scores of times a
man would see herring on his neigh
boris bailiwicik, and would notify the
neighbor with yells and pointings so
that the fish should not escape. In one
afternoon the fishermen got good
wagon load of herring-fat and clean
and fresh as unplncked field daisies.
The sreporter asked what price they
asked for the fish. Fifteen cents a
dozen" was the reply.
Fancy it! Fifteen cents for half an
hours active work requiring dexterity,
trained sight, and the muscles ofsan
athlete. But there were more herring
than the demand called for, and it is a
question whittier all fetched as high.
In the meantime the ospreys, or fish,
hawks, that live in the dead trees be-
tween mile and eight miles inland
wore attracted to the scene. and they
fished all the afternoon over the heads
Of the men. As hour after hour passed
there was no time when one of these
heavy, big. business-like birds was not
numbering clumsily away from the
land to straighten his wings and float
with the very poetry of graceful mo-
ton around and around over the wa
ter. With body level, but with the
neck twisted so that the bird com.
manded the surface of the sea with one
bright eye, each of these monarchs
Of the air circled swiftly overhead.
Whenever bird saw fish the people
could see his body CULVER. Then he
folded his wings, thrust down his head
and fell like plummet into the sea-
Under he went as stone sinks In
from i've to fifteen seconds he reap.
peared. thrashing the water with his
wings, and usually, as he rose into
sight, the people saw a fish in the grasp
| of his talons, the fsh's head toward
the birds head nearly always With
- plaintive .'tweak-tweak" the big
bird numbered up and away toward the
Hand and toward wife or husband wait
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