Arizona silver belt., 1894-10-13
A QUEER TRADE.
Vessels Engaged in Searching for
 Lost Anchors.
Tho Method Employed in Fishing Up the Planted Mud Hooks-A Comforta- bie Revenue in the Odd
 Business.

ftcaJ CltN. uuu one Ot tflc StEhnbSSt oA hese hereabouts is fishing up lost an. aors and anchor chains from the bot. nus of the bays and of the sen nlong .hc coast. 1t Is not what might be called a ilourishing industry, says the New York Evening Post, but is, ins Iced, precarious dependence for the
 assaries of life; yet it yields suste- nanec enough to have created quite Wnber of followers, Several schoon' and sloops are engaged almost ex- yiasivcly in this trade" and each clrries a crew of from three to ten men.
 These odd fishermen seek their imam mate prey whenever the weather per aits, ard, of course, are most active turing the long summer days. Like he takers of living spells from the water, they know the field of their op- erations thoroughly, and expend their energies mostly where the fishing" is pest. Perhaps, of all the grounds" in .his vicinity, they regard tho stretch 3i sea off the Delaware breakwater as the most profitable It is widely known among shippers and all seafaring men who visit these parts as great ceme- tery for anchors, They are being con stantly planted" there, to use the nautical phrase, The perpetual invol. untary sowing of anchors there is due to the large number of vessels that are compelled by conditions of busi- ness or of wind and tide to ride off the trealwatcr, and to their getting fre- quently caught in gale while doing sc Then, the floor of the sea at that point appears 10 have a peculiar facil- ity for fouling anchors, and vessels are not seldom compelled--or prefer, as the less of two evils-to abandon them.
 Territory up and down the coast ranks next, ia the anchor isherman's esteem, as fruitful anchor bed. The interior waters of the harbor are moro barren, yet repay search. Even the North and East rivers, for some dis tance up, are occasionally harvested and usually not wholly in vain.
 The method of anchor fishing is sim pie to primitiveness. It consists in let ting down a chain in loop from the sides of the vessel until the loop trails along the bottom. Then the boat sails nlong with all hands on board alert for a 'biten Plain as this tackle is, it is effective as any that could be devised.
 Planted anchors almost invariably lie with one luke buried in the mud and the other sticking straight up. II the angling chain Is dragging in the direction of the inner curve of the up standing nuke, it is almost surs catch. Then the line wi h the anchot attached is carefully hoisted, some times by hand, or ii the anchor is very heavy, by means of capstans. IT the spoil Is a very weighty one-say four, five or six thousand pounds, driving engine is frequently employed. The instances arc few, however, where the fishermen iail to secure their booty. When nee cssary the crew of one anchor smack will lend hand to another. Boats often work in pairs. A cable is stretched between the vessels, and dragged on the bottom When au an. 10r is caught one of the vessels takes
 position above it and both crews
 list in raising it. This method in. lres a wide sweep of the bottom. There are two purposes for which tlie catch' Is disposed of Usually the anchors are sold to be used as an chors again, for moderate, or even D considerable, degree of rust in DO way impairs their efficiency as such, If they arc too much eaten up by rust. which seldom happens, they are sold as old iron. As they are of wrought iron the price brought is often considerable. There are also two ways by which the fishermen find market value for their wares They either ell them directly by hawking lhcm about among the vessels in the aarbor or they sell them to the ship sAandlers. Sometimes they have per mission from wharf-owners or lessees to stick the anchors up there with a notice that they are for sale, with the rice stated. As a rule they get very good prices. New anchors are sold for i've cents pound now, and the re- covered old ones seldom suffer great. CT depreciation in value than one cent a pound. Therefore, for every one
 
 turc the fishermen make about forty collars, and if the anchor is one of the very heaviest-a six thousand pounder their haul nets them about two hun dred and forty dollars, They seldom take q monster of that size, however; their usual capture is between fifteen hun dred and twenty-five hundred pounds, |. There are several reasons for this In |, the first place the lighter anchors are more generally used in the second place it is the sailing vessels which most often lose their anchors, and, as a rule, they carry lighter anchors than steamers, and, in the third place, most large vessels-whether steam or sail. ing-commonly carry both light and a heavy anchor, and seldom drop the latter in the harbor or immediately of the coast, using it for deeper and rougher seas. The fact that steam vessels lose their anchors less frequent ly than sailing vessels is due to their being able to use their steam, when necessary, to check the strain upon the anchor chain.
 The captured anchor chains often make a substantial addition to the gain rf tue fishermen, fetching about three three cents a pound. Sometimes they ire very long and weigh hundreds of pounds
 One of the divers of a local wreck ing company makes a business of keep ing an eye open for lost anchors while examining or working e"~und sunlien vessels. He is said to haze To- catcd several, and to have made con siderable sum as the result of his enter prise,
 INDUSTRIAL ITEMS.
 THE manufacture of artificial granite