The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-03-03
MINING FOR FISH.
Men, Women and Children Digging
Up Vast Quantities of Fish in the

Stfaiord, Conn, dispatch in the New
York sun.
Down on the sound shore these days
everybody is digging for iathsh. women.
children and men. Folks are begging, bor-
rowing, and buying digging forks and
hoes.
There is a kind Of founder called about
here sandhsh, or flatfish. which burrows
IN the soft sand or mud in the winter
months. Its long retirement does not
seem 10 AFFECT its plumpness very much.
Tor II IS always fat and juicy when eX-
humed. even as late as the month Of
March. Sand bars and mud flats are its
abiding places. In these it Burrows TO a
depth of five or six inches. What it lives
on during its hermitage no one knows,
Tor II Is never known TO leave its nest
except under the persuasion of a hoe or
FORK. The fish are very plenty, and weigh
from a quarter of n pound to pound and
a half.
The farmer folks drive down to the
shore and make a day if it, They bake
clans and potatoes in big fires which they
build Of driftwOOd on the beach, and have
a general frolic. The boys and sometimes
the women take part in the digging. Dead
low water is the best time Of tide, for
then the flats are nearly all uncovered.
but as that lasts but a short time the dig
gers usually begin when the ebb is half
way out. and do not give up until the
food is half way in.
Frequently they turn out clans, and
sometimes a horseshoe crab or a skate.
and at either of the last there are always
fiuttering of hedrasgled skirts and pierre
ing screams from the women and laughter
from the men and boys Enough of the
luscious pan fish are easily secured to
last two or three days and to distribute
to all the neighbors Homework. wood
chopping. and the care OF the cattle are
neglected and forgotten for the fish dig
ging, and If the flatish do not become
scarce, or folks do not lose their appetite
for them. the other affairs of life in this
region will suffer Two elderly men.
brothers, who live out on the Milford
turnpike. fell to fighting the other day
over the possession of a certain 1atfish
digger which was believed to be a par
ticularly lucky instrument. After verbal
abuse had been exhausted they came TO
blows, and enc knocked the other uncon-
scous with the digger. The injured one is
now under a doctors care and the other
languishes In a lookup. One young man
who brought his best girl down from
Derby to dig fiatfish last week quarrelled
with her as to who should dig in par
ticularly promising looking mud bank.
and the result is that they now do not
speak.
Some of the experts have discovered a
happy scheme which is yielding enormous
profits. Part of the flats off Stratford
Point are of quicksand formation and the
most enthusiastic diggers did not ven
ture on those grounds. though this sec
ton was known TO be fairly alive with
the game. Then some of the experts made
long runners, like the Norwegian snow
shoes or ski. out of thin hickory strips.
With these strapped to their feet they can
brave the sinking sands, and while the
others look curiously on from firmer
ground, they turn up bushels Of the biggest
latest, and oiliest of sand1sh The biggest
haul recorded, however, was made by a
farmer named Sam Tittiwake, who lives
out toward Wheeler's farms He had
seen his neighbors outdo him on the quick
sands. so he came down last Wednesday
with his old buckskin mare and plough.
As soon as the tide got down a little he
started in and turned the whole mud fiat
into deep burrows, while his two boys
followed with an OK cart and gathered
the crop. They heaped the cart fun, and it
had hayrck on it, too, and the old
man remarked as they toiled up the sands
homeWard bound:
None er them taown fellers hez need
to think they kin git Their best O. Uncle
Sam Tittiwake jes by W arin bar'l slaves
onter Their feet kase he gifts up arly an
goes ter bed too ALFRED late fur SIGH
games"