The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-25
CAPE COD FEELING.
An Important Adjunct to the Income of
 the Fishermen.

| the Fishermen.
 Instinct that wonderful innate knowl- edge which is bestowed upon dumb creatures, would hardly be expected to exist to any constitutional extent in an
 eel, but an investigation into the habits of the eel family reveals the fact that traits and tendencies of it's kind, and which enable it to detect the approach of fall and to make preparations for a winter refuge. It is a curious fact that cells can live in salt or fresh water. and | those that live in the salt water seek fresh water at the approach of cold weather, following inlets from, the sea which have fresh-w water springs at their source There they burrow in the mud and sand, selecting warm, subterranean springs when they can find them, and remaining in a torpid state until the spring sunshine turns them oceanward again. This fall movement or run" as 1t is locally called, begins about the third week in August and continues in- creasingly until Thanksgiving time and marks a peculiar harvest among the fishing folk. On Cape Cod this fall the ceiling industry forms an important ad- junct to the income of the fishermen and those who engage In the various pursuits which the sea supplies One of the most profitable ceiling localities on the Cape is the Planet river, upon the banks of which the town of Truro is situated, once a noble river lined with salt mills, piers, shpyards and various nautical industries, now, by the gradual changing of the sandbars at its mouth which affected the currents, and by the mistaken building of a solid bridge across it's upper end many years ago, which checked the flow of the tides, dwindled to comparatively small stream, which in ordinary tides does not half fill its once ample and broad causeWay. Reeds and marsh-grass wave where vessels once passed daily, and the ruins of ancient piers are still to be seen here and there the ghost of by-gone traffic of a once prosperous and busy town.
 
 ing this river and the ocean beyond stands pathetic little monument in the church-yard there, which was erected to the memory of fifty-seven young men. residents of the town, who were all lost with their fishing vessels almost within sight of their homes, in terrible October gale in 1S41, their ages ranging from eleven to thirty-five years, most of them being from eighteen to twenty five years old. This was a death-blow to the town, which the building of the road across the river and the conse- quent gradual decline of the body of water and the occupations which 1t had supplied, completely extinguished Gradually the population decreased, houses were taken down and moved away the river industries were aban- doned one by one, creeping decadence overlook the once hustling activity of the place, and Truro as a fishing port passed out of existence.
 And of it's one-time fruitfulness the river now yields but one harvest. that of cells in the fall and this harvest the thrifty fishermen are not slow to avail themselves of, for although the town is but shadow. of its former self it's in- habitants are uniformly well-to-do and frugal and general air of simple pros- perity pervades the place. With the first signs of the run the eel-fisher men proceed to erect their fykes or traps setting wedge shaped fine meshed net about fifteen feet long, fast ened to poles driven Into the bed of the river, the broad end of the net facing the mouth of the river. The tapering end connects with a bell-shaped net | made on large hoops, which lies on the bottom of the river This in turn con nects with large wooden box where | the cells find their way and are caught. | The entrances to the net and box are | contrved so that the fish cannot return as they came. At low .ide the whole apparatus is revealed, isually containing a herd of bewildered | md agitated crabs which have found | heir way inside and are engaged in search for an exit, together with many other interlopers, fiat-hsh, perch. try and various small river fish. The eels. following their instinct to rayel LID stream, have all made their way into the inner box where the lifted over reveals them dark, writhing, nake-like mass, each one trying to Ind a way out. It Is curious to see hem hunt for a place to escape, stand ng on their tails and nosing every inch # the trap, over and over again In the leight of the season the fykes often as many as four barrels of cells t time the creatures coming In with he flood-tide, the average weight being bout a pound each. They are packed n ice alive and sent to New York mar cts. There is little demand for them in Boston Eels are very tenacious of life nd it is not infrequent that they sur i've the journey to New York. The rice paid the trappers for these fish aries somewhat, as does all merchant ise of this sort, but in mid-season, yhen there Is good demand for them, he price averages about seven dollars
 barrel. Consequently when they are arvesting three or four barrels of eels day at this price, the work nets very eat profit. Boston Transcript.