Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-07-26
BAY
SURROUNDINGS
A Corner of New YOrkS Great
HarbOr Which Has Many In.
tereSting Features.

II OF persons presumably we'll
acquainted with the territory and
waters near New York, have 1t firmly
fixed in their mind that Princes bay
means all of that big stretch of salt
water from Staten Island to Sandy
Hook, while others think and are
ready to wager thta Princes bay ex-
tends at least from Staten Island
over to Keyport ana west to the
mouth of the Raritan and the Staten
Island sound. 1t is indeed singular
that such al expression should have
grown up about a slight depression
in the contour of the south shore of
Staten Island, when it is really not a
bay at all, nor could it be dignified
by the name of a cove.
Princes bay sometimes erron-
eously called Princess bay on maps,
charts and railroad time cards) is
slightly over a mile long and gently
curves along the shore, being half a
mile wide in it's widest part from the
shore to an imaginary line drawn
from Seguine's Point to Princes bay
light. 1t is deep, however, and the
lead line will show fifty feet in one
or two places before it strikes bot
tom, while within a short distance
of the lighthouse and just outside of
the bay limits there is a depth of
fourteen and one-half fathoms re-
corded on the government chart.
Just think of eighty-seven feet of
water within a quarter of a mile of
the shore, but then they find it 116
feet to the bottom a mile south of
the Narrows. The outer edge of
Princes bay marks the main channel
from the lower bay into Staten Island
sound, and to insure sufficient water
for the big tugs, coal barges, schoon-
ers and ships which ply to and from
the Amboys, the government dredged
a twenty-one-foOt channel from deep
water in the bay one and one-half
miles to thirty-six feet of water off
Seguine's Point. When this channel
was made only thirteen feet of water
was found before. The boats which
use this channel pass close to Princes
bay in deep water, and there Is a
constant procession of them every
day. Big Round shoal, with from
seven to twelve feet of water, lies
directly south of the deep channel
and is a fine fishing ground, clam bed
and oyster sho.l.
An old Staten Island navigator
was asked last week If he could tell
the lines of Raritan bay and Sandy
Hook bay so as to distinguish them
from lower New York bay. He said
that many years ago, forty-five at
least, he was taught that Raritan bay
lay west of a line drawn south from
Seguine's Point on Staten Island to
C%onaskonk Point on the Jersey shore,
which is just below Keyport. Sandy
Hook bay, he said, vas within a line
drawn straight from Sandy Hook
Point to Point Comfort beacon, a
mile or so below Point Comfort.
"But," he said, there's no law for
these lines. There is a law, all right,
for dividing lines between the states,
and Boundary Beacon, in Raritan
bay, was put there to show the line
between New York and New Jersey.
1t is no particular use for navigation
and doesn't mark the outside limit
of Raritan bay, as some folks think
ii does"
For half a century or more Princes
bay has been a favorite fishing
ground for a few of the thousands of
saltwater anglers who go out from
New York every day in summer, and
at one time it was quite popular with
Newark anglers in quest of weakfish.
In the old times Newarkers used to
go to Gifford's Station and Princes
bay, on the Staten Island ferry and
railroad rather than by the way of
Perth Amboy. Now they find the
Amboy trip the quickest. They can
go to Princes bay by way OF New
York or Tottenville on any OF the
twelve trains between 5 in the morn
ing and midnight. The round trip
fare by way of New York is eighty
five cents from Newark, to which
must be added ten cents for car fare
in New York and twenty cents for
stage trips from the station to the
shore. The time is about an hour
and three quarters to the beach. The
fare to the same place by way of
Perth Amboy is 81, which, with troll
lev fares and stage fares in addition,
makes a total of $1.30 for the round
trip. 1t can be made in less than an
hour and a half if GOOD connections
are made with the Amboy ferry and
Staten Island train.
A Newarker who had not been in
Princes Bay for owe a third of a
century revisited the place on Tues
day and refreshed his memory just
a little. He was unfortunate in his
| SelccllOu vi d udJy " OhO
which broke at 2 o'clock in the after
noon kept him frem going out upon
the bay, and he had to be c~ontented
to sit Under the shelter OF a porch
and watch the deluge and the play OF
the lightning until the storm abated
and then he felt constrained to catch
the 5:36 train for Tottenville and
return to Newark. The changes he
observed in his brief visit were noted
down. He found a little station and
a pretty village at the railroad cross
ing of the old road which leads to the
shore Just a mile away, When ne
was there before there was no sta-
ton and only two or three houses IN
sight. The old road was a mean mar
row country byway, muddy In wet
weather and dusty in dry. Now 1t is
a broad, hard road we'll kept and
with good sidewalks and shade trees.
Along either side are many modest
cottages and a few %pretentious
houses, while many other dwellings
are going up in the village. 1t is
part of greater New York city now,
and, perhaps, it is not quite the
proper thing to speak of 1t as a vii
Iage Comfortable stages traverse