244 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



bluefish gill-nets. About 150,000 pounds of bluefisli and one-third as many pounds of tautog, 

 scup, &c., are annually caught. Together with the other fish brought from the Monomoy weirs, 

 there are usually 75 or 100 barrels of shad and a number of salmon. 



During the winter, that is from November to April, about one hundred and twenty men 

 belonging in Dennis Port and an equal number from the neighboriug villages are engaged in a 

 clam fishery. They go out to the beds singly in dories. In the winter of 1878 about 2,000 barrels 

 of clams were gathered. Twenty men are employed to open them. They arc shipped fresh to 

 Proviucetown, Gloucester, Boston, and other ports, to be used for bait. lu 1877 and 1878 about 

 three-fourths of the whole number were shipped to Boston. The total capital invested in this 

 business is about $8,000. 



The amount of capital invested in vessels is about 835,000; iu seiuts and other gear, about 

 $10,000; in wharves and store houses, about $8,000; in mackerel and bluefish gill-nets, $2,500; iu 

 boats and little vessels for the line fishery, $8,000 ; in dories and other apparatus for the claui-fish- 

 ing, $8,000. Tiie total amount invested iu all branches of the fisheries is about $100,000. 



West Dennis is situated in the southwestern part of the town, on Bass River, a considerable 

 stream, which has its source in a small pond on the northern side of the Cape and is swelled by the 

 inflowing of the tide. Some five or six boats are employed iu the bluefish line-fishery oft' the mouth 

 of the river. About 150 barrels of blueflsh arc annually shipped. A number of gill-nets arc also 

 employed for the capture of bluefish. In 1879 about 1,700 bluefish were taken iu them. The 

 majority of the fish are shipped through Mr. George Loring, of South Yarmouth. 



A small number of alewives are annually taken in an artificial brook cut between one of the 

 ponds in West Dennis and the salt water. About 10,000 alewives are taken. 



At South Village, a small hamlet about a mile south of West Dennis, there are four men who 

 together own and employ eighteen bluefish gill-nets. In 1879 about 20,000 pounds of fish were 

 caught, of which 2,000 was salted, and the rest shipped to market fresh. 



A clam-fishery, similar to that carried on at Dennis Port, is engaged iu here every winter by 

 about fifteen or twenty men. They secure from 100 to 150 bushels of clams each during the 

 season. 



77. THE FISHERIES OF YARMOUTH AND BARNSTABLE. 



YARMOUTH. Yarmouth is a quiet little village, for the most part built upon one street and 

 continuous with the village of Barustable. Yarmouth and Yarmouth Port are essentially the same 

 village, being separated by an arbitrary line. At one time this was the seat of a considerable cod 

 and mackerel fishery. Before the Revolutionary war there were said to be thirty-four fishing vessels 

 iu the town of Yarmouth, a large share of them probably belonging on the north shore ; in 1789 

 there were thirty-two, and in 1790 there were thirty. These were probably small vessels of 15 or 20 

 tons engaged in the shore cod fishery. Captain James B. Crocker, of Yarmouth Port, went into the 

 fishing business about 1854. At that time there were about eight fishing vessels. Relics of the old 

 fleet were there iu the schooners Wave and Leo, each about CO tons old or 40 tons new measurement, 

 shallow and poor sailers, valued at $700 or $800 each. For a time subsequent to this the mackerel 

 fishery was prosecuted quite vigorously with a larger class of vessels, and there were ten or eleven 

 of these when the fishery was at its height, about 1857 or 1858. Among these were the Kentucky, 

 the Anna L., the Thatcher Taylor, the Kareuhappuck, the Fillmore. the Olive Branch, the Hock- 

 anom, the Everett, and the Premium. The last of these vessels left Yarmouth about I860. This 

 was the Kentucky, which was then sold at Proviucetowu. 



Mackerel packing, according to Captain Matthews, was begun at Yarmouth about 1831. At 



