106 



GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



There is no record of the value of the products prior to 1SG7. The returns from 1867 to 1879, as 

 given by the collector of the port to the Bureau of Statistics, show the quantity and value of the 

 different kinds of fish handled by Portsmouth dealers, and includes fish brought from the small 

 fishing stations of Kittery and New Castle at the mouth of the harbor. 



Fishery products of Portsmouth Customs District, 1867-1879. 



THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. Mr. Ernest lugersoll reports as follows concerning the oyster 

 iu-lustry of this district: 



"A few miles up from the mouth of the river Piscataqua, and the harbor of the city of Ports- 

 mouth, 1ST. H., an extensive bay reaches southward from the river into the lowlands. It is divided 

 into two portions: first, Little Bay, nearest the river, and second, Great Bay, with which the 

 former is connected by Furber's Straits, where Durham River comes in. A portion of Great Bay, 

 on the eastern side, is also known as Greenland Bay; and two rivers flow into it (the Exeter and 

 Lamprey), besides a multitude of trout-brooks. This interior basin is perhaps 10 miles long and 

 5 to 7 wide, but the shores are very irregular. It is so shallow that a large portion of the shores 

 are left as dry flats at every low tide, yet there are channels deep enough to allow large vessels to 

 go up to New Market and Exeter, when the water is favorable. This spot was renowned among 

 the Indians for the oysters living there, and considerable shell-heaps attest the constant use made 

 of the bivalves. Whatever might have been its resources a century or half a century ago, it is 

 certain that within more recent times the locality was forgotten, or at least made no account of, as 

 oyster-ground, by the large population that inhabited the shores. It was therefore looked upon 

 almost as an original discovery when, in 1874, the explorations of the Coast Survey, which was 

 sounding and mapping out the channels, showed that there were oyster-beds still flourishing at 

 many points from one end of the bay to the other ; that is, in Great Bay, for none, to my knowl- 

 edge, have ever been found in the outer Little Bay. There were no tools proper for the gathering 

 of oysters in the neighborhood, and very little was done at first to make the knowledge gained 

 available. There lived in New Market, however, an old Chesapeake oysterman by the name of 

 Albert Tibbetts, who sent to Providence for oyster- tongs, procured boats, and began raking in 

 earnest. Others imitated his example, and the following year witnessed great activity. For 

 several mouths, I was told, there were probably a dozen boats, with two or three men iu each boat, 



