MASSACHUSETTS: BARNSTABLE DISTRICT. 230 



About eleven men are engaged in seining bluefish with purse-seines during the summer 

 months, and these, together with six or seven who do not use seines, set gill nets also for bluefish. 

 The seiners own eight or ten little vessels about 30 feet long, and about one half the number 

 carry their fish to market, while the others send theirs by rail. Each boat carries one seine. Six 

 or seven of the men who use gill-nets for bluefish employ others also for mackerel. Probably 

 170 bluefish gill-nets and 100 mackerel nets are owned in Eastham. 



ORLEANS AND SOUTH ORLEANS. Orleans is situated near Town Cove, the head of an inlet, 

 which, after many windings, opens on the ocean side of the cape. About one hundred and twenty 

 men make their living by fishing. Of these, twenty are engaged in weir, net, and line fishing in 

 the vicinity of the village, and the remainder ship on fishing vessels in other places, mostly in 

 Provincetowu. As many as five mackerel vessels are owned almost entirely in Orleans, and have 

 captains and crews who belong in the town. These, vessels fit out and sell their fish in Boston 

 and Provincetowu. A considerable proportion of the men who are engaged in the offshore fishery 

 in summer remain at home in winter and carry on a clam fishery in Town Cove. Both soft clams 

 and quahaugs are gathered. Twelve or fifteen men are engaged in tending the weirs, of which 

 there are three. They are all erected on the flats extending from the shore of the bay, and are 

 not more than a mile apart. 



Fifty gill-nets are set by four men for mackerel in May, also in October and November. In 

 the fall of 1878 and the spring of 1879 very few mackerel were taken, but in the spring of 1878 

 each man engaged made from $30 to $75. In the fall ten or fifteen men fish for cod with hook and 

 line, for their own consumption. In the fall of 1878 each caught an amount equal to 500 pounds 

 when dried, but this is unusual. 



South Orleans is a small and somewhat scattered village, situated directly south of, and about 

 2 miles distant from Orleans proper. In 1879 quite an extensive clam fishery was being carried 

 on here, which gave steady employment to twelve men. Some 1,200 barrels of soft clams and 

 quahaugs are taken here during the season, and sent to Boston and New York. About the year 

 187G, 1,000 bushels of oysters were planted in Pleasant Bay, South Orleans, by a Boston merchant. 

 They were speedily buried by the sand, however, and the enterprise proved a failure. 



At East Orleans six men, with three cat-rigged boats, fish with hand lines for cod and pollock 

 between May and November, and in winter three meu trawl for cod. The fishing is carried on just 

 outside the mouth of Town Cove. One man engages in a lobster fishery. He owns 40 pots, and 

 in 1879 took 35 lobsters daily from May to October. About four or five years ago eleven men were 

 engaged in this fishery, but they considered it unprofitable and left it. 



BREWSTER. The villages of East Brewster, Brewster, and West Brewster occupy the stretch 

 of coast between East Dennis and Orleans, on the north side of Cape Cod, about seven miles in 

 extent. There is no harbor here, but a vast flat, exposed at low water, extends in many places at 

 least a mile from the shore. The principal fishery now engaged in at Brewster is the weir fishery. 

 There are five weirs in operation within the limits of the township. They are all " flat" weirs, con- 

 structed of laths and poles. Their average value is from $400 to $500. Each weir is "tended" 

 by four or five men. There is but little regularity in the amount of catrh, but perhaps the average 

 catch in each of these weirs is 50,000 pounds of fish. In fall about twenty men are engaged in cod 

 fishing from boats for six weeks or two months. They make about $25 each for the season. Some 

 of the codfish are salted and sent to Boston, and the remainder sold fresh in the neighborhood. 



An alewife brook, located at West Brewster, produces from 50 to 100 barrels of alewives 

 annually, which are distributed to citizens of the town at a nominal price. Each person is entitled 



