MASSACHUSETTS AND ITS FISHERIES. 131 



The extent of the cod and mackerel fisheries of Massachusetts for the year 1850, as reported 

 by the census, was as follows: 



Capital invested .$2, 127, 885 



Men employed 7,917 



Quintals of codfish 215, 170 



Barrels of mackerel 236,468 



Value of products of the fisheries $2, 188, 441 



Hon. Lorenzo Sabiue, in his report to the Boston Board of Trade for the year 1859, gives the 

 following statistics of the fisheries of Massachusetts for that year: 



Cod, mackerel, halibut, &e., fishery, tonnage 71,598 



Persons employed 10, 550 



Value of fish and oil $6,250,000 



Capital invested $3,700,000 



Sperm and other whale fisheries, tonnage 154, 048 



Persons employed 11,800 



Value of oil, bone, and candles $14, 500, 000 



Capital invested 17,900,000 



The following extract is from the Gloucester Telegraph of April 4, 1860: 



"The fishing interest of this Commonwealth, owing to a variety of causes, is not an increasing 

 one. Indeed, the tonnage employed in the cod, mackerel, halibut, &c., business is 0,349 tons less 

 than in 1825, while the tonnage in the whale fishery is barely 13 tons more than in that year. The 

 fisheries which produce food are rapidly concentrating at Gloucester. Thus the tonnage at that 

 port was 19,394 in 1855, and 32,644 in 1859. So, too, a large part of the whale fishery has been 

 transferred from Nantucket to New Bedford. The losses recently in this branch of industry have 

 been great, and in New Bedford alone nearly $2,000,000 during the past year." 



B. THE DISTRICT OF NEWBUKYPORT. 



56. REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES OF NEWBURYPORT DISTRICT. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. Newburyport and the adjoining town of Ipswich comprise one 

 customs district. The former place possesses a good harbor, and is important as a fishing center. 

 Its maritime business is quite extensive. At the town of Salisbury, on the opposite bank of the 

 Merrimac River, the dory originated about a hundred years ago. Newburyport, for many years, 

 had a large fleet of vessels in the Labrador cod fishery, but the business is now discontinued. The 

 fishing fleet of twenty-three sail now owned here, is engaged in the shore cod and mackerel fisheries. 

 Large quantities of clams are annually dug from the sandy flats in the vicinity. 



The Merrimac River, which empties into the ocean at Newburyport, takes its rise at an altitude 

 of 6,000 feet among the White Mountains of New Hampshire, scmie 120 miles away, although 

 the -river by its course is said to be 260 miles long. It runs in a southerly direction through the 

 center of the State of New Hampshire, and, passing into Massachusetts, for a few miles it con- 

 tinues south, and then turns to the northeast, which course it follows to the ocean. This stream 

 is well known as furnishing the power for the great manufacturing interests of Nashua, in New 

 Hampshire, and Lowell and Lawrence, in Massachusetts, as well as numerous places of less note. 

 Twenty-five small rivers and numerous small streams are tributary to the Merrimac. The largest 

 of these rivers are the Nashua, Contoocook, and the Winnepissoggee. The tide flows to Mitchell's 



