MASSACHUSETTS: NEW BEDFORD DISTRICT. 267 



of rest." In past years, up to a comparatively recent date, the inhabitants were quite largely 

 engaged in ship-building and in the whale fishery, but very little attention is now paid to the fish- 

 ing industry. Clams are plentiful, but the citizens only dig the few which they require for their 

 home consumption. Fishermen from Fairhaven and New Bedford come here with teams and boats 

 and dig large quantities, which they sell through the surrounding towns and cities. Alewives are 

 taken in the Mattapoisett River, which enters Buzzard's Bay at this place. One weir is located 4 

 miles up the river, and two more at Rochester, 4 miles further up the river. For the past 10 years 

 the catch has averaged 9(10 barrels a year. The catch of 1880, the smallest for twenty years, was 

 500 barrels taken at the lower station, and 200 at the upper. The greater portion of them are 

 sold fresh through the neighboring towns. A local law fixes the price for a limited supply to the 

 citizens of Mattapoisett, Marion, and Rochester, at 25 cents for a hundred fish. At the northeast 

 entrance to the harbor, on Pine Island, are two weirs. These are fished by four men for six 

 mouths in the year. At the fishing stations of Mattapoisett, Pine Island, and Rochester, iu 1880, 

 eleven men were employed for a part of the year. The total capital invested in boats, nets, and 

 other apparatus was $2,130. The catch was valued at $2,275, and included SOO barrels of alewives, 

 2,000 lobsters, 200 barrels of menhaden, 1,000 squeteague, 8,000 tautog, 9,000 scup, 500 bluefish, 

 and 25 Spanish mackerel. 



FAIKHAVEN. Fairhaveu is bounded on the south by Buzzard's Bay, and on the west by 

 Acushnet River. The various ways of spelling this name, found on the old records, are as follows: 

 "Cushnet," "Acushnutt," "Acoosnet," "Acushena," and "Acushuett," or, as in use at the present 

 time, "Acushnet." The bay at this point is nearly 1 mile wide, and is in fact an arm of the sea 

 for the 3 miles from its mouth along the Fairhaven and New Bedford fronts. Above New Bedford 

 it decreases in size to a small stream, no larger than a brook, and takes its rise near the south 

 shores of Long Pond and Aquitticaset Pond, in the town of Middleborough, 10 miles distant. 

 There are several islands iu the stream; the largest is named Palmer, and is at the entrance to the 

 harbor. The next to the north arc Crow, Pope'-s, and. Fish. This last is united to the long draw- 

 bridge connecting Fairhaven with New Bedford. Several other smaller islands, not named, add 

 to the beauty of the river scenery. 



The land now occupied by Fairbaven, New Bedford, and Dartmouth was purchased from the 

 Indians in 1652, and was all united in the single town of Dartmouth, the part now called Fair- 

 haven being known to the Indians as "Sconticut." On February 22, 1787, Westport and New 

 Bedford were incorporated as separate towns. The latter embraced the present town of Fairhaven 

 until April 22, 1812, when it was incorporated under its present name. The leading business of 

 this place in past years was the whale fishery. Thirty-seven vessels, with nine hundred and forty- 

 five men, sailed from here in 1837, and in 1858 forty-seven sail were engaged in that industry; iu 

 1SCO, thirty-nine; in 1870, eight; iu 1S74, two; in 1876, two; in 1880, none. 



Although the bay and river have always been noted as having an abundance and great 

 variety of scale and shell fish, and the flats and near shores for miles have long been known to 

 abound with quahaugs and clams, until lately there appears to have been but little attention paid 

 to them, except iu a small way for home use. Within the past twenty -years, as the whale fishery 

 has declined, more attention has been paid to the abundance of fish near home. At the present 

 time two vessels, of 110.30 aggregate tonnage, engage in the cod fishery off Block Island, the New 

 England shore, and as far as Banquereau ; three small vessels, of 27.89 total tonnage (not registered), 

 fish in the bay near home. At the southern end of the town, known as Sconticut Neck, within 

 late years the business has steadily grown, the catch being made with gill nets, purse and shore 

 seines. The weirs, of which there are fourteen located at the neck, are worth from 8-l<!0 to 8500 



