MASSACHUSETTS: NANTUCKET DISTRICT. 



255 



Detailed statimtnt of the quantities and rallies of the products Continued. 



SO. NANTUCKET AND ITS FISHERIES. 



THE FISHERIES IN 1S79. The village of Nautucket is situated at the central point of the 

 northern shore of the island, near the mouth of a large harbor which extends in a northeasterly 

 direction for several miles. About two hundred and fifty of the men are fishermen. The village 

 contains churches, several hotels, numerous stores and shops, and two fish-markets. Several of 

 the streets are paved, and a number of the buildings are of biicb, so that the place, in a limited 

 area, presents the appearance of a small city. Communication is had with the mainland by boat 

 every day during the summer and three times per week in winter. The boat touches at Martha's 

 Vineyard and at Wood's Holl and New Bedford. There is a small hamlet at Siascousctt, at the 

 .southeastern part of the island, and the islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget arc inhabited, at 

 least in summer, by a few fishermen. 



The principal fisheries now carried on at Nantucket are for cod, haddock, pollock, bluefish, 

 scup, eels, lobsters, and clams. The fishery for ccd, haddock, and pollock usually begins late in 

 September, or at the beginning of October, and lasts until January if the weather permits. It 

 ceases then, but begins anew late in March, and is continued to June. About two hundred men 

 are engaged in it. They go 1 or 2 miles, sometimes even 4 miles, off the south shore in dories. 

 About one-half of the men go alone in their boats, but the remainder go by twos, so that the mini- 



