28 THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



products of the sea, since manufacturing and agri- 

 culture were then only in the early stages of 

 development. Whale-oil, sperm-oil, and spermaceti 

 were essential for illuminants. Indeed as late as the 

 early nineteenth century pessimists were forecasting 

 dark streets and homes on account of the gradual 

 diminution of the numbers of whales because of over- 

 fishing, just as many are now forecasting the decline 

 of the automobile industry in the near future by 

 reason of the exhaustion of our petroleum supplies. 

 The influence of fish and other products of the 

 sea upon the history of North America dates from 

 a time before the white man set foot upon the con- 

 tinent. Enormous shell heaps or kitchen-middens are 

 found at various places along the Atlantic coast. 

 They occur on the sites of the ancient villages of 

 the shore dv/ellers and indicate that these Indians 

 depended to a considerable extent on shell-fish for 

 their sustenance. The Indians taught the early set- 

 tlers to fertilize their crops with the alewives and 

 other fishes which could be caught in enormous 

 quantities in the bays and coastal streams in the 

 spring. The Pilgrim Fathers had difficulty in obtain- 

 ing sufficiently large crops on the rocky soil of New 

 England and might have starved if it had not been 

 for the bountiful supply of sea-food close at hand. 

 Fish, lobsters, crabs, mussels, scallops, and clams 

 were very plentiful all along the coast. Oysters were 

 easy to get almost anywhere from Rhode Island 

 southward. The proximity of the banks, where cod 

 and other ground-fish were so plentiful, encouraged 

 the building of sailing-vessels. Yankee ingenuity in- 



