THE MUSEUM 



A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science. 



Vol. V. 



ALBION, N. Y.. NOVEMBER 15. 1898. 



No. r 



A Pleasure Trip on the Atlantic 

 Coast. 



[Continuid from October Sninbcr.) 



The next morning we take steamer 

 for Edgartown, our destination for a 

 few days. W'e find this a typical fish- 

 ing village of some i 500 inhabitants, 

 in the summer season possibly swelling 

 to 2500. The houses are large square 

 structures, mostly painted white and 

 set close to the sidewalk. We notice 

 an unusual number of door plates 



marked "Captain " and later 



on we have a number of pleasant chats 

 with these old Sea Captains. 



Many years ago, when the whaling 

 industry was at its height, this port 

 and Nantucket the largest city on the 

 island by this name some 25 miles dis- 

 tant) sent out no less than 150 whaling 

 boats to the Arctic regions. To fit 

 out so many boats, as there were sel- 

 dom less than 40 men on a boat, took 

 several thousand men from these two 

 villages and required many thousand 

 dollars worth of supplies. Large 

 warehouses were built and many large 

 blocks. Many of these have been 

 burned and torn down but some still 

 stand and are now used as wholesale 

 fish markets, and a very few are used 

 to store supplies needed in fishing. 



Immediately after getting settled, 

 we head for the nearest beach which 

 is only a short distance away. We 

 have purposely selected Edgartown as 

 a resting place and collecting ground 

 on account of its long sandy beaches, 

 the salt water marshes nearby, the 

 rocky coasts only a short distance in 

 one direction, and the heavy surf and 

 breakers only a few miles to the South. 

 One of the first shells to attract one's 

 notice along the pier walk to the Light 

 house is Littorina Litorea. This little 



straggler not many years ago was in- 

 troduced on our shores from England 

 and like the English Sparrow has driv- 

 en out many other kinds. The stones 

 were literally covered with them from 

 the si/e of a pin-head to an inch in 

 diameter. We select a couple of 

 quarts of them and consider that 

 enough. With a little work one could 

 easily gather bushels. While picking 

 these up we find the home of hundreds 

 of mussel shells. Walking along the 

 beach at low tide we occasionally saw 

 one adherring to a stone or bit of drift 

 woo'^, but in among the large rocks of 

 the .stone pier was where we found the 

 fine large ones and such beauties. Sev- 

 eral 57 v c'es were noticed. Some re- 

 quire cleaning and some were as 

 smooth as a Cowry shell. The family 

 throw out a large number of fine threads 

 near the hinge of the shell which stuck 

 fast to the stones. Many bunches of 

 shells would be composed of 2 big ones, 

 4 or 5 a grade smaller, then another 

 grade and so on down to some \ inch 

 long, the largest being 3 inches or 

 more. To all appearances they were 

 successive generations. We soon had 

 to return to the boarding place and 

 "unload." 



Taking a stroll down to the wharf 

 we fall in with some of our three link 

 fraternity and make the acquaintance 

 of two jolly fellows from Cape Cod 

 who are down here with their new 

 thousand dollar "Cat Boat " fishing 

 for Sword Fish. We are invited into 

 the cabin so-called, shown the compass, 

 barometer and other "fi.xings," includ- 

 ing the chart of all waters in this vic- 

 inity for a hundred miles in every dir- 

 ection. While visiting with them, one 

 says there comes Will I-". and I guess 

 he has a fish, meaning of course a 

 Sword Fish. We watch the boat 



