142 



I'lie American Ans'lcr 



"1 



A CAPE COD rOND. 



Marshfield home, he could be found in 

 his boat, with a veteran sailor and 

 fisher as companion, up and away long 

 before day on a visit to some one of the 

 numerous ledges or grounds of the Bay 

 waters, or lingering until long after 

 " sim-up " along the banks, content with 

 any form of success in his adventures 

 and enjoying all the scenes and their 

 accompanying incidents with a true 

 sportsman's appreciation. When thus 

 boating and fishing upon the Bay, or 

 chasing the deer in Plymouth and 

 Sandwich Woods with congenial com- 

 panions, Mr. Webster relished these 

 features of his life experiences with a 

 zest that never left him to the end. 



The ledges and banks and grounds 

 that thus furnished sport for the im- 

 mortal Webster are to be found in in- 

 finite variety of existence, situation and 

 formation, off every part of the coasts 

 of Southeastern Massachusetts ; and the 

 fishing off the south shore is a type of 

 that to be found under similar condi- 

 tions and circumstances off Plymouth, 

 the Cape shores, and in the Sound and 

 Bay waters all about that section. At 

 the same time, particular localities 



present almost always some fea- 

 tural attraction for the sports- 

 man and amateur fisherman. 

 wSmelt, lobster and the like are 

 especially present, both as re 

 gards quality and quantity, 

 within and about Massachusetts 

 Bay waters; tautog may be 

 sought with a certainty of suc- 

 cess — and sea bass also — in 

 A'ineyard Sound and Holmes 

 Hole waters; scup abound in 

 I>uzzards Bay in the spring and 

 summer seasons, and bluefish, 

 the princely game-fish of the 

 Southern New England coasts, 

 are to be found in the perfection 

 of the sport of its seeking off the 

 Cape Cod shores and in the troubled 

 waters aroimd the islands of Nantucket 

 and the Vineyard. The coast fishing 

 for this variety in every part of upper 

 Barnstable County, or Cape Cod, is full 

 of attractions for many fishermen. 



Hast thou, O lover of sports pisca- 

 torial, ever known anything of the ex- 

 citements of bluefishing ? Hast thou 

 stood within the line of surf on a clean 

 beach, and, gathering in one hand the 

 curious coil, slung the well-ballasted 

 hook far out over the curling wave-tips, 

 and then, with thirty or forty feet of 

 line behind, rushed up to the beach to 



SuCTll SlIUKK (II- MASSAtlUSKlTS. 



