162 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Of tliese fishes [the Basse] some be three and some foure feet loii<i^, 

 some bigger, some lesser ; at some tides a man may catch a dozen or 

 twenty of tliese in three honres, the way to catch them is with hooke 

 and line. The Fisherman taking ^ great Cod-line, to which he fasteneth 

 a piece of Lobster, and throwes it into the Sea, the fish biting at it he 

 pnlls her to him, and knocks her on the head with a sticke. These are 

 at one time (when Alewi\es passe np the Elvers) to be catched in Elvers, 

 in Lobster time at the Eockes, in Macrill time in the Bayes, at Michel- 

 mas in the Seas. When they nse to tide it in and ont to the Elvers and 

 Creekes, the English at the top of an high water do crosse the Creekes 

 with long seanes or Basse Netts, which stoj) in the fish; and the water 

 ebbing from them they are left on the dry ground, sometimes two or 

 three thousand at a set, which are salted up against winter, etc. The 

 Herrings be much like them that be caught on the English coast. Ale- 

 wives be a kind of fish which is much like a Herring, which in the lat- 

 ter end of Aprill come up to the fresh Elvers to s[)aune, in such multi- 

 tudes as is almost incredible, pressing up in such shallow waters as 

 will scarce permit them to swim me, having likewise such longing desire 

 after the fresh water ponds, that no beating with poles, or forcive agi- 

 tations by other devices, will cause them to returne to the sea, till they 

 have cast their spawue. The Shaddes be bigger than the English 

 Shaddes, and fatter. The Macrells be of two sorts, in the beginning 

 of the yeareare great ones, which be upon the coast; some are 18 inches 

 long. In Summer as in May, June, July, and August,come in a smaller 

 kind of them, (p. 38.) 



Codfish in these seas are larger than iu new found land, six or seaveu 

 making a quintall, whereas there they have fifteeue to the same weight. 

 The chieie fish for trade is Cod. 



A little below this fall of waters, the inhabitants of Water-towne [near 

 Boston] have built a Wayre to catch Fish, wherein they take great store 

 of Shads and Alewires. In two Tydes they have gotten one hundred 

 thousand of those Fishes, [p. 44.] * * * i have seen ten thousand 

 [Alewives] taken iu two honres by two men, without any weire at all, 

 saving a few stones to stop their passage up the river, [p. 46.] * * * 

 The Basse continuing from the middle of Aprill to Michaelmas, which 

 stayes not above half tliat time in the Bay; besides here is a great 

 deal of Eock-cod and Macrill, insomuch that shoales of Basse have driven 

 up shoales of Macrill from one end of the Sandie Beach [Swampscott] 

 to the other, which the inhabitants have gathered up on wheelbarrowes, 

 [p. 47. 1 * * * In this river [il/erri'?«oc'/ie] is Sturgeon, Sammon, and 

 Basse, [p. 49.] 



A Topographical Description of Truro, in the County of Barnstable. 1794. 



[Collections of the Miissacliusetts Historical Society for the year 1794: Vol. III. Bos- 



tou, 1810.] 



" A traveller from the interiour part of the country, where the soil is 

 fertile, upon observing the barrenness of Truro, would wonder what 

 could induce any persou to remain in such a place. But his wonder 

 would cease, when he was informed, that the subsistence of the inhabit- 

 ants is derived chiefiy from the sea. The shores «& marshes afford 

 large & small clams, quahaugs, razor shells, periwinkles, muscles, and 

 cockles. The bay and ocean abound with excellent fish and with crabs 

 and lobsters. The sturgeon, eel, haddock, cod, frost-fish, pollock, cusk, 

 flounder, halibut, bass, mackerel, herring, and alewife, are most of them 

 caught in great plenty, and constitute a principal part of the food of 

 the inhabitants. Besides these fish for the table, there is a great vari- 



