^°i8^^^] Mackay, The Terns, of Penikcse Island, Mass. 279 



islands extending from southern Massachusetts towards the west- 

 ward, which are called the Elizabeth Islands. These islands 

 divide the waters between the mainland and the island of 

 Marthas Vineyard. That portion of the ocean at the southward 

 is known as Vineyard Sound, and that to the northward as 

 Buzzards Bay, so named by the early settlers of Dartmouth on the 

 adjoining mainland, it is supposed, from the abundance of the Fish 

 Hawks i^Pandion haliaetiis caroUnensis) formerly found there, these 

 birds being called Buzzardet or little Buzzard in the earlier works 

 on natural history. 



It was on the westernmost island of this group that their dis- 

 coverer, Bartholomew Gosnold, landed in 1602, and built a fort 

 and storehouse, on a small islet in a pond at the western end of 

 the island, which he named Elizabeth, in honor of the English 

 queen of that name. This island, of about five hundred and 

 sixteen acres, is known to the present generation as Cuttyhunk, 

 and by the Indians as Poocutohhtnikiinnop} It was formerly 

 wooded with trees of various kinds. Situated at the entrances 

 of Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound, with an altitude of one 

 hundred feet above the sea, it aflbrds one of the finest marine 

 views to be obtained on the coast. 



A little less than a mile away, in a north-northeast direction, 

 is another small island of about seventy-five acres of upland, 

 with an elevation of eighty feet, and formerly covered with cedars, 

 none of which now remain. This island was named Hills Hap, 

 by Gosnold, and from which he is said to have taken a canoe 

 which he carried to England on his return. Locally this island 

 was sometimes called Pune, but is known to the outside world as 

 Pefiikese., which last name is spelled in quite a variety of ways. 

 Nearly a mile from Penikese in an easterly direction is a gravelly 

 shoal called Gull Island, and still farther away in the same direction 

 lies Nashawena Island, which is distant a little over two miles, 

 and on the southeast end of which, at Fox Point, a few Terns are 

 said to breed. This at present treeless island is about three and 

 a half miles long by one and a half miles wide, and contains 

 about twenty-five hundred acres. 



' I have availed myself of Ricketson's History of New Bedford for several 

 references. 



