170 HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



" The quantity of codfish taken for the last five years is probably as great as that of 

 any preceding five, with the exception of those from 1803 to 1807 inclusive, when the 

 Labrador fishery was carried to its greatest extent. The quantity taken in this State, 

 with those in New Hampshire, Maine, and some in other States, will give an annual 

 amount exceeding 700,000 quintals, and, Avith its oil and other products, exceeding 

 $2,000,000 in value." 



The above has evidently been prepared with care, and is unquestionably accu- 

 rate. In some portions of the State, this fishery is entirely superseded by the taking of 

 whales. Thus, while every town in the county of Barnstable is more or less engaged 

 in this business, and collectively they exhibit an aggregate of two hundred and twelve 

 vessels, but a single fishing-smack was licensed in Dukes County in 1836, and not one in 

 the county of Nantucket, — the attention of the inhabitants of the last two counties 

 being entirely engaged in whaling. I have ascertained that, in 1836, there were 

 engaged in the cod-fishery, from Gloucester, Marblehead, Provincetown, Wellfleet, 

 Cohasset, Duxbury, Plymouth, Manchester, Salem, and Beverly, being ten towns, 561 

 vessels, having crews of 3,816 men, and that by these vessels there were taken 263,45-4 

 quintals of fish. To these may be added the ports of Newburyport, Lynn, Falmouth, 

 Holmes's Hole, and Sandwich (in which I have not been able to learn the number of 

 vessels exclusively employed in this fishery), which furnished, in 1836, 16,265 quintals; 

 thus exhibiting 279,718 quintals of codfish taken by the enterprise of the citizens of 

 fifteen towns. When it is mentioned that about 3,500 of the codfish from the Grand 

 Bank (which are generally much larger than those from the Straits of Belleisle) consti- 

 tute one hundred quintals, some conception may be formed of the immense numbers 

 taken. At the usual price of these prepared fish, the above-mentioned number of quin- 

 tals woidd sell for $ 839,154. 



According to the returns of the assessors of the several towns, it appears that there 

 were taken, in 1836, 510,554 quintals of codfish, which were valued at $ 1,569,517. 

 These fish were from the following counties : — Essex, 159,424 quintals, valued at 

 $501,363; Barnstable, 134,758 quintals, valued at $392,930; Suffolk, 127,250 quin- 

 tals, valued at $408,510; Plymouth, 64,172 quintals, valued at $193,664; Norfolk, 

 15,950 quintals, valued at $46,050 ; Middlesex, 9,000 quintals, valued at $ 27,000. 



The statistics, derived from the same sources, for the year ending April 1st, 1845, pre- 

 pared by the Secretary of State, present us with the following facts. Whole num- 

 ber of quintals taken, 334,901, valued at $746,263. From Essex County, 175,273 

 quintals, valued at $374,815; Barnstable, 84,503 quintals, valued at $190,267; 

 Plymouth, 61,007 quintals, valued at $ 146,665 ; Suffolk, 6,600 quintals, valued at 



