464 THE TOWN SUPPORTED BY FISHING. 



equality of the old time has gone, and the rich have 

 deserted the more memorable spot for a new cemetery 

 which has been laid out on another hill about a mile 

 higher up the stream, and overlooking the lake which 

 the early settlers speak of in their letters, and hoped to 

 make useful to themselves by-and-by. 



Plymouth is still a small town, but a clean and com 

 fortable one, where the traveller may spend an agreeable 

 day, if he be more favoured by the weather than I was. 

 It is chiefly dependent upon its fisheries of cod, mackerel, 

 and halibut, and upon its clams. It has about forty 

 vessels engaged in the trade ; but competition has 

 lessened its profits, and in consequence the prosperity of 

 the town. In the summer the vessels go to the fishing ; 

 in the autumn they return and sort their fish, arid in the 

 winter take them south and bring back southern pro 

 duce. In their situation which secures them an unfrozen 

 harbour, and enables them to go to sea in winter as well 

 as in summer and in their free access to the markets of 

 the southern States, they have hitherto had an advantage 

 over the more northern shipping. 



Forefathers Rock, that on which the pilgrim-fathers 

 landed, appears to have been only a large boulder, 

 remarkable, probably, from being the only large stone 

 which the sandy beach exhibited. Half of it has been 

 blasted off, and, encircled by a railing and inscription, 

 has been placed in front of the Pilgrim Hall ; the other 

 half remains on the original site, now, however, in the 

 middle of a street the formation of piers and jetty s hav 

 ing carried the modern landing-place farther into the bay. 



Returning to a large hotel, built near the railway ter 

 minus, I enjoyed a very comfortable dinner, in which the 

 chief novelty was clam soup. Asa native and local dish, 

 it was appropriate, and welcome to one who was in search 

 of what the old times had seen and been. The clam, 

 (Mya arenaria : ) or long clam, as it is often called, to dis- 



