CHAPTER IX. 



A SERMON ON FISH — THE TRANSITION PERIOD — EARLY OCCUPATION AND 



SETTLEMENT. 



All narrators recount the same fish-stories about the falls of 

 Amoskeag. Great salmon and salmon-trout, shad, and even the 

 sturgeon were plentiful, while ale-wives and lamprey-eels were 

 so numerous as to impede navigation. Probably the most com- 

 plete account of the manner of taking these fish is found in Pot- 

 ter's History of Manchester. 



Early in the last century there was printed a curious sermon, 

 the title-page of which is as follows : " Business and Diversion 

 inoffensive to God, and necessary for the Comfort and Support 

 of human Society. A Discourse utter'd in Part at Ammauskeeg- 

 Falls, in the Fishing-Season. 1739. * * * Boston, Printed for 

 S. Kneeland and T. Green in Queen-Street. Mdccxlim." 



The very quaint dedication is as follows: "To the Honora- 

 ble Theodore Atkinson, Esq ; and Others the Worthy J-'atrons of 

 the Fishing at Ammauskeeg. Gentlemen, It's not to signify to 

 others that I pretend to an Intimacy with you or that I ever had 

 a Share in those pleasant Diversions, which you have innocently 

 indulged yourselves in, at the place where I have taken an an- 

 nual Tour for some Years past. Yet I doubt not you'l Patronize 

 my Intention, which is to sence against Bigottry and Supersti- 

 tion. All Excess I disclaim, but pretend to be a Favorer of 

 Religion, and of Labour as an Ingredient, and of Recreation as 

 a necessary Attendant. I believe the Gentlemen who moved 

 me to preach there in some odd Circumstances, and those at 

 whose Desire and Charge this Discourse is Printed, (asking 

 their Pardon if my Suggestion appear to them ungrounded ) were 

 moved more from the uncommonness of the Thing, than any 

 Thing singular in it. I have put off the Importunity for near 



