IV 



THE MINOR COLONIAL PORTS 



THE story of Nantucket is by no means 

 completed, but before going on with it 

 some account of the whale fishery at 

 other ports in the early days will prove of interest. 

 Whales haunted the whole New England coast. 

 They were often seen in Buzzard's Bay and all 

 the length of Long Island Sound. Indeed, there 

 is an account of one that worked its way up the 

 Hudson River as far as Cohoes. As on Nantucket, 

 the settlers everywhere alongshore were farmers, 

 woodsmen, and mariners (half horse, half alligator, 

 was the description applied to such men in the 

 Mississippi Valley), who promptly went in pursuit 

 of the oil-bearing monsters whenever good oppor- 

 tunity offered. And of course the whales that 

 drifted ashore were saved with some bickerings 

 over the ownership, as a rule. At Cape Cod 

 and on Long Island the pursuit of whales became 



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