MAINE: SACO, KENNEBUNK, AND YORK DISTRICTS. 101 



The fishing is chiefly with baud-lines and trawls between Cape Porpoise and Nubble Light, 

 which are about 8 miles apart. The men continue the work, whenever the weather is favorable, 

 throughout the entire year, cod being the principal. species taken in the winter, hake in the fall, 

 and haddock in the spring. Mackerel, also, are captured in their season by means of hand-lines 

 and gill-nets ; and herring and menhaden are often taken in considerable numbers to be used as 

 bait in the other branches of the fishery, 'ihe total catch, including the various edible and non- 

 edible species, amounted in 1879 to 2,930,000 pounds of round fish. About one-half of the catch, 

 exclusive of herring and menhaden, is cured and sold in Boston or Gloucester, and the remainder 

 is purchased by peddlers and by the various dealers of the interior towns of Massachusetts and 

 New Hampshire. 



Lobsters have not been very plenty for several years, but many are still caught, both with 

 pots and with the old-fashioned hoop-net. The latter consists of an iron ring, 2J feet in diameter, 



covered with netting. When it is to be fished, the bait is fastened in the middle, and the whole is 





 lowered through the water to the bottom, its position being marked by a wooden buoy, which 



floats at the surface. About 250 of these simple traps and 75 of the common lath pots are used. 

 The catch amounts to about 7,000 lobsters annually. 



Clams are found in large numbers along the shore near the mouths of the Ogunquit and 

 Webhannet Elvers. One hundred and twenty-five men are employed in digging them during nine 

 mouths of the year, or from September to the following June. One man will get about 4 bushels 

 in a day; but, on account of unfavorable tides and bad weather, the average number of working 

 days to a mouth is only 1C. It is estimated by Mr. Perkins, and others, that 72,000 bu&hels were 

 dug during the season of 1879-'80. A large proportion of the clams are used as bait by the local 

 fishermen, and the remainder are sold to peddlers from the inland towns. 



Prior to 1874 vessels for fishing and coasting were built at Wells, to some extent, but since 

 that date the business in this line has been confined wholly to the construction of the small sail- 

 boats to be used in the shore fisheries; during the season of 1879 sixty-five of these were made by 

 one firm. 



CAPE NEDDOCK. The village of Cape Neddock, including the little settlement of Donald's 

 Cove, has twenty-one men engaged in the fisheries during six months of the year. These devote 

 their attention to the capture of cod, hake, and haddock, with hand-lines and trawls, in Wells Bay 

 and other neighboring fishing grounds; but from April to July a number of them engage in the 

 lobster fisheries. The catch of lobsters, which amounts to 21,000 iu number, is sold in Boston, 

 while the cod and other species are marketed at Portsmouth and Cape Ann. There were no 

 fishing vessels from this place during 1879, though two or three small craft are usually owned in 

 the locality. 



YORK. The port of York, 12 miles to the northwest of Portsmouth, N. H., has a history of 

 considerable interest, for it is said to have been the first English city incorporated on this continent. 

 A charter from King James I, in 1GOG, embraced the province of Maine as far north as the forty- 

 fifth parallel of latitude, and supplies were sent out from England, as early as 1G1C, to the colonists 

 who had settled under its provisions at various points along the coast from Saco to the Piscataqua 

 River. In 1G20 the Plymouth Company received a new grant, extending north to the forty-eighth 

 parallel, and covering the entire province of Maine. Three years later, the first permanent settle- 

 ment at the place where York now stands was made, under the auspices of Sir Fcrdiuando Gorges, 

 a friend of Charles I ; though it seems probable that English subjects had resided in the vicinity 

 prior to that date. On the 3d of April, 1G39 (the charter of the Plymouth Company having been 

 previously revoked), the territory lying between the Piscataqua and Kennebec Rivers was bestowed 



