NEW HAMPSHIRE: PORTSMOUTH AND VICINITY. HI 



product in first hands was about $150,000. The catch consisted of baiik and shore codfish and 

 other ground fish, mackerel, herring, and shell fish. 



NEW CASTLE, EXETER, NEW MARKET, AKD SEABROOK. New Castle is at the mouth of the 

 Piscataqua River, three miles east of Portsmouth. At the present time, as for more than two 

 hundred and fifty years, the few inhabitants are mostly engaged in fishing, setting their trawls 

 and lobster-pots near home off the coasts of Maine and New Hampshire. Their catch consists 

 mainly of cod, hake, haddock, and lobsters, and is marketed at Portsmouth. With the exception 

 of one small vessel of 22 tons, the fishing is carried on from dories or small wherries of sloop or 

 schooner rig. The fishing is mostly done from April till the latter part of November. The amount 

 of capital invested in the fisheries at this place is about $2,600; the number of men employed is 

 forty-four; and the value of the catch is $10,000. 



Exeter is 12 miles and New Market 10 miles from Portsrnoulh, on the Exeter River. During 

 the months of May and June ten weirs are employed in securing the alewives that come up the 

 Piscataqna into the Exeter River. The average yearly catch is 2,500 barrels, but has fallen short 

 the past two years. In 1879 it was about 2,000 barrels, and was disposed of at Portsmouth. There 

 are forty men employed and $3,000 capital invested in the fisheries at those two towns. 



Seabrook is on the road from Portsmouth to Newburyport, about 16 miles from the former 

 and 6 miles from the latter place. This town has been for over seventy-five years the chief place 

 of manufacture for that peculiar class of fishing boat known as the " straight boat," or " Hamp- 

 ton boat." An account of this industry will be found in ttie chapter on boats and vessels. 



C. THE ISLES OF SHOALS. 



53. THE ISLES OP SHOALS AS A FISHING STATION. 



DESCRIPTION OF IHE ISLANDS AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. The Isles of 

 Shoals is a group of rocky islands, eight in number, situated 9 miles southeast from Portsmouth 

 light-house and 21 miles northeast from Newburyport light. The State line of Maine and New 

 Hampshire passes through the group. On some of the islands not a blade of grass can be seen, 

 while others have little patches of grass here and there. There is not a tree on any of the group 

 and the largest vegetation is a few whortleberry bushes. The principal islands, their respective 

 names and sizes are: Appledore, formerly Hog Island, about 350 acres; Star, 150 acres; Haley's, or 

 Smutty Nose, 100 acres. With but few exceptions, these three islands are the home of the small 

 resident population of the group. The other barren ledges, with here and there the solitary house 

 of a lone fisherman or the light-house keeper, are named Cedar, White, Londouuers, Malaga, and 

 Duck Islands. 



Quite a good harbor, and the only secure one, opens to the westward, with Smutty Nose Island 

 to the northeast, Star Island to the southwest, and Cedar Island southeast. 



These islands were discovered by the famous Capt. John Smith, in 1614, and named after 

 himself the "Smith Isles"; but they did not long retain his name, for in a deed from the Indian 

 sagamores to John Wheelright and others, in 1629, they are called the "Isles of Shoals." 



From 1800 to 1880 there has been no record of the number of men engaged, or the extent of 

 the fishing industry. Mr. L. B. Caswell, the leading fish dealer, who was born and has lived here 

 over fifty years, reports that during his recollection quite an extensive business in fish has been 



