MASSACHUSETTS: BAUNSTABLE DISTRICT. 235 



nnnibei are entirely unemployed, however, and the value of all lias depreciated. About $54,000 

 are invested in seines, boats, &c. 



The "lay" most commonly used is the "seiners' half-line." According to this system, one-sixth 

 of the total value of the fish caught is paid for the seine; and after this amount and the inspection 

 fees have been subtracted the remainder is divided equally between the vessel owners and the 

 crew. 



Fishing vessels in general are insured by the Wellfleet Marine Insurance Company at three- 

 quarters of 1 per cent, on their full value, or a large fraction of it. Vessels fishing on the banks 

 are insured at 3 per cent. All vessels are insured by the month. 



THE ALEWIFE AND BLACKFisn FISHERIES AT WELLFLEET. In order to enable some of the 

 alewives to reach the ponds which were their natural spawning grounds, "fish were allowed to be 

 taken in Herring Brook only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, except for codfish bait. 

 1773."* This regulation is still in force, and fish are taken from the brook on those days only. 



The black fish (Globwceplialus intermcdius), which until within a few years has been quite 

 abundant in Cape Cod Bay at certain seasons of the year, furnishes a valuable oil, which has been 

 a source of a considerable revenue to the people of Wellfleet and other Cape towns. In 1G20 the 

 Pilgrims landing at Wellfleet are said to have discovered the Indians engaged in cutting up a 

 grampus. In all probability this was not a true grampus, but simply a blackfish. 



In a description of Wellfleet by Levi Whitman, in the Collections of the Massachusetts His- 

 torical Society, for the year 1794, the blackfish fishery is alluded to in the following language: 



"It would be curious indeed to a countryman who lives at a distance from the sea to be 

 acquainted with the method of killing blackfish. Their size is from 4 to 5 tons weight, when full 

 grown. When they come within our harbors boats surround them. They are as easily driven to 

 the shore as cattle or sheep are driven on the land. The tide leaves them, and they are easily 

 killed. They are a fish of the whale kind, and will average a barrel of oil each. I have seen 

 nearly four hundred at one time lying dead on the shore. It is not, however, very often of late 

 that these fish come into our harbor." 



While I was in Wellfleet Mr. Elisha Atwood very kindly gave me some interesting facts 

 regarding the history of the whale fisheries here. He informed me that seventy-five or eighty 

 years ago, there were four captains, each, with his vessel, employing fourteen hands, hailing from 

 Wellfleet. They went to Labrador for right-whale, Mount Desert and vicinity for humpback- 

 whale, and the West Indies for sperm-whale. There were watchers on the shore who signaled to 

 the whalemen the appearance of a whale in the bay. These men would then go out after it and 

 tow it inshore to the islands, where the oil was tried out. There is no whaling from Wellfleet now. 

 Fifty-five years ago the whale-oil trying on Griffin's Island and Bound Brook Island came to an 

 end. Just prior to this sixteen persons were employed. Ten or twelve years ago the last vessel 

 was fitted out for the West Indies, but proved a failure. 



In 1874 a company was organized under the name of the North American Oil Company, for 

 the purpose of trying out blackfish blubber. Its capital, invested in a building, steam-boiler, 

 tanks, kettles, boats, &c., amounts to $2,400. In 1875 the number of barrels of oil extracted was 

 300; in 1870, 100 barrels. During the years 1877, 1878, and 1879 no blackfish appeared on the 

 coast, and the company was obliged to suspend operations. This company has also carried on a 

 small business in splitting and preparing menhaden for bait. 



* History of Eastham, Wellfleet, anil Orleans, by Enoch Pratt, p. 126. 



