MASSACHUSETTS: FALL EIVER DISTRICT. 277 



Hope Bay are valuable for their scallop and clam beds, which extend from Kickamuit River on the 

 west to Taunton River on the east, a distance of 5 miles. 



From 1875 to 1880 scallops were very plentiful. In 1880, however, grown scallops were quite 

 scarce, while the beds were well supplied with the young shell-fish, thus giving promise of a good 

 supply in the future. Nineteen men are engaged in the business, giving most of their time to 

 catching shell-fish. When these are scarce, the fishermen visit the beds near Greenwich, on the 

 opposite side of the bay. When these beds are yielding abundantly, other fishermen, from the 

 Greenwich side, join in the business. In this industry small cat-rigged boats are used, each of 

 which is equipped with four to eight dredges. The catch is opened at Swansea and forwarded 

 principally to New York. During the summer Rocky Point and other resorts are supplied by these 

 fishermen with clams of the summer yield, and Fall River and the local trade are furnished with 

 clams from the winter digging. 



Eels are plenty in Cole's river, and are taken in a conical basket-work trap, 2 feet long. The 

 catch is sent to New York. A few fyke-nets are used in the winter, the catch flounders being 

 used at and near home. Clams are worth $1 a bushel in summer, and 70 cents in winter. At the 

 present time as many clams are used in summer as in winter. 



The fisheries of Cole's River in 1879 gave employment to 19 men. The capital, invested in G 

 small sail-boats, 40 scallop dredges, and 100 dories, amounted to $960. The products were worth 

 $5,332, and consisted of 900 bushels of scallops, 3,375 bushels of clams, 19,200 pounds of eels, and 

 3,000 pounds of flounders. Besides these products there were about 1,000 bushels of oysters dug 

 in this vicinity, valued at $1,200. 



90. THE OYSTER INTERESTS OF TAUNTON RIVER AND VICINITY. 



The oyster interests of the Fall River district, as reported by Mr. Ingersoll, are as follows : 



"TAUNTON RIVEE. There lies in the Taunton River, at Dighton, a large rock, well known to 

 archaeologists, on account of some inscriptions which it bears; these, though untranslated, are 

 supposed to be the work of Norse voyagers who early visited these waters. The foundation for 

 this supposition is very fully and attractively stated in Thoreau's Cape Cod, to which the reader 

 is referred. These earliest comers were pleased to find shell-fish abundant in the region, and the 

 English settlers, three or four centuries later, record their thankfulness on similar grounds. From 

 time immemorial, then, oysters have been natives of this district, and no such mistake as has been 

 made north of Cape Cod could ever be put forward to deny that they are here indigenous. 



" It was long ago recognized that the Taunton River was a valuable oyster-property, and 

 legal measures were early adopted looking toward its preservation. The present plan of opera- 

 tions came into effect about thirty years ago, and though differing slightly in the various towns 

 bordering the river, consists, in general, of the leasing of the ground for raking and planting pur- 

 poses, during a term of years, at a fixed rental. Most of the towns do this under the general law 

 of the State, but Somerset had a special act in her favor, passed by the legislature in 1847. 



"The oysters from all parts of Taunton River (the producing extent is about 12 miles long) 

 arc known as 'Somersets.' Formerly they were considered extremely good eating, and grew to a 

 large size. Within the last twenty five years, however, they have assumed a green appearance 

 and lost quality. It is popularly asserted, locally, that this is owing to the influence of the impuri- 

 ties discharged by the copper- works, by the rolling-mills, and by the print-works, which are situated 

 some miles above the oyster beds. But this has been denied, on the ground that not enough of 

 the mineral matter thus thrown into the current could get down there to affect the oysters so 

 seriously, and also on the better ground, that chemical analyses fail to show the presence of any- 



