HISTOEIOAL KEFERENCES: MASSACHUSETTS. 717 



anil manner of taking them, and removing the obstructions to their ascending to Hezekiah Towers' pond, to which 'they 

 formerly ascended abundantly, to the great advantage of said Towers.' We believe the act was repealed in 1800, and 

 the fishery is extinct. In the second herring brook these fish used to ascend to Black pond, but they have long since 

 been repelled by the mill-dams. Smelts continue to visit this brook. They are taken in the latter end of March. In 

 the third beiring brook these fish used to ascend the valley swamp. But here they have been destroyed in like man- 

 ner as above. The shad and alnwifo fishery in the North River has long been a sulject of controversy between 

 Seituate and Pembroke, and is so at present. In their ascending to the Matakeeset Ponds they nsed to be taken in 

 great abundance. Since an act of court in 1701, permitting seines to be drawn in the North River, it is alleged that 

 they have been fast diminishing. Whether this or the mills .at Pembroke, or some unknown cause has produced this 

 eft'ect, we know not, but certain it is that these fisheries were reduced to comparatively little value in 1825, but since 

 that time the fish have increased." 1 



THE MACKEHEL FISHERY IN 1831 AND 1851. Deano wrote in 1031 of the mackerel fishery : " Wo believe there are 

 now about 35 [vessels] annually fitted out, of various tonnage, from 50 to 150 tons, and carrying from 6 to 15 hands. 

 The number of barrels taken by our vessels in 1828 was something more than 15,000." 



In 1851, according to the report of the inspector-general offish, Seituate had 13 vessels in the mackerel fishery, 

 aggregating 715 tons, and manned by 119 men and boys. 



DUXBURY. 



THE WHALE-FISHERY. " Schooners, sloops, and perhaps larger vessels were engaged in the whale-fishery from 

 Duxbury as early as the beginning of the last century, and for some years quite n number of the inhabitants wore 

 thus employed. Their resort was at first along the shore and between the capes, but by the close of the first quarter 

 of the century they had extended their grounds, and now the coast of Newfoundland became to be generally fre- 

 quented ; and even as late as 17(50, or perhaps later, vessels were employed in the Saint Lawrence Gulf. 



" On a blank leaf in the account book of Mr. Joshua Soule, of Duxbury, was found the following memorandum : 

 'Whale vieg begun, elisha cob sayled from hear March y 4 ( from Plymouth y" 7, 1729.'" 9 



THE COD-FISIIEKY IX THIS LAST CENTURY. Joshua Delano and Joshua and Josiah Soule, according to Winsor, 

 owned vessels at Cape Sable in 1737. Three or four was the number usually on the fishing-grounds at that time. This 

 number steadily increased, with some detriment during the Revolution, until in 1785 or 1786 there were 64 bank 

 fishermen, averaging 7< tons each. 



FRESH-WATER FISIIF.IUKS. Two ponds near Duxbury are thus described in the Collections of the Massachusetts 

 Historical Society for 1794, vol. ii: 



" The pond is one mile and a half from the salt water. It is half a mile wide, one and a half in length. The red 

 and sea perch, shiners, pout, and sometimes pickerel are found in it. Half a mile northwest of this lies a smaller 

 pond, about one mile in circumference. No streams run into it, neither is there any communication of water npon the 

 surface of the earth from it to the larger pond. It is always very nearly the same height." 



THE FISHERIES IN 1849. Concerning the state of the fishery in 1849 the following facts are given by Wiusor: 



"The fishing business has now engaged the people of Duxbury for nearly a century and a half, though of late 

 years the aggregate of tonnage engaged has been considerably less than was employed about ten or fifteen years ago." 



KIXGSTOX. 



ABUNDANCE OF FISH IN 1815. A writer in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. iii, 2d 

 series, says: 



"The laud which the natives cultivated was easily tilled, and, aided by fish as manure, produced considerable 

 quantities of Indian corn. The bay abounded with fish and fowl, the shores and flats with shell-fish, the streams with 

 alewives, frost-fish, smelts, and eels, in their season. * * * xhe frequent places of their habitation are discover- 

 able by shells and marks of tire. The fishery, till the war, was in latter years wholly carried on from that 

 place. Formerly fish were cured at Snnderland, so called, on Jones' River, one mile from the sea. Before the Revo- 

 lutionary War the fishery was more extensive than since. About twenty schooners were owned in the town. * * * 



"At Rocky Nook (Kingston) are salt-works, producing about 200 bushels of salt in a season." 



THE FibHERiF.s IN 1837 AND 1879. Since the early history of the State this town has had a small fishing fleet. In 

 1837 its fleet was larger than in any other year. At that time 7 vessels engaged from this port in the mackerel fish- 

 fishery, and 22 in the cod-fishery. In former times quite a numer of vessels were built each year. One eccentric 

 builder constructed 10, and named them after the first ten mouths of the year. 



There were 3 Kingston vessels engaged in the Grand Bank cod-fibheries in 1879, the statistics of which are in- 

 cluded in the summary for Plymouth district. 



PLYMOUTH. 



OBJECT OF THE PLYMOUTH COLONISTS. One of the objects of the establishment of colonies in New England was 

 the development of the fisheries, about which wonderful stories had been told in England by the early voyagers 

 That the Plymouth colony contemplated entering npon the fisheries wo find from the following statement in Governor 

 Bradford's History of the Colony : 



1 History of Scitunte, Mass., by Samuel Dcane, pp. 23, 24. Winner's History of Duxbury, p. 350. 



