HISTORICAL KEFEREFCES: MASSACHUSETTS. 725 



of a good market for their oil has, however, of late compelled them to turn their atteiition to the coil-fishery. Ill this 

 they are employed ou board of vessels belonging to other places.'' 1 



THE FISHERIES IN 1837. We have another view of the fisheries in 1837, when they were about at the height of 

 their prosperity. In Freeman's History of Cape Cod, vol. ii, p. 540, wo Cud the following statement : 



" In 1837 there were 63 vessels engaged in the cod and mackerel fisheries, producing 1G.950 quintals of codfish and 

 15,750 pounds of mackerel, and together employing 512 hands.'' 



EASTHAM. 



SHELL FISH. As early as 1U44 the clani-fishery in Town Cove, :i great inlet which opens ou the west side of the 

 town, became the subject of regulations by the English settlers. In the first series of the Collections of the Massa- 

 chusetts Historical Society, volume viii, page 165, we find the following compact : 



" In 1644 it was agreed between the English and Indians that such of them as were natural inhabitants of the 

 place should have liberty to get shell fish in the cove ; and likewise that they should have a part of the blubber which 

 should be driven on shore, the proportion to be determined by the English." 



\Vht; n Orleans was allowed to withdraw from Eastham as a separate town, the clam-fishery was not forgotten. 

 On page 159 of the Collections above quoted it is recorded: 



']!> the act of incorporation which separated Orleans for Eastham the benefitsof the shell-fishery are tobemu- 

 tnally shared. About a hundred barrels of clams for bait are annually collected in Eastham." 



CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES IN 1802. The vessel fishery at Eastham, now a thing of the past, appears to have 

 been commenced at the close of the last century. By referring to the Massachusetts Collections again, iu the same 

 place, we find the following note: 



" Three fishing vessels only are owned by the inhabitants, and three coasters, which in summer bring lumber from 

 the district of Maine, and in winter go to the West Indies. Not so many of the young men are engaged in the cod-fishery 

 as in other lower towns of the country, but a number are employed in the merchant service, and sail from Boston." 



THE FISHERIES FIIOM 1830 TO 1862. In 1830, according to Mr. Philip Smith, as many as 15 or 20 vessels belonging 

 to Eastham lay in the cove above the town. " In 1837," according to Freeman, " the cod-fishery gave 1,200 quintals, 

 and the mackerel 4,550 barrels." The same author, writing in 1862, states: 



"The fisheries are prominent. The whale fishery has become a thing that was ; the cod and mackerel fisheries 

 are prosecuted. The benefitsof the shell-fishery in Town Cove always formed an item of no inconsiderable profit." 



ORLEANS. 



THE FISHERIES OF ORLEANS IN 1802. The following account of the fisheries of Orleans is quoted from volume 

 viii, 1st series, of the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society: 



"The horse-foot or king-crab was formerly much used for manuring land set with Indian corn and potatoes; and 

 it is still employed in Orleans, in the south part of Dennis, and in other parts of the county. It is chopped into 

 small pieces, and not more than one, and sometimes not more than a quarter, put into a hill. As it contains an 

 .abundance of oil, it affords a strong manure ; and with it the light land may bo made to yield 20 bushels of corn to 

 an acre. It is, however, too hot a manure, and causes the land to exert itself so much that it cannot easily recover 

 its strength. Attention of late is paid to the collection of sea-weed from the shore. When corn is to be raised, it is 

 spread on the land, and it is put into the holes for potatoes. It is a preservative against worms, five sorts of which, 

 in this place and in other parts of the county, are very destructive to Indian corn. 



" Fishes are the same as in other towns of the county. A few tautaug are caught in Town Cove. Bass enter the 

 waters within the beach the 1st of June, and are caught with hooks. In the ocean, a few rods from the beach, they 

 are taken with seines during the summer. Eels are so plenty that in the winter, when the coves are covered with 

 ice, a hundred bushels are sometimes, by a company of 20 or 30 persons, collected in a day. Though no oysters are 

 to be found on the shores, yet quahaugs and clams are in greater profusion than iu any other part of the county. 



" The quahaug ( Venus mercenaria), called by E. Williams the poquan and the hen, s is a round, thick shell-fish, or, 

 to speak more properly, worm. It does not bury itself but a little way in the sand, is generally found lying on it in 

 deep water, and is gathered up with iron rakes made for the purpose. After the tide ebbs away, a few are picked 

 up on the shore below high-water mark. The quahaug is not much inferior in relish to the oyster, bnt is less 

 digestible. It is not eaten raw, but is cooked in various modes, being roasted in the shell, or opened and boiled, 

 fried, or made into soups or pies. About half of an inch of the inside of the shell is of a purple color. This the 

 Indians broke off, and converted into beads, named by them suckanhock or black money; which was of twice the 

 value of their wampum, or white money, made of the meteanhock or periwinkle. 



"The razor-shell (tolen) is so named from its resemblance in size and shape to the haft of a razor. It is said to 

 force itself, not only upwards and downwards, bnt diagonally. This motion is affected by means of a round fleshy 

 protuberance, as long as the little finger of a man's hand, and composed of rings. There is more irritability in this 

 worm than in the clam. Several days after the razor-shell has been caught, if the protuberance is held between the 

 fingers, and is touched with the point of a knife, the worm draws itself up to it with force. This worm is not 

 common in the bay of Massachusetts, though it has sometimes been obtained there. The open shells, however, arc 



'Coll. Mass. Hist, Sue., vol. iii, 1st series, p. 199. 



' " Poqn.inliock, corrupted into qualiaug, urqnaulio)!, is tbe word will] a plural termination. [See Coll. Hist. Soc., vol. iii, p. 224.]" 



