730 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



Ill former years the manufacture of salt was carried on iu Denuis very extensively. In 1840 no less than 37,315 

 bushels were made iu the town. 



A number of years prior to 1811 as many as 22 mackerel vessels were sheltered in a little artificial harbor at the 

 east of Dennis village, and as many as 10 or 12 vessels wintered there. In 1841 there were 16 or 17 mackerel vessels 

 here. Among these were the Theater, the Isabella, and the Greek Bride. The crew of the latter vessel was lost, tak- 

 ing 21 men out of a little district. 



In a few years the number of mackerel vessels increased to 22. Later, codfishing was taken up to a small ex- 

 tent. Four vessels were employed at one time. 



About the year 1860 the harbor became choked with sand, and at the present time small cat-boats can hardly go 

 in except at high tide. The fishing vessels, of course, were sold. None have been owned here since 1865. The break- 

 water, which stood at the mouth of the harbor, was demolished about 1876. 



YARMOUTH. 



A note on the condition of Yarmouth iu 1802 gives the following facts in regard to the fisheries: "On the Yar- 

 mouth side of Bass River there are six wharves, three near the mouth of the river, and three a mile north of it. There 

 are here 21 vessels. One brig sails immediately to the West Indies. Ten coasters, from 30 to 40 tons burden, sail to 

 Boston, Connecticut, or the Southern States, and thence to the West Indies. The other 10 vessels are fishermen ; 1 

 is of 100 tons; the rest are from 40 to 70 tons. The fishing vessels go to the' Straits of Belle Isle, the shoals of Nova 

 Scotia, or Nantuckct Shoals. On a medium, a fishing vessel uses 700 bushels of salt a year. One or two vessels are 

 annually built on Bass River, chiefly on the western side. 



"Iu Lewis's Bay, in Yarmouth, there are 4 coasters, of about 45 tons each, aud 10 sail of fishermen, from 45 to 50 

 tons. They catch fish on the coast from Nantucket Shoals to Nova Scotia." ' 



" Iu 1837," writes Freeman, " there were in South Yarmouth alone 13 vessels engaged in cod and mackerel fisheries, 

 producing 4,300 quintals of codfish and 2,287 barrels of mackerel." 



Twenty years later, however, the fisheries suffered a great decline. Freeman says: "The fishing business had so 

 far declined in 1857 that the Yarmouth Register said of it: ' It has well nigh died out. Not more than 2 or 3 vessels 

 have been sent from this port the present season, where formerly 20 or 30 sail were employed. Our citizens have 

 turned their attention to foreign commerce, or the coasting and packeting business, which pays altogether better than 

 our facilities for carrying on the fisheries, compared with Provincetovvn, Gloucester, Wellfleet, aud other places on the 

 coast.'" There was no increase in the offshore fishing business after this time, and its entire extinction followed 

 speedily. In 1863 the " Register" announced that the last of the fishing fleet had been sold. 



The manufacture of salt has been carried on for about seventy years. A great many men turned their attention 

 to this business at the time of the war of 1812, when the embargo laid upon the shipping made it impossible to carry 

 on the fisheries, and from this time it rapidly increased. In 1837 no less than 52 establishments for the manufacture 

 of salt existed in Yarmouth. 



SANDWICH. 



The historical documents relating to the fisheries of Sandwich are quite numerous, and furnish a more or less- 

 connected commentary on their varying condition from the middle of the seventeenth century to the present time. 



THE AXEWIFE-FISHERY IN 1645. The alewife-fishery seems to have attracted much attention from the early colo- 

 nists, and it is to this matter that the oldest documents relate. In 1645 we have an act regulating this fishery : 



" Whereas notw th standing the free liberty granted for fishing and fowleing," begins the preamble, "It manefestly 

 appeareing that the Towiie of Sandwich hath received p r j udice by stopping of the passage of the heareing or al wives to 

 their ware by setting of netts to take Basse by private psons to the gen'all p r judice of the whole Towne. It is there- 

 fore enacted by the Court that if any pson or psons shall p r sume to sett any netts in the said River to stopp the passage 

 of the said heareings or Alewives or hinder their comeing vp to the said ware during their season w ch is from the 

 middle of Aprill to the last of May shall forfaite teun pounds as ofteu as heo or they shall so doe, to the Colonies 

 use." 



THE WHALE-FISHING FROM 1652 TO 1702. Seven years later, iii 1052, the inshore whale-fishing seems to have 

 come into prominence and to have agitated the legislators of that time. "It was ordered," writes Freeman, quoting 

 the old records, " that Edmund Freeman, Edward Perry, George Allen, Daniel Wing, John Ellis, and Thomas Tobey, 

 these six men, shall take care of all the fish that Indians shall cut up within the limits of the town, so as to provide 

 safety for it, and shall dispose of the fish for the town's use ; also, that if any man that is an inhabitant shall find a 

 whale and report it to any of these six men he shall have a double share ; and that these six men shall take care to 

 provide laborers and whatever is needful, so that whatever whales either Indian or white man gives notice of, they 

 may dispose of the proceeds to the town's use, to bo divided equally to every inhabitant." The court subsequently 

 appointed "agents to receive the oil for the country." 



"All the larger fish yielding oil are meant. So numerous were whales iu the bay, and such was the activity of 

 the whalemen that instances were frequent of whales escaping wounded from their pursuers and dying subsequently, 



1 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., viii, 1st series, 1802, p. 141. 

 ' Plymouth Colony KocoruX vol. xi, 1623-1082, p. 49. 



