THE RIVER FISHERIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 667 



miles of water extending from the uiouth of the river to the dam at Derby. Within these limits 

 11 haul-seines are fished. The following statistics show the extent of the fisheries of this river in 

 1880: 



Haul-seines : 



Number 11 



Value $1,650 



Number of men employed 47 



Boats : 



Number 11 



Value $220 



PRODUCTS. 



Shad: 



Pounds 28,600 



Value $1,430 



Miscellaneous fish : 



Pounds 165,000 



Value $6,600 



3. MINOR TRIBUTARIES OF LONG ISLAND SOUND. 



While some shad and a considerable number of alewives are taken in all these streams, it is 

 not possible to present accurate statistics of the catch for each. In the general summary of the 

 fisheries of Massachusetts and Long Island Sound, however, are included these figures, those 

 for Massachussetts being included in the statistics of the Massachusetts fisheries given by Mr. A. 

 Howard Clark in another section of this report. 



7, THE RIVERS OF MASSACHUSETTS* AND NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



t 



1. THE TAUNTON AND COLE'S RIVERS. 

 BY W. A. WILCOX. 







The shad and alewife fisheries of the Taunton River are carried on by 108 men, who use 29 

 boats, 15 seines, and 1 weir, worth, with their fixtures, about $7,500. The catch in 1879 was 

 1,718,000 alewives, equal to about 4,000 barrels, and 6,615 shad, weighing 21,498 pounds. The 

 value of these products was $12,090. A portion of the alewives were sold fresh, the rest pickled 

 or smoked. The shad were sold fresh in Boston and other markets. 



In Cole's River, in the town of Swansea, 4 miles west of Fall River, at the northern end of 

 Mount Hope Bay, there is a small fishing station. The northern and northwestern ends of the 

 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. 



* In the Connecticut River at Iladley, Mass., discussed in the preceding chapter, there are annually captured about 

 3,500 shad. The total catch of pound-nets, seines, and gill nets set in the Taunton, Merrimac, and other rivers, and 

 along the shores of the State, during the year 1882 is reported by the State Commissioners of Inland Fisheries to have 

 been as f'ullows (in numbers): Shad, 44,734; sea herring, 1,512,060; alewives, 4,446,280; menhaden, 8,735; mackerel, 

 3,876,599; Spanish mackerel, 397; bluefish, 325,473; striped bass, 5,929; scnp, 2,090,526; squeteague, 71,471; tautog, 

 46,757; flounders and flatfish, 148,330; eels, 7,041). 



In the Mystic River, near Boston, in the Chebacco and Essex Kivers, and in some other streams of the State, ale- 

 wives -were formerly taken in abundance, but these fisheries ,irn now of very little importance. 



