298 HISTORY AND METHODS OP THE FISHERIES. 



This was doubtless in 1829 when, we are told, a school, about forty iu number, was taken at Prov- 

 iucetown, being the first for many years. Sometimes there have been three or four years when 

 they have not appeared, then for twelve or thirteen years they are abundant. 



" In August, 1875," says Mr. G. Brown Goode, <- news was received at the headquarters of the 

 TJ. S. Fish Commission at Wood's Holl that a school of blackfish had been driven ashore at Dennis. 

 A party was dispatched by the first train, with instructions to bring home some of the largest, to 

 be molded in plaster of paris for the fishery collection then in preparation for the International 

 Exhibition iu Philadelphia, in 1876. They reached Yarmouth Station, and took wagons across 

 the cape to Dennis, where an assemblage of great carcasses was found on the shore, while their 

 owners, to the number of forty or fifty men and boys, comprising all who had been in the boats 

 which drove them ashore, were standing about on the beach or sheltered in the lee of a row of 

 fish-houses, the day being damp and drizzly. The blackfish varied in length from 6 to 20 feet, 

 many of them being cows with sucking calves. A gash in the breast of one of the cows allowed 

 a stream of rich, white milk, 2 or 3 gallons at least, to gush out. One of the pregnant females, 

 not exceeding 12 feet in length, was dissected, and specimens of young blackfish of various sizes 

 obtained from it, the largest at least 6 feet long. These unborn calves were bluish instead of 

 black in color on the back, and grayish-white beneath. In every instance they were marked by a 

 spiral line of lighter color, which wound about the body five or six times, and which were supposed 

 to have been caused by the pressure of the placental envelope. The old males were the largest, 

 and could be distinguished by the prominent hump between and over the eyes. The school num- 

 bered one hundred and nineteen, and were sold that evening to Provincetown oil makers at the rate 

 of $11 each. The Fish Commission party had previously bought three, for which they paid $14 

 each, making in all $1,318, or perhaps $25 or $30 to each captor. All business negotiations were 

 conducted by a committee of seven men, selected from the oldest and most reliable of the company. 

 In the settlement a boy draws half a share, a man or a boat a full share. The blackfish are usually 

 sold at auction, and if there are several buyers they usually bid off the bodies by deputy and then 

 have a second auction, at which only those bid who wish to try out the blubber. We could not 

 handle the largest and were obliged to be content with some about 14 feet long, which we had 

 transported on wood-wagons to Yarmouth, and conveyed to Wood's Holl by special train, getting 

 in after midnight. Dissecting and modeling were vigorously pursued for the next week, and 

 many trophies of this day's work decorate the walls of the TJ. S. National Museum." 



The following account of the manner in which blackfish are driven ashore and killed is from 

 the pen of a veteran fisherman of Provincetown : 



" They make their appearance about the shores of Cape Cod and Barnstable Bay from early in 

 the summer till early in the winter, and when it becomes known that a school of blackfish is iu the 

 bay the boats are manned and proceed at once to get in their rear, and as the fish are on the sur- 

 face of the water the most of the time, it is easy to tell how to manage to keep them between the 

 boats and the shore. And while in this position the men in the boats will make all the noise with 

 their oars they can, and that will cause them to go in the opposite direction from the boats and 

 toward the shore ; and when the fish find that they are in shoal water, by seeing the sandy bottom, 

 they become alarmed and go with all their might till they run fast aground on the sand. The 

 boats then row in their midst, the men, with lance in hand, jump out their boats in the water and 

 butcher them as a butcher would a hog, and it becomes one of the most exciting occasions that it 

 is possible to imagine, for the water flies in every direction and the blood flows freely until death 

 puts an end to the great tragedy. 



