THE BLACKFISH AND PORPOISE FISHERIES. 303 



"They are very frequently found in the flats and marshes, where they have been left by the 

 receding tide, and it is customary for the finder to mark them by cutting his initials on their 

 flesh until it is convenient; others, to make the matter doubly sure, drive down stakes and fasten 

 them thereby. The keeper of Billiusgate light-house in Eastham a few mornings since found the 

 shore for a long distance strewed with these lish, that had been frightened ashore during the 

 night by being pursued by some fishing vessels during the day. He proceeded to mark them, 

 according to custom, jumped in his boat and went over to Provincetown, where he sold out his 

 right fcr $1,000, and his purchasers made a good bargain at that. 



"On Friday last Gapt. Joseph Hamblin, of Vimnouth^with two or three other gentlemen, drove 

 between seventy or eighty blackflsh into our harbor. After pursuing them for a considerable 

 distance they finally drove them ashore, and succeeded in killing seventy-one of their number, and 

 they are now engaged in trying out the oil. This school will yield some $1,500 worth of oil."* 



" On the 2d instant about sixty blackfish were captured in Truro on the bay side. They were 



worth $ 1,000." t 



1859. 



" BLACKFISH LARGE HAUL. On Saturday last four boats belonging to Brewster, Eastham, 

 and Orleans succeeded in driving ashore at Brewster a large school of blackfish, and, with the 

 aid of people on shore, they were slaughtered by spears, lances, scythes, and whatever came to 

 hand. Nearly seven hundred were captured, the proceeds from which must be something near 

 $7,000, divided among about twenty persons.''^ 



1865. 



Capt. Jonathan Cook, of Provincetown, says : " In November, 1865, I bought seven hundred 

 and sixty eight blackflsh at Wellfleet, at $12 apiece, and paid $9,216 for them." 



" BLACKFISH. A school of blackfish was discovered off Provincetown on Monday night week 

 by some fishing boats, which were immediately put on the chase, and the whole school, numbering 

 two hundred and thirty four, were driven on the beach at Brewster the next day. The fish as they 

 lay on the beach were worth some $10,000. About two hundred men and boats were employed in 

 capturing them, and the shares were quickly sold at some $50 each, making a good day's work. 

 The beach was visited by hundreds of people to behold such a quantity offish. This is probably 

 the greatest catch of blackfish ever made in these parts." 



1870. 



" A young blackftsh, 8 feet long and weighing about 200 pounds, was captured at Ipswich on 

 Friday by some fishermen." || 



" The enterprising town of Wellfleet is in luck this year. Its inhabitants have been blessed 

 with a rich harvest in the mackerel fisheries the past season, and last week the packet schooner 

 Nellie Baker, when a short distance from that port on her passage to Boston, fell in with a large 

 school of blackfish, and with the assistance of about twenty boats and seventy-five men from Bil- 

 lingsgate Point, succeeded in capturing seven hundred and forty-one of them. Some of the fish 

 measured over 25 feet in length, and that reliable individual, the 'oldest inhabitant,' averred that 

 there has been nothing like it since he can remember. It is estimated that these fish will yield fully 

 700 barrels of oil, and they have been purchased by Wellfleet and Provincetown parties at $12 

 apiece, as they lie on the beach, thus realizing the sum of nearly $9,000."fl 



" Karnstable Patriot, July 17, 1855. $ Ibid., November 7, 1865. 



t Ibid., August 14, 1855. || Gloucester Telegraph, December 7, 1870. 



t Ibid., August 16, 1859. 1[ Ibid., December 3, 1870. 



