160 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



beyond beleeuing, & sure I should scarce haue beleeued it except I bad 

 seene it with mine owne Eyes. I saw great Store of Whales & Cram- 

 pusse, & such aboundance of Makerils that it would astonish one to be- 

 hold,, likewise Cod-Fish aboundance on the Coast, & in their season are 

 plentifully taken. There is a Fish called a Basse, a most sweet & whole- 

 some Fish as euer I did eat, it is altogether as good as our fresh Sam 

 mon, & the season of their comming was begun when we came first to 

 New-England in June, & so continued about three months space. Of 

 this Fish our Fishers take many hundreds together, which I haue seene 

 lying on the shore to my admiration ; yea, their Nets ordinarily take 

 more than they are able to hall to Land, & for want of Boats & Men they , 

 are constrained to let a many goe after they haue taken them, & yet 

 sometimes they fill two Boats at a time with them. And besides Basse 

 we take plentie of Scate & Thornbacke, & aboundance of Lobsters, that 

 the least Boy in the Plantation may both catch & eat what he will of 

 them. For my owne part I was soone cloyed with them, they were so 

 great, & fat, & lussious. I haue seene some my selfe that haue weighed 

 16 pound, but others haue had diners time so great Lobsters as haue 

 weighed 25 pound, as they assured me. Also here is aboundance of 

 Herring, Turbut, Sturgion, Cuskes, Hadocks, Mullets, Eeles, Crabs, 

 Muskles & Oysters."— (P. 9.) 



" Here are likewise aboundance of Turkies often killed in the Woods, 

 farre greater than our English Turkies, & exceeding fat, sweet, & 

 fleshy, for here they haue aboundance of feeding all the yeere long, as 

 Strawberries, in Summer all places are full of them, & all manner of 

 Berries & Fruits. In the Winter time I haue seene Flockes of Pidgeons, 

 & haue eaten of them ; they doe flye from Tree to Tree as other Birds 

 doe, which our Pidgeons will not doe in England: they are of all colours 

 as ours are, but their wings & tayles are farr longer, & therefore it 

 is likely they fly swifter to escape the terrible Hawkes in this Countrey. 

 In Winter time this Countrey doth abound with wild Geese, wild Ducks, 

 & other Sea Fowle, that a great part of Winter the Planters haue 

 eaten nothing but roastmeat of divers Fowles which the} 7 have killed." 



Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the colony of Plymouth. 1692-'25. By 

 A. Young, 8 vo., Boston, 1841. 



" In five or six hours [in Cape Cod Bay] we pestered our ship so with 

 cod fish that we threw numbers of them overboard again." Journal of 

 John Brereton, May, 1602. 



[He was then with Gosnold, on the voyage in which Cape Cod was dis- 

 covered. Page 101.] 



" We saw daily [in Cape Cod Harbor, Nov.-Dec, 1620] great whales, 

 of the best kind for oil & bone, come close aboard our ship, and in fair 

 weather swim & play about us." P. 116.) 



"Before the brook [Town Brook, Plymouth, Mass.] was so much im- 

 peded by dams, vast quantities of alewives passed up through it annu- 

 ally to Billington Sea. In a single season 800 barrels have been 

 taken." P. 172, note 3.) 



" Having but one boat left, we divide the men into several companies, 

 six or seven in each ; who take their turns to go out with a net and fish, 

 and return not till they get some, though they be five or six days out ; 

 knowing there is nothing at home, & to return empty would be a great 

 discouragement. When they stay long or get but little, the rest go a 

 digging shell fish." [Plymouth, Mass., summer of 1623.] Bradford in 

 Prince, p. 216. P. 318, note 1.) 



