THE WELLFLEET OYSTERMAN. 
77 
wlio has once taken up his position and fixed himself 
when quite young, can never make a change. Oysters, 
nevertheless, that have not fixed themselves, but remain 
loose at the bottom of the sea, have the power of loco¬ 
motion ; they open their shells to their fullest extent, 
and then suddenly contracting them, the expulsion of 
the water forwards gives a motion backwards. A fish¬ 
erman at Guernsey told me that he had frequently seen 
oysters moving in this way.’^ 
Some still entertain the question “ whether the oys¬ 
ter was indigenous in Massachusetts Bay,” and whether 
Wellfleet harbor was a ^ natural habitat ” of this fish; 
but, to say nothing of the testimony of old oystermen, 
which, I think, is quite conclusive, though the na¬ 
tive oyster may now be extinct there, I saw that their 
shells, opened by the Indians, were strewn all over the 
Cape. Indeed, the Cape was at first thickly settled by 
Indians on account of the abundance of these and other 
fish. We saw many traces of their occupancy after this, 
in Truro, near Great Hollow, and at High-Head, near 
East Harbor River, — oysters, clams, cockles, and other 
shells, mingled with ashes and the bones of deer and 
other quadrupeds. I picked up half a dozen aiTow-heads, 
and in an hour or two could have filled my pockets 
with them. The Indians live«>^ about the edges of the 
swamps, then probably in Sv *e instances ponds, for 
shelter and water. Moreover, Ohamplain in the edition 
of his “Voyages” printed in 1613, says that in the 
year 1606 he and Poitrincourt explored a harbor (Barn¬ 
stable Harbor ?) in the southerly part of what is now called 
Massachusetts Bay, in latitude 42°, about five leagues 
south, one point west of Cap Blanc (Cape Cod), and 
there they found many good oysters, and they named it 
