During the winter the Glauber salt, said to be of an excellent quality, crystallizes. No great quantity of Epsom salt and magnesia has yet been produced. The Rev. Mr. Briggs of Chatham, an industrious and ingenious chemist, has however succeeded in obtaining both; and though his magnesia is not perfectly white, his Epsom salt appears to be incapable of improvement.

As the vat first constructed by Capt. Sears was ten feet wide, in estimating the dimensions of salt works, it has become customary to adopt the language which was then introduced. A foot therefore intends ten square feet. Three hundred such feet are calculated to produce a hundred bushels of marine salt, and four hundred and fifty pounds of Glauber salt, in a year. The cost of a foot, three years ago, was a dollar; but it will amount at present to as much as a hundred and twenty, or even a hundred and fifty cents. The marine salt is worth seventyfive cents a bushel, and the Glauber salt one sixteenth of a dollar a pound. The value of the Epsom salt and magnesia is not estimated, as the quantity which may be obtained is unknown. From these data and the following table, the great importance of this new manufacture to the county of Barnstable will appear.

Calculated to manufacture in a year forty thousand, four hundred, and thirty-eight bushels of marine salt; and one hundred and eighty-one thousand, nine hundred and sixtynine pounds of glauber salt; worth, in the whole, fortyone thousand, seven hundred dollars.

In the ensuing year, will be erected, in the county of Barnstable, twenty thousand, five hundred and seventyeight feet of additional works. These are all intended; and for many of them contracts are actually made. What additions there will be in future years, it is impossible to foresee; but they will undoubtedly be great. Without the limits of the county of Barnstable, the manufacture is already established in Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Plymouth, Kingston, Rochester, Hingham, Dorchester, and probably in other places, from which the author has not heard. Few of these works have existed more than two or three years.

But it is time to conclude the description of Dennis. On the south side of the county road are a hundred dwelling houses; two of which only are two stories in height. The greatest part of these houses are situated near Bass river, and constitute a well-built village, the inhabitants of which are increasing in wealth and population. In the year 1795, they erected an elegant meeting house, with a steeple; but they continue their connexion with the parish, the minister of which preaches here one Sunday in three. There is besides a small Quaker meeting house, situated on the east side of Follen's pond. Five families only in Dennis belong to it; but it is attended by a few Friends from Yarmouth and Harwich. There are also thirteen families of Baptists in this village. The rest of the inhabitants, in every part of the township, are Congregationalists, who are warmly attached to their pastor, and not disposed to change.

There are no salt works yet in Bass river village; but it is expected that several will soon be erected. The inhabitants own ninteen sail of fishermen of about forty tons burthen each, and four coasters. Three small wharves have been built on this eastern side of the river.

Dennis enjoys the advantage of a great variety and plenty of fish in common with the other towns in the county.

county. There are sea perch in Bass river. Bass enter this river in November, and remain there, and in Follen's pond through the winter. Eels may be caught in all the creeks; but they are found in the greatest abundance in Follen's pond and Bass river. In the same pond and in Wear-mill brook, about a hundred barrels of alewives are

taken in a year. Clams are plenty, particularly on the south shore, where quahaugs also are found, and a few good oysters. Sufficient clam bait for the fishing vessels is collected in the river and about fifty barrels are annually sold.

On the north shore there are wild fowls; but they are not as plenty as in Chatham.

The climate is healthful. Bilious and nervous disorders, rheumatism, and pulmonary consumption are the most common diseases.

A bill of mortality has not been obtained; but the following table exhibits the number of marriages from March 1794 to March 1802.

The history of Dennis is short. In the year 1721, the east part of Yarmouth was set off as a precinct*; and June 19. 1793, it was incorporated into a town.

The church was gathered, and the first pastor, Rev. Josiah Dennis, was ordained, June 22d. 1727. Mr. Dennis died August 31st. 1763, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. The inhabitants have manifested their respect to his memory by naming their town after him.

The present pastor, Rev. Nathan Stone, was ordained October 17th. 1764. Vir humilis, mitis, blandus, advenarum hospes; suis commodis in terrâ non studens, reconditis thesauris in cælo.

T. S.

* Vol. 5. p. 54. Coll. Hist. Soc.

N the Yarmouth side of Bass river there are six

ON

wharves, three near the mouth of the river, and three a mile north of it. There are here twenty-one vessels. One brig sails immediately to the West-Indies. Ten coasters, from thirty to forty tons burden, sail to Boston, Connecticut, or the Southern States, and thence to the West-Indies. The other ten vessels are fishermen. One is of a hundred tons: the rest are from forty to seventy tons. The fishing vessels go to the straits of BelleIsle, the shoals of Nova Scotia, or Nantucket shoals. On a medium, a fishing vessel uses seven hundred bushels of salt in a year. One or two vessels are annually built on Bass river, chiefly on the western side.

In Lewis's bay in Yarmouth, there are four coasters, of about forty-five tons each, and ten sail of fishermen, from forty-five to fifty tons: They catch fish on the coast, from Nantucket shoals to Nova Scotia.

On the Barnstable side of Lewis's bay there are nine sail of fishermen, of about forty tons each, which also fish on the same coast; likewise four coasters, of about fortyfive tons each.

At Oyster Island there is one fishing vessel of forty tons, and eight coasters of about forty-five tons each.

These facts, in addition to those which have been already, and which will hereafter be, mentioned in this volume, show the present flourishing state of the south shore of the county of Barnstable, a part of Massachusetts not often visited, and little known.

r. s.

NOTE ON THE SOUTH PRECINCT OF HARWICH, IN THE COUNTY OF BARNSTABLE. SEPTEMBER, 1802.

HE south precinct of Harwich, which is situated be

THE tween Dennis and Chatham, is naturally separated

from the north precinct by woods and ponds. The land is level and sandy. On this part of the coast there is nei

ther

ther a harbour nor a creek, into which vessels can enter. The only shelter that they have, is a bar, which lies the length of the precinct, two thirds of a mile from the shore. On this bar are from seven to nine feet of water, in common tides. North of it the depth is nine feet at full sea; but there are many holes, in which the water is a little deeper. Fifteen or twenty vessels, containing on an average forty tons each, and about half of them owned in the precinct, are employed in the shoal fishery on the coast. Four vessels of a hundred tons each, which go to the banks of Newfoundland and the Straits of Belle-Isle, sail also from this place, and obtain their men here. The whole number of men and boys engaged in the cod-fishery is about two hundred; but several of them sail from Chatham, Bass river, and the north precinct. Two miles and a half, west of the Chatham line, there is a salt water pond, twenty feet deep, and a hundred and eighty rods in circumference. It is not more than two hundred yards from the shore, in which part there is one of the deep holes. About half the year the sea flows into the pond; and a small boat can then enter it. At an inconsiderable expense, perhaps ten thousand dollars, this pond might be converted into a safe and convenient harbour.

It is remarkable, that not long after marine salt began to be made in Dennis, by the sun alone, Mr. Amiel Weeks of this precinct, without the knowledge of Capt. Sears's invention, constructed a vat, about eight feet long, and six wide, from twelve to fourteen inches deep, and with a cover to exclude the rain. In this vat he manufactured salt for his own consumption; and continued the practice a number of years. The water was brought a mile, the salt was very impure, and no improvement was made in the first essay.

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A DESCRIPTION OF CHATHAM, IN THE COUNTY OF BARNSTABLE. SEPTEMBER, 1802.

CHA

YHATHAM lies in latitude 410. 42. N. and longitude 69°. 56'. W. from Greenwich. The length of the township, east and west, exclusive of the harbour, is four miles; and the breadth, north and south, from two miles to

four.