THE ISLAND AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.
Penikese is an island of about one hundred acres in extent, and at its highest point about one hundred feet above the level of the sea. It is situated about fourteen miles north of New Bedford, Mass. It is sheltered from the open sea by the chain of Elizabeth Islands; the nearest, Cuttyhunk, being about two miles from Penikese, and the others, Nashawena, Pasque, and Naushon, stretching away for twenty miles to Woods’s Hole, at the lowest point in the bend of Cape Cod peninsula. Beyond these islands, oceanward, is Vineyard Sound, a sheet of water ten miles wide and twenty-five to thirty miles long. Then comes Martha’s Vineyard, twenty miles in length—then the great ocean. Through the passes between the four Elizabeth Islands, called by the fishermen “holes,” the tide enters with much force twice each day, bringing with it multitudes of fish in great variety. These are entrapped by cunningly-devised inclosures called pounds, several of which are located along the adjacent shores and islands. From these pounds the markets of New York and other cities draw their supplies of fish. From them, also, the school at Penikese reaped rich harvests of sharks, skates, sword-fish, and numerous other species, such as would not have marketable value. The northern limit of the gulf stream lying just beyond Martha’s Vineyard, the tropical seas occasionally send their life treasures by that current into these waters. Many specimens of tropical life were caught there during the summer.