Thoreau writes about watching fishermen in New Bedford:
A.M.—To the cove south of the town. See them haul two seines. They caught chiefly alewives, from sixty to a hundred at a haul, seine twelve to fifteen feet wide . . . Picked up many handsome scallop shells beyond the ice-houses . . . (Journal, 9:321-2).
Daniel Ricketson also writes in his journal:
Unsettled. In town with Thoreau. Walton and Thoreau walked around the beach and the west side of Clark’s Cove. Mr. [Amos Bronson] Alcott’s first conversation at Mrs. Arnold’s this evening; attended with the children, Mr. A[mos Bronson Alcott]. riding with us. Subject, “Descent.: a successful opening . . . (Ricketson. 300).
