SECTION 4. The selectmen of the said towns may, in their respective towns, grant licenses or permits for such periods, not exceeding two years, and under such conditions as they may deem proper, not however covering more than seventy-five feet square in area, to any inhabitants of the town to bed quahaugs in any waters, flats and creeks within the town at any place where there is no natural quahaug bed, not impairing the private rights of any person or materially obstructing any navigable waters. It shall be unlawful for any person, except the licensee and his agents, to take any quahaugs in or remove them from the territory covered by any such license. The above should receive well-deserved praise, as it is one of the most useful town laws ever enacted in Massachusetts. Each quahauger is thus enabled to stake off a little plot 75 feet square on the flats, whereon he can bed his catch whenever the market price is too low for shipment. This not only makes steadier work for the quahaugers, since a dull market does not stop digging, as before, but also enables him to obtain a better price for his quahaugs, and he is not forced to lose through the wastes of competition. Quahaugs have always been abundant at Wellfleet. Forty years ago about 15 men were engaged in the business, and shipped their catch to Boston by packet boats, quahaugs then wholesaling at 50 cents per bushel. In 1879 (report of the United States Fish Commission) Ernest Ingersoll gives the following account of the quahaug industry at Wellfleet, which furnishes such an excellent comparison with the present industry that it is given here:--