552 



HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



In this actual loss of at least one-half of their time may be seeu the cause which prevents the 

 tougers, as a class, from making any improvement in their financial condition, and upon their 

 financial condition depends their social position. * * * 



"Tonging, although generally confined to shallow water, is in some of the tributaries of the 

 bay carried on in water varying in depth from 18 to 20 feet. 



" Engaged in touging there are 5, 148 men, using 1,825 canoes or other small boats. To obtain 

 even an approximate average of the amount of money made by each tonger is almost impossible, 

 but 1 think it will be very near correct to estimate it at $225 a season, at which rate the total 

 amount made by the tongers would be $1,158,300. There being 1,825 boats and 5,148 men. the 

 average number of men carried by each boat is a little less than 3. Many of the larger boats are 

 held in joint ownership by two or three parties. * * * The size of the tonging-canoe ranges 

 from 15 or 16 feet to 30 feet or more, the larger ones being called ' bugeyes.' Owiug to this diver- 

 sity in size it is very difficult to estimate the value of these boats, but a fair average is about $100, 

 which would cover the entire outfit, making $182,500 the amount invested in tonging-boats. 



" Closely connected with tonging, and each mutually dependent upon the other, is another 

 branch of the trade, conducted by vessels generally known as runners, of which there are owned 

 in this State two hundred, carrying about eight hundred men. The oysters caught by tongers are 

 either sold to these vessels, and by them carried to some market in the State, or they are bought 

 by boats owned iu other States and carried to northeru cities. The runner will anchor near some 

 tonging-ground, and an empty basket or a small flag will be hoisted to the mast-head as a signal 

 that she is ready to receive oysters. In one or two dajs she will be loaded, and is at once off for 

 a market. On some occasions half a dozen or more runners may be seen in the same locality, sur- 

 rounded by forty or fifty canoes. As soon as a tonger has caught as many as his small boat will 

 carry he sells out to the runner and returns to work. The men employed on runners will average 

 about $18 a month, including their board, which, with the pay of the captains (which is about $50 

 a month), will amount to $166,400 for a season of eight months, that beiug the length of time that 

 these vessels are engaged in carrying oysters. Reckoning the average value of the runners at 

 $1,500, will give a total of $300,000 in this branch of the trade. About $30,000 is annually spent 

 in repairing the two hundred runners. 



" Summarizing the foregoing statistics as to the number of vessels, their value, &c., it is seen 

 that there are [in 1880] : 



"The totals of this table furnish an average of $184.60 for each man. It is utterly impossible 

 to obtain the number of people supported by this $2,538,000. Perhaps not one-half of the dredg- 

 ers support any family ; but with tongers and scrapers it is different. Five is usually reckoned 

 as the average number of a family, but as very many of these men are single it would be too 

 high in the present case. It can scarcely, however, be too much to reckon that for every oyster- 

 man there is an average of four individuals dependent upon him. This would give 54,992 as the 

 number of people supported by the catching of oysters in this State. In addition to this there are 

 hundreds dependent indirectly, as shopkeepers and in other ways, upon the oystermen. 



