TI1E OYSTER INDUSTRY. 515 



Until their termination the Welllleel beds supplied natural oysters sufficient for the trade of 

 Boston, Portsmouth, Portland, and the other shore towns. 



BUZZARD'S BAY. Ho\v extensive was the native growth about Buzzard's Bay has been noted. 

 As early as 177."> NVareham forbade any oysters or oyster-shells being taken out of the town. This 

 cheeked excessive' fishing, hut gradually it became a dead letter, and the beds of the whole 

 neighborhood so sulVered in amount of yield, as well as in the quality of the oysters, that further 

 and severer laws were emu-ted. Xow the Ware ham district gives little else except "seed," that 

 is. \oung oysters intended to be transferred to other localities where I hey may pursue their growth 

 under more favorable, conditions, a subject to be entered into on subsequent pages. On the 

 eastern side of Buzzard's Bay, in Monument River, at 1'oeasset, and one or two other points, excel- 

 lent native oysters, Crowing under protection of good laws, are still obtained of marketable size, 

 and of remarkably fine quality. 



The earliest voyagers were pleased to find shell-fish abundant, and the English settlers, three 

 or four centuries later, record their thankfulness on similar grounds. From time immemorial, 

 then, oysters have been natives of this district, and legal measures were early adopted looking 

 toward their preservation. These have been successful, and until within the last thirty years 

 " Somersets" (as these oysters were called, after the principal settlement) grew to a large size and 

 held a high place in the New England markets. Latterly, however, they have lost greatly, and 

 assumed a green stain, which has so prejudiced the people against them that the whole trade of 

 the river is devoted to the production an.l sale of seed. 



NARRAGANSETT BAY. When the people of " The Colony of Rhode Island and the Prov- 

 idence Plantations" felt sure of future stability, they 'applied to King Charles II for a charter, 

 which was granted in the year 1(583. This charter was a wonderful document for those days, 

 because of the well-nigh perfect liberty it embraced, and its hospitality to every conscientious 

 belief. Among the. privileges, the right of free fishing in every shape was jealously preserved for 

 public benefit. In ]734^-'35, for instance, the first, session of the assembly at East Greenwich was 

 distinguished by an act for the preservation of oysters, which the thoughtless inhabitants were 

 burning in large quantities for lime; and, in October, 1766, an "act for the preservation of oysters" 

 was passed, forbidding them to be taken by "drags," or otherwise than by tongs, under a penalty 

 of 10. In the constitution no clause was so scrupulously worded against evasion as that declaring 

 that the rights of fishing should remain precisely as decreed in the old charter. Despite this early 

 vigilance and the elaborate laws which have long been in force for regulating oysteriug, Narra- 

 gansett Bay has almost ceased to yield marketable oysters of natural growth, and is steadily 

 declining in the amount of young growth available for transplantation. At only a few places 

 does a breed of oysters, or a "set," as it is termed, occur with any regularity, or of any conse- 

 quence a dearth only to be ascribed, I believe, to the antecedent disappearance, through per- 

 sistent raking, of all old native oysters. 



There remains one river, nevertheless, where, under protection, the oysters are able to repro- 

 duce regularly every year. This is the Seekonk, which flows down past Pawtucket and Providence, 

 with East Providence on its left, and numerous bridges and small shipping to worry its swift tides. 

 The Seekonk has always been a favorite home of our bivalve, and year by year the river contrib- 

 utes its quota to the tongers, through a space from the, Wicksbury pier to nearly 5 miles above. 

 This is due lar.ue.ly to the fact that the oysters of the Seekonk, like those of the Taunton River, 

 are vividly green,* and hence are not subjected to an exterminating drain for marketing. No 

 better reason can be assigned than in the former case, and, like the others, this seed, when trans- 



Tin- P.iilii-iiii i.f ih. I . s. l-'isli ("'oiiiinissiiMi, Vol. Ill, 1883, and the annual reports for 1882 and 1883, contain 

 detailed information ti\<i\ this ]>c/ruli;irity and its causes. 



