THE CLAM FISHERIES. 581 



This sliows that New York City absorbs four-fifths of all the scallops caught oil our coast, which, 

 so far as this investigation goes, aggregate as follows: 



Gallons of meats. 



Buzzard's Bay 6,400 



Colt's Kiver 6,000 



Uhode Island , 20, 000 



Long Island 32,163 



New Jersey and southward 7,500 



Total 72,063 



Value, at 40 cents per gallon, f 28,825.20. 



3. THE CLAM FISHERIES. 



1. THE PEINCIPAL SPECIES OF AMERICAN CLAMS USED FOB FOOD. 



The ''clams" of commerce in the United States are of various species, differing widely in all 

 features except the single quality of being edible bivalves. This permits the including of nearly 

 all the double-shelled inollusks. The list, enumerating those most commonly used, is as follows : 



ATLANTIC COAST. 



Mya arenaria. Soft clam. 

 Venus mercenarla. Quahaug or hard clam. 

 Mactra solidissima. Surf or sea clam. 

 Cyprina islandica. False quahaug. 

 CaUista gi/antea. Painted clam. 

 (Inathodon cuneatus. Cuneata clam. 



PACIFIC COAST. 



I'm-lnjderma crassateUoides. Hen clam. 

 tiajcidomus aratus. Round clam. 

 Chione succincta. Little neck clam. 

 Mactra falcata. Western surf clam. 

 Schizothcerus nuttalli. Gapers. 

 Macoma nasuta. Telleus. 

 Semele decisa. Flat clam. 



It is my purpose to treat of these separately, since the circumstances of their distribution, 

 gathering, and sale favor it, and 1 will begin with that most important, probably, to the Atlantic 

 coast, the clam, par excellence. 



(a) FISHERY FOR SOFT CLAMS. 

 2. NATURAL HISTORY OF MYA ARENARIA. 



The common names of Mya arenaria are numerous. North of Cape Cod it is simply the "clam," 

 distinguished, if at all, by the name " soft clam." In Long Island Sound and at New York it is 

 most spoken of as the "long clam" and "squirt clam." English books and people call it the 

 "sand-gaper," the "old maid," &c. 



A moist and muddy clam is not altogether an attractive object. Yet there is much about it 



