622 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



of winter distributed from 4 to 8 cords to the acre. At other times it is laid out in heaps of a 

 few bushels only, which remain for a time exposed to the frost." 



"Mussels and star-fish (five-fingers)," says a writer in the Agricultural Gazette, "have long 

 been an established manure in the neighborhood of Faversham, Kent. They are procured by 

 dredging. The mussels sell at 16s. sterling per wagon, and five-fingers at 21s." 



At present in Southern New Jersey mussels are got in great quantities through the summer 

 ;it the inlets in Little Egg Harbor and south of Beach Haven. The shore farmers gather them far 

 home use, during the slack days of August, and the clammers work at procuring them and bring- 

 ing them tosell to the farmers at irregular times and places, to as great an extent, no doubt, as on 

 Long Island. The measure is usually a wagon load of 30 bushels, for which $1.25 to $1.50 is 

 charged. No statistics of the amount thus disposed of could be procured. Horseshoe Bay 

 (where Raritan Bay rounds into Sandy Hook) is the favorite -scene of mussel gathering in the 

 northern part of the State, but only enough for the fields next to the shore is taken annually. 



Along the eastern half of the south shore of Long Island exists a similar industry. They are 

 taken with oyster tongs and rakes in summer, and sold at 3 cents a bushel, 200,000 bushels 

 according to Fred. Mather being turned into manure between Moriches and Babylon in 1880, 

 Elsewhere perhaps 50,000 bushels are so used. 



Summarizing all, gives values as follows : 



100,000 bushels to New York market, at 20 cents $-20,000 



250,000 bushels on Long Island, at 3 cents 7,500 



250,000 bushels in New Jersey, at 4 cents 10,000 



Total, 600,000 $37,500 



5. THE ABALONE FISHERY. 



The family of the abalone-shells, ormer-shells, or sea-ears (Haliotidce) is a large one and has 

 considerable commercial importance in various parts of the world. Though well represented on 

 the eastern (European) shore of the Atlantic, yet there are none on the Atlantic coast of North 

 America, nor anywhere in South America, while they abound along our Pacific from Cape Saint 

 Lucas to Kamtchatka and also in Japan and Australasia. 



In California these mollusks are all known as " abaloue," which is said to be a corruption of 

 Spanish aulon or aulone. The Indians, again, who used the shining shells very largely as orna- 

 ments and also worked them into coin, called it uhllo; the money itself they knew by the same name, 

 and usually handled it in separate pieces, which served as gorgets, girdles and head-dresses when 

 not passing in trade. 



The gleaming, nacreous, highly tinted beauty of the sea-ears has proved attractive not to 

 savage eyes alone. In Europe they are extensively employed for inlaying work, in decorating 

 fancy sign-boards, in ornamenting articles in papier-mache", and in making fancy buttons, studs, 

 buckles, &c. They are sometimes called in trade " aurora shells," and one of the seventy or more 

 described species abounds in the Channel Islands under the name of " ormer," ' ormier," or 

 " omar,"* where it is cooked for food after being well beaten to reduce its toughness. 



* This word is contracted from oreille-de-mer of the French. The Portuguese name is Lapa lurra. The Italian, 

 Orecchiale, and the Sicilian, Patella reals. Cherbourg fish-woman, according to Jeffreys, call it ii ieu (six yenx) from 

 an idea that the orifices in the shells are real eyelets or peep-holes. The Eolians gave it the pretty name of Venus'a 

 ear. It is the mother-of- pearl or Norman shell of old English writers, the last name perhaps corrupted from the same 

 origin as "ormer." These shells are popularly spoken of as sea-ears, and the scientific name is Haliotis, from the 

 Greek hallos, marine, and otis, ear. Ear-shell and abaloue are the usual American appellations. 



