THE CLAM FISHERIES. 



589 



importance, except at Orleans, where some few men who Lave been in mackerel vessels in summer 

 stay at home and dig clams in Town Cove, getting perhaps 250 bushels, all of which are salted and 

 sold at Provincetown at $4 a barrel. 



SOUTH OF CAPE COD. When Cape Cod is passed the digging of soft clams, in Massachu- 

 srtts, is unimportant, as they are more scarce than in Massachusetts Bay, and have a rival in the 

 quahaug. Clamming is carried on in Buzzard's Bay, but not to a much greater extent than sup- 

 lilies the home demand. This coast, and that of the islands off it, are too rocky to make good 

 clamming ground in many places. The shipments by rail to Boston whither nearly all go- 

 amount to only about 100 barrels a year, and I suppose 10,000 bushels, worth $5,000, would ad- 

 equately represent the whole catch for both bait and food. 



STATISTICS FOR MASSACHUSETTS. The total yield of soft clams in Massachusetts, in 1880, 

 was as follows : 



Of the above quantity, 31,832 bushels, worth $12,305, were used as bait in the fisheries. 

 5. SOFT-CLAM FISHERY OF NARRAGANSETT BAY AND CONNECTICUT. 



In Narragansett Bay the gathering of soft clams becomes the business of a great many poor 

 men and boys in winter, who search for them along a stretch of about 18 miles, from Sabine's Point 

 to Cold River, on the eastern side, and from Field's Point to Greenwich Bay, on the western. Clam 

 grounds are found at Wickford, R. I., also, and altogether it is calculated that about 35,000 bushels 

 are dug. These go chiefly to New York, and are worth from 75 cents to $1 per bushel, so that the 

 total value of the crop is about $30,000. 



Roger Williams's " Key " (p. 224) makes mention of this mollusk under the name "sickishuog,"* 

 a Narragansett word. The paragraph is as follows : 



" SicMshiiog. This is a sweet kind of shell fish, which all Indians generally, over the country, 

 winter and summer, delight in ; and at low water the women dig for them. This fish, and the 

 natural liquor of it, they boil, and it makes their broth and their nassaump (which is a kind of 

 thickened broth) and their bread seasonable and savory instead of salt." 



Proceeding westward to the Connecticut coast, the soft or " long " clams are found more scat- 

 tered, and used mainly in winter, when the quahaug is out of season. I find noted a product at 

 Clinton, Conn., of 4,500 bushels; at Fair Haven, 2,500 bushels, and at Norwalk, Conn., 7,000 

 bushels. Those taken at Guilford are of very excellent quality and became famous formerly on 

 account of their size. A dozen years ago, according to Verrill, the Gnilford clams were assorted 

 into regular sizes, and bought from the fishermen on the spot by the hundred. "Those of large 

 size bring about $3 per hundred ; these are retailed in the market at New Haven for 60 cents per 



* William Wood, in his "New England's Prospect" (1634) says the Massachusetts coast tribes spelled the word 

 'suckis suacke." 



