288 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



outline, and a firmer, better substance within, though they do not grow so fast as they would lying 

 upon mud. 



A score of years ago planting was begun above the road and railway bridges, in Barrington 

 River, and among the first leases taken out was one for the acre or two of " quick-water" between 

 the bridges; but it is only within two or three years that operations have been extended below this 

 part into the main river, where the water is salt, and ranges in depth from 9 to 18 feet, over a 

 hard bottom. 



The Virginia oysters bedded here do very well indeed. They are handled mainly by one 

 planter. His plan is to lay 75 bushels on an area 50 feet square, distributing them by shoveling 

 overboard from the large crafts known as "planting boats." Ten men, the usual number engaged 

 on a single cargo, will thus unload and put upon the beds from 2,000 to 2,500 bushels a day. The 

 Virginia oysters cost, put down, about 35 cents a bushel. On good ground the growth is gratifying, 

 although about one-fourth of the original number put down are expected to perish. The large 

 amount of cultch spread upon this gentleman's territory had thus far yielded him no return of 

 consequence, since he had planted with it only a few natives. On the contrary, another prominent 

 lessee in Warren River gave his whole attention to rearing native oysters, and paid no attention 

 at all to " Chesapeakes. " He procures his seed, like all the rest of the dealers, from Somerset, 

 Wareharn, Pocasset, &c., but mainly from the Connecticut shore. Formerly he got it much cheaper, 

 but now it costs him from 50 to 70 cents a bushel. The several hundred bushels he put down three 

 years ago lived well, and he now considers them trebled in value. He has adopted the plan of not 

 planting until June. "When the weather gets warm," he says, "the slime rises from the sand and 

 rocks on the bottom of the river and floats away. There remains a clean bottom, and I wait to 

 take advantage of this most favorable condition of things for my young oysters, that will have 

 a hard enough time, under any circumstances, to live through it." Being fortunate enough to have 

 a tract where the swift tide never permits serious freezing, he is able to wait until all his compet- 

 itors are frozen up, when he can sell his easily accessible stock at a large advance upon the 

 ordinary price, which averages about a dollar a bushel. 



Rumstick Point juts out from the southern end of Rumstick Neck, a peninsula dividing the 

 Warren River from the waters of Providence River. It is the site of a dangerous shoal, and the 

 bottom is hard and in places rocky. There is only one owner of ground there, who leases 12 acres, 

 but it is probable that a hundred acres more will be let there during 1880. 



PROVIDENCE AND THE WEST SIDE OP THE BAY. Proceeding now up the eastern shore of 

 Providence River, at Nayat Point (which stands opposite Canimicut, and marks the real month 

 of the river on this side), 4G acres are now planted by a Providence firm. The beds are north of 

 the point, on the sandy bottom around Allen's Ledge. 



The next point above this is Drowuville, where the oyster-bottom is owned by three men, who 

 divide 25 acres. Many other dealers, however, make Drowuville their opening and shipping point, 

 among them several Boston firms having large opening-houses and shipping extensively. So many 

 citizens, not less than one hundred and twenty-five, are given employment, therefore, in the winter, 

 that the remark of one was justified: "Drownville would evaporate if it were not for the oysters." 

 The starfishes and periwinkles have been troubling the Drowuville planters of late more than 

 elsewhere. 



Reaching back into the country north of Drownville, and protected from the outer bay by Bul- 

 lock's Point, is Bullock's Cove, a shallow estuary, by many regarded as the very best place to plant 

 oysters in the whole State. It is certain that, uniformly, the best oysters now put into the market 

 come from this immediate neighborhood. The only reason assigned is, that the bottom has many 



