580 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



are half as large as a barrel. Wheu gathered in this shape there is a great waste of young oysters, 

 for those that are attached to the large ones are not separated until after the boat has left the 

 grounds or is at town, when they are thrown away as useless. At certain stages of low water 

 snch oysters as these can be picked up by hand. In other places, ordinarily in the open bays, 

 oysters are found in a more scattering condition, but are more readily gathered and require less 

 culling. In most cases they are procured with oyster-tongs from the lugger, as she lies at anchor 

 over the bed. One man uses the tongs while the other culls them; or, if there are three in the 

 crew, two use tongs and the third culls lor both. 



This is the method with all the smaller boats which tong their own cargoes. They have to go 

 far from home, and often the men do not get home once a week, or even every two weeks, and 

 must lie exposed to many hard storms, both when at the reefs and in going back and forth the 40, 

 CO, or 100 miles to market. The owners of the larger vessels, however, generally buy their cargoes 

 direct of the men who live in the vicinity of the reefs, and by making more trips, having fleet 

 vessels, can in a season make considerable money. In the summer time, those who have been 

 prosperous sometimes take their vessels down the river about Co miles, and pass through tortuous 

 channels into Mississippi Sound, and lay up for the summer season in the vicinity of Biloxi, 

 Mississippi. 



There is a "lay" system in vogue in many of these boats for the distribution of profits, by 

 which the boat and each man receives an equal share, after the bills are paid. 



The number of boa* bringing and catching oysters in this region is counted at two hundred 

 and five, of which forty are of over 5 tons burden. Their business is mainly done during the winter, 

 and in summer they are largely engaged in transporting fruit from the coast plantations to the city, 

 though some "lie up" for repairs. 



These oyster-vessels are all of one class and are known, from their Mediterranean rig, as "lug- 

 gers." They are in model much like the common light-draft American center-board sloops, and 

 vary in size from 1C to 40 feet in length, the largest measuring about 8 tons. They are further 

 described in another section of this report. 



THE OYSTERMEN. In going to the lower coast, writes Mr. Ainsworth, the luggers run down 

 the Mississippi generally for about CO miles, and then through smaller outlets and bayous into 

 Grand Lake Bayou and the various grounds on the coast. The men who are employed in this 

 fishery, and also the sailors who own the luggers, are almost altogether Italians and Sicilians, gen- 

 erally of a low order. Their swarthy faces, long, curly hair, unfamiliar speech, and barbaric love 

 of bright colors in their clothing and about their boats, give a perfectly foreign air to the markets. 

 There is not an American style of rig seen, nor hardly a word of English spoken, in the whole gayly- 

 painted oyster fleet of Louisiana. 



OYSTER-CULTURE. Oyster planting amounts to very little along the coast now under view, 

 and what is done is of the simplest character. I can form little notion of its extent or the number 

 of planters. The reef-oysters are taken from the natural beds by tongs in June and carried up the 

 half fresh bayous, or inshore, where they are laid out between tides until time to sell them in the 

 fall. This improves them somewhat, but seems to be chiefly serviceable in making them more 

 readily accessible for market, and so saving time. The Picayune said that in 1878 4,500 men were 

 employed in making and assisting in making such trausplantings. 



OYSTER MARIS IN NEW ORLEANS. There are three separate landing places and marts for 

 oyster-boats in New Orleans, the Old Basin, the New Basin, and the French market levee. 



To the Old and New Basins (chiefly the former), in the rear of the city, reached by canals from 

 Lake Pontchartraiu, come the boats from the eastward, bringing "lake" and "reef" oysters, gen- 



