244 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



THE CLAM. 



The clam, that well-known denizen of all our sandy and 

 muddy shores, never has been an inspiring subject for 

 writers of natural history, economics, or the fisheries. 

 Like the oyster, the clam is restricted in its movements, 

 is not taken by the hook and line, nor by weirs, pots, nets, 

 seines, tongs or dredges. The clam is the humblest dweller 

 of the deep, selecting as his home a place in the soft sand 

 or mud of the beach six or eight inches below the surface. 

 At high tide he extends his blackened tube from the shel) 

 up through the "clam hole" to near the surface of the bot- 

 tom, in order to get his supply of food. "Happy as a 

 clam at high tide' has a greater force and significance 

 to those who know that the high tide brings food to this 

 mud-dwelling bivalve and also prevents further depreda- 

 tions to its "bed' 1 from the hand of man. As the water 

 recedes, the clam draws back its tube within its shells to 

 remain in a comparative state of quiet for four or five 

 hours. 



The soft clam fishery of New England is carried on 

 north of Cape Cod. The hard clam, or quahog, is found 

 in greatest abundance from Cape Cod to the Long Island 

 Sound region. Statistics for this industry are meager. 

 In 1879, the soft clam industry of Maine yielded 318,383 

 bushels, valued at $90,056. The greater part of this 

 product came from Portland and the region to the south. 

 Especial mention is made of the fishery at Deer Island, 

 not only because of the large quantities of clams dug in 

 that region, but also as being the only locality in the United 

 States where women made a practice of digging clams. 1 

 The yield of soft clams in Massachusetts for 1880 was 

 158,626 bushels, valued at $76,195. The output for Rhode 



i Goode, Sec. V, Vol. II, p. 584. 



