OYSTER-INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 309 



Chesapeake and the Delaware. On the arrival of the schooners which 

 bring them, they are either landed in the store-houses immediately, or 

 remain in the hold of the vessels, until negotiations concerning them are 

 complete. 



A few years ago the commerce of New Haven was much more impor- 

 tant than at present, especially with the West. It has in part been 

 supplanted in the market of Saint Louis by that of Baltimore, which has 

 greater facilities of communications with that city. 



In 1857 from two hundred to two hundred and fifty schooners were 

 employed, for six months in the year, in supplying the establishments of 

 Connecticut ; now the number does not exceed one hundred. 



Boston. — Massachusetts, although one of the smallest States, is, nev- 

 ertheless, one of the most influential. Through its commerce, the prac- 

 tical intelligence and enterprising spirit of its inhabitants, &c, it takes 

 the lead in all the industrial movements of the country, and it is unri- 

 valed in the importance of its literary and scientific institutions. Situ- 

 ated upon the Atlantic Coast, in a most favorable position for maritime 

 interests in general, both its great and. its small fisheries have enjoyed 

 remarkable prosperity. The shores of Nantucket, of Cape Cod, of Ply- 

 mouth, and of Cape Ann nourish enormous quantities of lobsters, and 

 abound with edible bivalves, while immense shoals of migratory fish, va- 

 rying with the season, such as cod, flounders, mackerel, shad, and her- 

 ring, every year bring wealth to its hardy fishermen. 



Of the whole tonnage of American fisheries in general, Massachusetts 

 counts more than half. Boston, the capital of the State, naturally en- 

 ters largely into this industrial and maritime movement ; and to speak 

 of the oyster-fisheries alone, this city plays the same part in supplying 

 the Northern States as Baltimore and Fair Haven do for the Central 

 and the Western. Built upon ground which is almost an island, at the 

 head of a bay, and protected from the open sea by a chain of small 

 islands, it is almost entirely surrounded with vast sheets of salt water, in 

 which are found united the best conditions for the culture of the oyster 

 according to the American method. Four rivers, of which the most im- 

 portant are the Charles and the Mystic, empty into the bay, and increase 

 facilities for the fisheries.* 



Ten principal merchants conduct the different branches of the oyster 

 commerce. One of them, Mr. Higgins, senior, furnished me with much 

 of the information which I received, and supplied me with most of the 

 mollusks which I sent to France. At once dealer, planter, and pro- 

 prietor of an oyster-house, no one could be better fitted to furnish me 

 accurate information as to all the details of the business. His estab- 

 lishment, like those of his fellow-merchants, is situated upon the wharf 



*The oyster-plantations are numerous in the bay, upon the shores of Bird Island and 

 Hog Island. They are also to be found in the Saint Charles and the Mystic Rivers ; 

 but as they only partially supply the demands of commerce, the deficiency is made up 

 by the plantations of Cape Cod, from which the markets of Boston are mostly pro- 

 visioned. Tlie quantity of oysters plauted in the different localities in the spring 

 amounts to about one hundred thousaud bushels. 



