THE CLAM. 187 



are one of the staple articles of winter food on 

 which all Indian tribes in a great measure de- 

 pend who inhabit the north-west coast of America. 

 The clam to the Indians is a sort of molluscous 

 cereal, that they gather and garner during the 

 summer months; and an outline sketch of this 

 giant bivalve's habits and style of living, how 

 captured, and what becomes of it after being 

 made a prisoner, may be interesting ; its habits, 

 and the uses to which, if not designed, it is at 

 least appropriated, being generally less known 

 than its minute anatomy. Clams attain an im- 

 mense size ; I have measured shells eight inches 

 from the hinge to the edge of the valve. We 

 used them, as soap-dishes at our head-quarters 

 on Vancouver Island. 



The clam has a very wide range, and is thickly 

 distributed along the mainland and Vancouver 

 Island coasts ; his favourite haunts are the great 

 sandbanks, that run out sometimes over a mile 

 from the shore. The rise and fall of the tide 

 is from thirty to forty feet, so that at low- water 

 immense flats or beaches, consisting of mud and 

 sand, are laid bare. 



There is nothing poetical about the clam, and 

 its habits are anything but clean; grovelling in 

 the mud, and feeding on the veriest filth it can 



