SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



stretch of beach and find six to his one. I 

 remember years ago riding a bronco pony 

 along a lonely beach on Cape Cod, and jump- 

 ing off whenever I saw signs of one of these 

 clams. As far as I know this form of clam 

 hunting is unique. It takes but a few of these 

 great clams to make a chowder of ample pro- 

 portions and most excellent flavor. 



But after all the most famous bivalve of 

 these shores, one which in its turn has made 

 Ipswich famous, is the clam,— sand clam or 

 soft-shell clam. Here indeed it is a sand clam, 

 and its shells are thin and white and clean, 

 and its flesh clear and transparent, very dif- 

 ferent from the dirty and dwarfed clams that 

 are to be found in black dock mud. Accord- 

 ing to John Winthrop the clams at Ipswich 

 feed only on the white sand! Much has been 

 written on this mollusk, and its charms have 

 even been extolled in verse. An Ipswich poet, 

 in reviewing the attractions of his native 

 town, ends his list as follows: 



" Its Rivers, its Hills and fair Isle by the Sea, 

 Not forgetting that bivalve, so delicious and free.'* 



William Wood says of these New England 

 clams: " Clamms or Clamps is a shel-fish not 



270 



