236 THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



the absorption of air by the water. Thus, while the 

 oil may never touch the fish and shell-fish in the water 

 beneath, it may kill them by suffocation. 



Oysters are usually taken for market at the age of 

 four or five years. Before being marketed, they are 

 often placed in less brackish water, which causes 

 them to swell. This process is erroneously called "fat- 

 tening," the increase in size resulting merely from 

 absorption of water. "Fattening" is sometimes carried 

 out by placing the oysters on a slatted float anchored 

 in relatively fresh water. 



In this country oysters are taken either by tonging 

 or dredging. Tongs are employed chiefly by oyster- 

 men of small means who take oysters from shallow 

 beds. Oyster tongs are long, scissor-shaped instru- 

 ments with toothed iron baskets fitting together at 

 the lower end. The handles vary in length from twelve 

 to more than twenty feet, depending upon the depth 

 of water in which they are used. The baskets, which 

 catch and hold the oysters, are about ten inches wide 

 and three feet long. Usually, when tonging for 

 oysters, the oysterman works in a flat bottomed skiff, 

 often called a bateau. 



The great bulk of the oysters taken in America 

 are removed from the beds by means of dredges, 

 which vary in size from light hand dredges, with a 

 capacity of two or three bushels, up to huge dredges 

 which hold thirty bushels. The larger dredges are 

 operated either by means of a donke3^-engine or by 

 the steam engine of the dredge-boat. The boats vary 

 in size from small sloops, nicknamed skipjacks, to 



