100 THE ECONOMIC MOLLUSC A OF ACADIA. 



These are taken chiefly in Queens and Halifax Counties. 

 No doubt the rapid diminution in quantity since 1885 is due 

 to the greatly increased use of the Squid [which see] since 

 that time. It is shelled and salted for long voyages, but carried 

 alive to the fishing grounds when the latter are near home. 

 Willis tells us that "It is said to be an irresistible bait to both 

 haddock and codfish." Mr. J. H. Duvar states in his Report 

 for 1880, and subsequently has informed the writer, that they 

 were formerly much used in Prince Edward Island for 

 mackerel bait and were gathered by the Acadian French who 

 sold them to the fishermen for fourteen to fifteen cents per 

 quart, shelled. Their use is now almost superseded by that 

 of chopped herring. It is used in Gaspe and Quebec even 

 more extensively than in Acadia. 



As an article of human food, it is much more used in the 

 United States than with us. North of Cape Cod it is the 

 common Clam of the markets ; south of New York it is 

 replaced by the Quahog, Venus mercenaria; while between 

 those places, both are found in about equal quantities. The 

 very best come from Guilford, Conn., and sell for about three 

 dollars per hundred. At this place a few of extraordinary 

 size are found at lowest tides, the shells being six or eight 

 inches long, and the animal of good flavor. These sell for 

 about one dollar and twenty-five cents per dozen, the price 

 for ordinary sizes being from ninety cents to two dollars per 

 bushel, wholesale. The latter retail in the markets for from 

 fifty to seventy-five cents per peck, according to size. In 

 New Haven they are sold only in winter, and considered out 

 of season in summer, though in New York they are sold 

 throughout the year. A system of cultivation has been tried 

 with good results. The total annual value to the United 

 States of this species, including the large quantities collected 

 for bait on the New England coast, is, according to the census 

 of 1880, about $330,500. 1562,376 according to another 

 report. It has, however, been estimated by Mr. Earll, of 

 the U. S. Fish Commission, in a speech made at the London 

 Fisheries Exhibition of 1883, to be as high as $600,000 

 .annually. These figures do not include those taken on 



