— 60 — 



living wholly from the beds even if the demand had afforded them the 

 opportunity. There was no definite plan of culture or protection of 

 the beds, as there is in San Francisco Bay and the only place in which 

 there seemed a prospect of such was in Humboldt Bay and Tomales 

 Bay. Conditions in this regard may have changed in recent years. 



in conclusion it may be stated with some assurance, that the avail- 

 able resources of soft-shell clams in northern California are not great 

 enough to bear much development in a commercial way, but are of 

 considerable value to local inhabitants. 



San Francisco Bay : In San Francisco Bay the soft-shell clam has 

 almost completely displaced all of the native species and at the present 

 time (1919) is the only form marketed. Though widely distributed, 



it suffers greatly from the 

 attacks of fish, according to 

 the clam diggers, skates 

 ("stingarees") and .sharks. 

 Though this was not directly 

 observed, clam siphons were 

 found in the stomacLs of 

 some California halibut by 

 Mr. N. B. Scofield. The 

 skates, which are apparently 

 the chief offenders, are con- 

 sidered by the fishermen to 

 he much more numerous 

 than in former years and 

 are sa:id to make their ap- 

 pearance about April first 

 and to stay until the rains 

 l)egin in the fall. In order 

 to have profitable digging it 

 is necessary to fence against 

 the skates; such a fenced 

 "farm" may be seen in fig- 

 ure 23. Outside the fences 

 only the young of the year 

 are to be found, according to 

 the diggers. Within the 

 fences the soft-shell grows to 

 a good size and is quite 

 numerous, the only other 

 species noticed in the digging being a few small bent-nosed clams. 



In October, 1919, the main "farms" were at Bay Shore, where two 

 men were employed, and at Pinole, where five Chinamen were digging 

 (see figures 24, 25 and 26) . The yield of clams was verjr good ; accord- 

 ing to one digger from 60 to 100 pounds of clams could be dug at one 

 tide and at times both low waters in the day were utilized. 



Cultivation— The hardiness and adaptability of this species and 

 the results obtainable from mere fencing indicate that systematic 

 "farming" such as has been practiced in some localities on the Eastern 

 coast would be a very profitable enterprise and would make productive 



Fig. 24. Digging soft-sliell clams, Pinole, 

 San Francisco Bay. Chinese digger with 

 baskets. 



