SCALLOP INDUSTRY OF NORTH CAROLINA 



183 



Avithout teeth and fitted with a twine bag, in the upper portion of 

 which large gaps are left for the passage of excess eelgrass, etc. 



The raker wades over the flats w^hile the tide is not too high, 

 raking as he goes. After him he drags, by means of a line tied to 

 his waist, a washtub, commonly of galvanized iron. (See figs. 4 and 

 5.) The scallops are dropped from the rake into the tub. On an 

 exposed flat, at low tide, the scallops may be dropped first into a 

 bucket. From the tub the scallops are dumped into a flat-bottomed 

 skiff anchored near by. Generally the rakers, wearing hip or thigfi 

 boots or breast-high wading pants, work only from mid-ebb to mid- 

 flood tide. However, occasionally they work right through high 

 water from one low water to the next. 



I'l... 4.- St-allop rakers wading on the scallop flats at rpautort, N. C. Skiffs are 

 auclioiecl near-by and tubs are towed from the waist. The bureau's terrapin 

 pounds are to be seen in the foreground 



Nearly all dredging is now done with motor boats. These vary 

 from flat-bottomed, open skiffs, fitted with the smallest of l-cylin- 

 der engines, to V-bottomed (dead rise), cabined craft about 35 feet 

 long, with engines of considerable power ("long-haul" boats; figs. 

 6 and T). Rarely dredges of the usual size are worked from skiffs 

 by poling the skiffs. In the past it was the custom to operate very 

 small dredges from rowboats. 



According to present practice, dredge lines are not attached di- 

 rectly to the dredge boat but to a pole, which is fastened across the 

 boat while dredging is in progress and is stowed lengthwise at other 

 times. Four dredges are most common. Small boats sometimes use 

 three or only two (fig. 8). Large boats, in addition, tow a sldff, 

 which carries a pole with four dredges. The Core Sound dredger 

 fastens the pole forward, so that the dredges, with, lines of equal 

 length, trail about even wuth the boat's stern. Bj^ means of small 



