572 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
and then packed in bags and shipped to San Diego; at the latter port 
commission firms forward them to San Francisco and direct to China. 
The Mexican mode of preparation of abalone meat is still more simple. 
The meat, after being cleaned of all offal and washed, receives three 
cuts which lay it open but do not detach the several parts. It is 
next spread out for drying without any salt or other preparation. 
This meat, after drying, is very white, as when first taken from the 
shell. At other places where abalones are salted and smoked they 
take on a more or less dark color. 
While drying, abalones are repeatedly turned until cured hard. 
The clams and spiny lobsters of Los Angeles County are much in 
demand, and several attempts have been made to can them. On page 
646 of the report of this Commission for 1896 an account is given of 
the canning of the Donax cali fornicus, a very small clam, some three- 

‘torsate (Scbastichthys rosaceus). 
fourths of an inch jong. These clams were very abundant on the 
shores of Long Beach, but the supply was soon exhausted. During 
1899 another firm for a short time canned the large-sized hard-shell 
clams obtained on the beach, being found quite deep in the sand, 
from which they were taken at low tide. The supply was so limited 
that the cannery was discontinued after packing a few hundred cases. 
The cannery paid 60 cents per 100 pounds for clams in the shell. From 
175 pounds 12 gallons of nectar and 23 gallons of clam meat were pro- 
duced. The nectar was packed in pound cans; the refuse was sold as 
poultry food, being packed in gallon cans. Large and small sized 
hard-shell clams are more or less plentiful in the several beaches of 
the county. The near-by ranchers as well as regular fishermen take 
in the aggregate quite a large amount, that are sent to the dealers of 
Los Angeles. About 1 ton a week is sent to the city during the vear. 
The clam men receive 14 cents a pound for small clams, locally known 
