THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 27 



It is probable tbat this season (1870-'S0) tlie sum of tlie freiglits paid to Wellfleet and Provincetown schooners 

 on oyster-cargoes alone, will exceed $75,000, and the losses and casualties will be few. The competition of the 

 steamers between jSTorfolk and Boston, of the railroads, and particularly the recent custom of opening so many 

 oysters in Virginia, has been severely hurtfid, however, to the oyster-schooner interests. 



1 may add an odd note of interest to naturalists. At Wellfleet are found many marine invertebrates not known 

 elsewhere north of Virginia, which the naturalists of the United States Fish Commission say were probably 

 introduced with imported oysters. 



Statistical recapitulation for Wellfleet and ticinitt: 



Number of planters, wholesale-dealers, and shippers -• 3 



Number of vessels and sail-boats engaged schooners*.. 46 



Present value of same - - $185,000 



Number of sailors employed (three months) 250 



Earnings of same - |ll5, 000 



Total caruiugs of schooners |75, 000 



Annual sales of — 



I. Native oysters bushels.. 600 



Value of same - ^00 



II. Chesapeake "plants" bushels.. 6,000 



Value of same - $5,000 



Total value of oysters sold annually $5,500 



9. HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE OYSTER-TRADE OF BOSTON. 



Early history of the oyster-business. — The natural resources of the harbor in oysters, and the extent 

 to which they entered into its early commerce, have already been hinted at in paragraph six. 



When the natural beds in the Charles and Mystic rivers gave out, Boston derived its oysters from the natural 

 beds at Wellfleet and in Buzzard's bay, but mainly from the first named. When, in turn, these became exterminated, 

 toward the close of the last century, Boston dealers began to bring shiploads of oysters fi-om the shores of Buzzard's 

 and Narraganset bays, directly to the city in winter, and in the spring bedded at Wellfleet supplies for the ensuing 

 summer and autumn. This has been explained in the account of Cape Cod, preceding this. These cargoes were 

 taken up in the early fall, and sent in sloops and schooners to Boston. There the schooners were dismantled and 

 tied up, or else the cargoes were transferred to hulks (old mastless vessels) and covered with so thick a layer of 

 sea-weed that no frost could get at them. These hulks were towed up into the docks close to Faneuil Hall, the 

 recollection of which is preserved in the name of Dock square, and there the oysters were sold to retail-dealers, 

 peddlers, and other customers, either in the shell or opened. Another favorite place for the oyster-vessels to lie 

 was about where the Boston and M, ine railway station now stands, in Haymarket square. At that time a canal, 

 well remembered by old citizens, ran through from the Charles river to the city wharf, following what is now 

 Blackstone street. Another wharf for oyster-boats occupied the present site of the New England hotel. Prices 

 then ranged higher than now in some respects and lower in others. A bushel in the shell (at wholesale), or a gallon 

 opened, cost 62: this was "in liquor", the "solid" gallon being a recent invention. In the restaurants they charged 

 uinepence (12^ cents) for a "stew", and fourpence (6^ cents) for a "dozen" of fourteen; or you could buy a better 

 quality for 7 cents. 



There was a queer custom in vogue in those days, half a century ago. Besides the hawking about the streets, 

 which has survived, a few men used to "bag" them. Taking a bag of the bivalves on their backs, they would go 

 in the evening to a house where there was a lively family, or, perhaps, where a company of friends had assembled. 

 A carpet would be spread in the middle of the parlor on which the damp bag would be set, when the peddler would 

 open the top, shuck an oyster, and pass it upon the half-shell to his nearest customer; then another for the next, 

 and so on. Some lively scenes must have been enacted around that busy bagman, as his knife crunched rapidly 

 through the brittle shells, and the succulent morsels disappeared down fair throats. 



Meanwhile, more and more oysters were being brought every winter from Long Island sound, Newark bay. 

 New Jersey, and southern waters, mainly in Cape Cod vessels, as I have shown, but somewhat, also, in Boston's 

 own craft, for in those days there were more mackerel-fishermen hailing from the city than there now are. 



Introduction of Virginia oysters. — When oysters first began to be brought to Boston from Virginia I 

 could not ascertain with precision. The patriarch of the business, Mr. Atwood, of the firm of Atwood & Bacon, says 

 that when he began dealing in Water street in 1826, oysters were being brought regularly from Chesapeake bay in 

 small quantities. He thinks the first cargo arrived about 1824. Mr. J. Y. Baker assures me that in L830, 20,000 

 bushels from all quarters sufficed for Boston. About 1840 Gould estimated that 100,000 bushels would cover the 

 consumption of uU Massachusetts. Business rapidly increased, however, as the subjoined figures of the importations 



* Seventeen of these schooners, worth $(38,000, are registered at Provincetown, which otherwise does not appear as an oyster-locality. 



