THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 33 



The oyster-establishments employ 6 men, paid from $6 to $15 per week. In all, 25 persons are supported by 

 the trade. No planting has ever been done at Portsmouth, and even those bedded down in the harbor show little 

 growth of" shell or body. To supply Dover, New Hampshire, a few miles above, about 2.000 bushels of Chesapeake 

 oysters are brought up each spring and laid down in Cocheco river, near the town. A proportionate winter-supply 

 comes by rail. 



The natural beds of Great bay. — I was told by Mr. Washington Freeman, of Portsmouth, that this 

 'gentleman discovered an extinct bed of largo oysters in the Cocheco river, some years ago, but no Uving ones are 

 to be had there now. 



A few miles up from the mouth of the river Piscataqua, and the harbor of the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 

 an extensive bay reaches southward from the river into the lowlands. It is divided into two portions: first, Little 

 bay, nearest the river, and second. Great bay, with which the former is connected by Furber's straits, where Durham 

 river comes in. A portion of Great bay, on the eastern side, is also known as Greenland bay; and two rivers flow 

 into it (the Exeter and Lamprey), besides a multitude of trout-brooks. This interior basin is perhaps ten miles 

 long and five to seven wide, but the shores are very irregular. It is so shallow that a large portion of the shores 

 are left as dry flats at every low-tide, yet there are channels deep enough to allow large vessels to go up to New- 

 market and Exeter, when the water is favorable. This spot was renowned among the Indians for the oysters 

 living there, and considerable shell-heaps attest the constant use made of the bivalves. Whatever might have 

 been its resources a century or half a century ago, it is certain that within more recent times the locaUty was 

 forgotten, or at least made no account of, as oyster-ground, by the large population that inhabited the shores. It was 

 therefore looked upon almost as an original discovery when, iu 1871, the explorations of the Coast Survey, which 

 was sounding and mapping out the channels, showed that there were oyster-beds still flourishing at many poiuts 

 from one end of the bay to the other ; tliat is, in Great bay, for none, to my knowledge, have ever been found in the 

 outer Little bay. There were no tools proper for the gathering of oysters in the neighborhood, and very little was 

 done at first to make the knowledge gained available. There lived ia Newmarket, however, an old Chesapeake 

 oysterman by the name of Albert Tibbetts, who sent to Providence for oyster-tongs, procured boats, and began 

 raking in earnest. Others imitated his example, and the following year witnessed great activity. For several 

 mouths, I was told, there were probably a dozen boats, with two or three men iu each boat, raking every day, the 

 average take being about five bushels to the man. They used not only tongs and rakes, but used also dredges. 

 In the winter, also, they would cut long holes in the ice, and dredge the beds by horse-power, stripping them 

 completely. It was seen that this rash and wholesale destruction would speedily exterminate the mollusks, and 

 laws were passed by the state forbidding the use of the dredge under all circumstances ; making the months of 

 June, July, and August "close time"; and forbidding fishing through the ice at any time. The last regulation was 

 the greatest help of all, for the ice-rakers would not throw back the (lebris of dead shells, but pile it on the ice, 

 where the hundreds of young oysters attached to it would freeze to death. But these beneficent restrictions came 

 too late, and the business of oystering has steadily declined, until now only two or three boats keep up a desultory 

 search for profitable beds, and a bushel and a half a day is considered good work for each man. Only seven or 

 eight persons were engaged during the summer of 1S79, and these not all of their time. All unite in ascribing the 

 decline of the industry to over-raking of the beds, and feel disposed to pray for a law forbidding any raking 

 whatever during several years, in order to give the oysters a chance to recuperate their depleted ranks. 



The beds, as I have said, are all in Great bay. They occupy the channels at various points, and are each of 

 considerable extent. There are perhaps a dozen well known localities or clusters of beds. These are mainly 

 situated in Greenland bay, near Nannie's island, along the Stratham channel, up Exeter river to some distance 

 beyond the bridge of the Concord railroad, iu the Little channel near by, and up Lamprey and Durham rivers. 

 The chief raking now is done off Nannie's island. The average of the water on the beds is hardly more than 

 10 feet deep, and it is pretty fresh. The tide-way, as a rule, is strong, and the bottom tough, clayey mud. The 

 oysters are very large. I heard of specimens 15 inches long, and those of 9 and 10 are common. One man 

 told me of a single specimen procured in 1877 which weighed three pounds and one ounce in the shell, the fleshy 

 part alone weighing one pound and one ounce. These large ones, however, all have the appearance of extreme age, 

 and are heavy, rough, sponge-eaten, and generally dead, though the ligament still holds the two valves of the shell 

 together. In taste, this oyster is flat and rather insipid, which is laid to the too great freshness of the water. It 

 takes a large quantity of them to "open" a gallon of solid meat, a bushel not yielding more than two to two 

 and a half quarts. As a consequence, there has not been a very great demand for them, though all that can be got 

 now are readily disposed of. Formerly the price was §1 a bushel in Newmarket, where they wete chiefly bought; 

 but in 1879, 80 cents was the price. No culture of these or of imported oysters has ever been tried here; and the 

 chances are against success. 



Since gathering the details given above, I have received the subjoined letter, which explains itself, but must 

 I think, be slightly "discounted" in its figures: 



Newmarket, N. H., October 20, 1879. 



Pear Sir : Yours of the 13th at hand. I will give you wh it information I can hy writing, though I Hhoukl have been licttcr iileased 

 to have talked with you ou the ojster-question. I could have giveu you more iuformatiou in that way, probahly; but will answer your 

 queries as you put them. 

 3 o 



