6 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Grandiqne, a stream that empties into tlie northeastern corner of the bay. The number of these beds is said to be 

 about fifty, and they cover the soft bottom of the harbor with great mounds. 



Prociunng the services and guidance of Frauli Giuvien, I started out one dark morning to see the beds and 

 the process of raking. It was raining liard, the wind was chill and fitful, and th^ general appearance of the 

 surroundings somber in the extreme. The boat was a large, red, yawl-shaped one, and it lay some distance out in 

 the water, hard aground, although the tide was well up. Pulling off their shoes and stockings, Giuvien and his 

 assistant soon had it afloat, erected the mast, and then came to carry me on board 'poose-bacli. 



Having gone a third of a mile from shore, and crossed the deepest part of the bay (in water of 4 to 6 fathoms), we 

 struck the first bed, finding it, by sounding with a pole, not more than five feet below the surface. Eamming the 

 liole hard down we "hung" the boat by my holding on to it, while Giuvien thrust down his great rake, and his 

 assistant his " tongs". But nothing was taken alive except one or two quahaugs, and we moved on. Trying several 

 beds, all coming within a fathom or less of the surface, and some being of great extent, we succeeded in two hoiu-s 

 in raking a dozen and a half of small oysters and about three dozen fine quahaugs, besides some mussels. This 

 was a fair sample of the condition of the whole bay. 



The rake and tongs used do not differ from those well known to oystermen in the United States, except, 

 perhaps, that they are ruder, generally being of home manufacture. 



In the winter, when the ice forms over the whole bay to a thickness of three feet or so, the oysterman finds 

 his way out to a position over some of ths beds, with the location of which he is ]>erfectly familiar, and cuts a large 

 hole in the ice. Through this he lowers rake and tongs, and brings uj) load after load of living mollusks and dead 

 shells. Here this is the most profitable time of the year for the oysterman ; ox-, rather, it used to be. Twenty -five 

 or thirty years ago, not to go further back, the trade iu oysters at this town was extensiv^e, amounting to probably 

 about 1,000 barrels a year. Most of this crop was shucked and sent to St. John in kegs. In earlier times it was 

 not uncommon for one man to rake up a sleigh-load of oysters, through the ice, in a single afternoon. Now 200 

 bushels a year is all that is produced, and this in a very desultory fashion. No one devotes himself to it but the 

 French fishermen, and farmers use their leisure in raking occasionally. 



At Eichibucto the oysters grow in the channel, and clear across the inlet, in water as deep as 35 feet. There, 

 consequently, rakes are used attached to poles so long and unwieldy that they require two men for their manipulation. 

 This great bay has been nearly depleted, however. In the Canadian Fisheries Eeport, Mr. J. McD. Sutherland, 

 local oflicer there, wrote to Mr. Venning, inspector of fisheries, as follows : 



There are a good many oyster-beds in the river, but witli the esceptiou of one at Indian island (near to the south beach), the oysters 

 are very small, and of so poor a quality, that none have been sent away for years; iu fact, they will not sell. The only beds from which 

 any are taken at present, are two at Kingston bridge, and one or two fixrther up the river, and only in very small quantities, as thoy 

 are of so poor a quality that it is diCScult to iind sale for them. There is a very large bed at Indian island, and the oysters are very 

 large and of excellent quality; but they are scarce and hard to get. Not more th.an 30 or 40 barrels were taken from it last year. A 

 man may rake all day, and perhaps get only a bushel. There are hundreds of barrels of shells on this bed, and some farmers are making 

 arrangements to get the shells off it as manure for their farms. If anything could be done to protect or increase the oysters in this 

 bed, I (hink it deserves attention. The only suggestion I can offer is, that the shells and dead oysters bo removed, and raking prohibited 

 for a number of years. There are some beds on which the oysters arc all dead, from which large quantities of shells are taken every year 

 by tbe fiirmers. — (Page 76.) 



The present point of greatest abundance of the oyster on the mainland seems to be in Miramichi bay, at 

 Bettaouin. In 187C, Giuvien went there in a small vessel, with several others from Shediac, on a raking expedition. 

 They found the oysters were distributed everywhere over the harbor so thickly, that every square foot of the bottom 

 seemed to be occupied. They seemed to lie in little connected clusters right upon the sand, which was so soft that 

 mooring-stakes were easily driven into it. They found on the ground ships and schooners that took away over 4,000 

 barrels during the single fortnight they remained. These bought their cargoes, at the rate of $1 a barrel, from the 

 small boats (each operated by two men) that swarmed in the harbor. The ships took their cargoes to Quebec, 

 varions small(>,r craft carried loads elsewhere, and the 65 small boats that came down there from Caraquette 

 all intended to go home with full loads when the selling season closed. Four years of this onslaught have now almost 

 exterminated this great oyster-community. 



So much for the mainland, where, I believe, the tongs and rake used from small boats in summer, and the rake 

 thi'ough the ice iu winter, upon wild beds, every man owning his own implements and fishing for his own good 

 at odd moments, comprise the whole of oysteriug. 



The oyster-industry of Prince Edward island. — Crossing now to Prince Edward island, a somewhat 

 more systematic, if not more scientific, pursuit of this industry is to be seen. The headquarters of the business is 

 at Summerside, a small, wooden, unattractive town of about 800 inhabitants, situated at the extremity of Bedeque 

 bay, on the southern side of the island. It is a landing place of the steamers from Shediac, and also of the line to 

 ]\Iontreal. This district was originally settled by French ; but when the island was ceded to Great Britain, these 

 people were expelled, and the inhabitants are now almost wholly Scotch and English. From Summerside are sent 

 the famous "Bedeque" oysters, so culled from the bay in which they were found. 



The true Bedeque oysters are, however, now extinct, or at least so nearly so as to be entirely unprofitable for 

 raking. The bay is an inlet half a dozen miles long, in which the water is nowhere more than J or 1 lathoms deep, 



