52 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



plan of not planting until June. " When the weather gets warm," he says, " the slime rises from the sand and rocks 

 on the bottom of the river and floats away. There remains a clean bottom, and I wait to take advantage of this 

 most favorable condition of things for my young oysters, who will huve a hard enough time, under anj- cii-cumstances, 

 to live through it." Being fortunate enough to have a tract where the swift tide never permits serious freezing, he 

 is able to wait until all his competitors are frozen up, when he can sell his easily accessible stock at a large 

 advance upon the ordinary price, which averages about a dollar a bushel. 



Eumstick iioiut juts out from the southern end of Eumstick neck, a peninsula dividing the Warren river from 

 the waters of Providence river. It is the site of a dangerous shoal, and the bottom is hard and in places rocky. 

 There is only one owner of ground tliere, who leases 12 acres, but it is i)robabIe that a hundred acres more will be 

 let there during 1880. 



PEO\aDENCE RIVER AND THE "WEST SIDE OE THE BAT. — Proceeding now up the eastern shore of Providence 

 river, at Nayat point (which stands opposite Canimicut, and marks the real mouth of the river on this side), 46 

 acres are now planted by a Providence firm. The beds are north of the point, on the sandy bottom around Allen's 

 ledge. 



The next point above this is Drown\dlle, where the oyster-bottom is owned by three men, who divide 25 acres. 

 Many other dealers, however, make Drownville their opening and shipping point, among them, several F.oston firms 

 having large opening-houses and shipping extensively. So many citizens, not less than 125, are given employment, 

 therefore, in the winter, that the remark of one was justified: "Drownville would evaporate if it were not for the 

 oysters." The starfishes and periwinkles have been troubling the Drownville planters of late more than elsewhere. 



Eeaching back into the country north of Drownville, and protected from the outer bay by Bullock's point, is 

 Bullock's cove, a shallow estuary, by many regarded as the very best place to plant oysters in the whole state. It 

 is certain that, uniformly, the best oysters now jiut into the market come from this immediate neighborhood. The 

 only reason I have heard assigned is, that the bottom has many springs in it, supplying constant fresh water. 

 In Bullock's cove 13 acres are taken up by two men ; but the ground at Bullock's point (239 acres) is held by 12 

 lessees. 



At Sabine's point, just above, there is only one owner, whose tract of 64 acres lies in a crescent between the 

 light-house and the point. Just north, a single acre is let at Pomham rocks; and beyond, at Fuller's rocks, 9 acres 

 are divided among four persons. This brings us to Field's point, on the western side, the northern limit of oyster- 

 culture, and a scene of considerable operations, 23 acres beiog under lease to 9 persons. South of Field's point the 

 river widens suddenlj', but the channel hugs the opposite (eastern) shore, leaving extensive shallows all along the 

 western shore. Southward from Field's point to Starvegoat island (familiarly condensed into Stargut island) i-uns 

 a reef which is pretty nearly dry everywhere at lowest tide. This reef was among the earliest tracts taken up by 

 the veteran oysterman, Eobert Pettis. When, about 1861, the starfishes were deiiopulating the beds all over the bay, 

 he alone was so situated that he could get at them at low tide and destroy them, and his good luck was the occasion 

 of great profit to him. At Starvegoat island the beds now operated are 27 acres in extent. 



There were formerly natural oysters growing abundantly all over this part of the river; but the main deposit 

 was just south of Starvegoat island, in the center of the tract of 160 acres, now known to oystermen as Great Bed. 

 This in old times was the great scene of oyster-raking, and it is more than thirty years since these beds were wholly 

 exhausted. Once in a while, then, they used to get a few enormous specimens from there, and peddle them about 

 town at 10, 15, and 20 cents each; but even these disappeared long ago. The owners on this bed are no less than 

 21 in number, and at Patuxent 63 acres more are taken up by five men. 



At Gasp(5 point, 10 acres, and at Canimicut point, 60 acres, both being in a little Salter and deeper water than 

 any of the rest, complete the list of plantations, except one acre in Wickford harbor and another at Westerly. 



In former years beds grew natiu'ally clear up to the city of Providence, and oysters were even found iu the 

 "Cove", that pretty circle of water near the railway station, the banks of which have been converted into a park. 

 Now, however, any leasing of ground north of Field's and Kettle points is imjiracticable and prohibited, because 

 of the large amount of impurities throAvn into the water by the city's drainage. The few beds up there — Long bed, 

 West bed. Diamond bed, etc. — have, therefore, now been abandoned, and are not counted, though a few leases have 

 not quite yet expired. 



At its January session, in 1878, the Ehode Island general assembly passed a resolution enjoining the 

 commissioners to visit the Great Salt i)ond (also known as Powaget pond), in Charlestown. It lies on the southern 

 border of the state, and communicates with the open ocean by a narrow inlet, which frequently becomes closed by 

 the shifting of the sand in the autumnal storms. In this pond the spawn of the oyster sets abundantly each year, 

 and grows rapidly until the closing of the breach connecting the pond with the ocean cuts off the daily supply of 

 salt water, which causes the oysters to die in immense quantities. If a permanent connection of this pond with the 

 ocean could be secured, the natural oysters, which are of excellent quality, could be grown with great success, and 

 large quantities of seed- oysters could be obtained for stocking the oyster-beds of Narraganset bay. 



Such was the report of the examining committee, and such is the opinion of the people generally. Accordingly, 

 the legislature appropriated 81,500 to defray the expense of constructing a sort of riprap wall, iu such a way that 

 the currents and waves should help to keep the breach open, instead of closing it, and so maintain a constant influx 



