58 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



F. COAST OF CONNECTICUT. 



24. OTSTEE-INDUSTEIES EAST OF NEW HAVEN. 



Natural and artipicial beds near New Lokdox. — The extreme eastern point on the Connecticut shore 

 where any oysters occur, is in the neighborhood of New London. A few miles east of the mouth of the Thames, in 

 the township of Groton, is an inlet and river known as Pequonock. In '.877 several gentlemen leased about 35 

 acres of ponds on the east side of this river. In one of these ponds, containing about 15 acres, native oysters grew 

 upon the rocks and around the edges. A portion of the bottom of this pond they prepared for oyster-raising, by 

 spreading scallop-shells over six acres, and gravel and beach-sand over two acres. Here they planted some 2,500 

 bushels of seed from Stony Creek, Clinton, and Fair Haven, Connecticut, at a total expense of between $4,000 and 

 $5 000. These oystej-s have grown finely, but as yet few have been taken to market. This year (1879-80) has been 

 a comparatively poor one for them. 



The oysters in Peqnonock river are deep and cup-shaped, not of large size, and with a thin, white, flinty shell. 

 Locally, they are very highly esteemed. Another locality where this firm has undertaken oystei'-cultivation, is in 

 the Niantic river, an inlet just west of the Thames, where they have had 20 acres set off for the purpose, and have 

 already planted some seed. In Alewife cove, between Niantic bay and the Thames, they have also several acres 

 of ground which they purpose preparing in the near future. A few oysters are now being put upon the market 

 from these ponds, and have met with a good reception, at high prices. These planters believe that a grand success 

 awaits them: others assert that the waters are unsuitable, and that little of importance will result. Three persons 



are employed. 



In the river Thames, years ago, were great numbers of indigenous oysters. Thousands of bnshels were 

 annually obtained for the markets of the neighboring towns. These oysters were of good quality, and generally 

 of immense size. Planting, however, was never a success, owing to the great freshets which often sweep down the 

 river, and also owing to the impurities that are cast so plentifully into the stream from the drainage of the towns 

 and from multitudinous factories along the tributary streams. Nevertheless, a few native "Norwich river" oysters 

 are annually caught, except in the close season, between March 1 and November 1, and there are half a dozen 

 persons in Norwich who deal in them and in other oysters, but the whole city's trade, probably, does not amount 

 to 10,000 bushels a year of "natives" and "Chesapeakes" combined, and is decreasing. 



At New London, the oystermen own ground at Bullock's point and Drownville, in Providence river, Ehode 

 Island. Upon those tracts, in 1879, they bedded about 15,000 bushels of Virginia oysters, in addition to receiving 

 a winter's snpply of 35,000 bushels. New London and its neighborhood also consumes about 700 bushels of fancy 

 oysters annually, mainly brought from Providence, Ehode Island. The prices at this point, in 1879, were, for 

 southern oysters, 80 cents to $1 a gallon; for native stock, 50 cents a quart, or $1 GO a gallon, wholesale. Twenty 

 cents a solid quart is paid for opening. 



There are employed here in the winter months 12 men on oyster-vessels and 25 men on shore, besides the 

 principals. These are mostly heads of families, who engage in menhaden-fishing in summer. 



Oysters in Saybrook. — Moving westward i'rom New London, the first village of consequence is Saybrook. 

 There is a small stream here called Oyster river, that produces a variety of the bivalves after which it is named, 

 which are saxl to be of superior quality. Mr. John N. Clark kindly made inquiries for me, and reports that the 

 production is trifling. Fifteen or twenty persons engage in these native fisheries at odd hoiurs, getting so few 

 bushels each, that the total gathered in the whole season will probably amount to no more than a hundred. Five 

 years ago the town appointed a committee on the subject, and several persons received grants of laud for the 

 purpose of cultivating oysters, but the obstacles (chiefly thieving) were so many that no one has persisted in the 

 attempt, either to bed southern oysters or to raise native stock. 



Oysters in Clinton. — At Clinton, a little village settled under the name of Kenilworth (afterwards corrupted 

 into Killingworth), at the month of the Hammonaset river, the oyster-business is of long growth, and is somewhat 

 peculiar. The harbor, in old times, contained an abundance of large, succulent oysters, but these have been ail-but 

 exhausted in one way or another. About twenty-five years ago the planting began in the harbor, the seed then 

 used being caught mainly at home or brought from Block island. The harbor, at present, contains about 200 acres 

 suitable for oyster-growth. Formerly there was much more, but a few years ago the sea made a breach through 

 the peninsula which incloses the harbor, by which the southerly storms are given so fierce an entrance into the bay, 

 that any attempt at oyster-work, or even at navigation, over much of the water-space, is rendered utterlj' futile. 

 If this breach, locally known as the Dardanelles, could be filled up — and the cost, I was informed, would not exceed 

 $1,000— a thousand acres, or more, would be added to the oyster-bottom. The bottom is hard, the water nowhere 

 too deep for tonging, and of about the right degree of freshness. Mud and sand drift so badly in winter, however, 

 that no oysters can be left down during that season. The practice, therefore, is to put down not only Virginias, 

 but natives of so large a growth that they shall be marketable the next winter. Years ago a much larger number 



