THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 131 
as bait for a voyage from fifteen to twenty-five bushels of whelks. 
These are preserved in bags made of netting and may be kept for a 
long time in the wells of the smacks. When wanted, the shells are 
broken and the animals extracted. 
The whelk is especially common in the United States from Portland 
to the Bay of Fundy, and extends to the south of Cape Cod, although 
rarely. It is usually known in America as the winkle, and is so abun- 
dant on the coast of Maine that it could readily be used as bait for cod. 
There are many other of the univalves that may be employed as bait, 
such as the Busycon and Pyrula, which though seldom used are capable 
of the same application. 
(10) Clams.—The clam in its various forms constitutes a very impor- 
tant portion of the bait used on a large scale in the United States and 
belongs especially to the following species : 
The soft clam, Mya arenaria. 
The common hard clam, Venus mercenaria. 
The most important of these is perhaps the soft clam, Mya arenaria, 
which occurs in immense numbers along the entire eastern coast of the 
United States, and is consumed both as food and as bait. For the lat- 
ter purpose it is collected very largely on the clam flats of Massachu- 
setts and Maine, in some localities the plow being used at low tide to 
turn up immense numbers. An especially favorite locality is near Ips- 
wich, Mass., where the immense size of the aboriginal kitehen-middens 
attest the antiquity of the abundance of this species, these being 
rivaled, however, by the piles of recent shells heaped up by the clam- 
diggers. About forty barrels of salted clams constitute an average 
fare for a cod fishing-vessel, and there appears to be no special diffi- 
culty in furnishing any number that may be called for, as notwithstand- 
ing the demand, the price at which they are sold now is little more than 
it has been for many years. 
The so-called hard clam is more southern in its distribution than the 
Mya, and is less extensively used as bait, in view of the great demand 
for it as an article of food. On the sea coast, in a small way, however, 
it is used to a considerable extent. 
The hen clam, or Mactra solidissima, is also a species which furnishes 
a valuable bait, and is especially abundant at present in the vicinity of 
Nantucket, Mass., where large numbers are taken out and used by the 
cod-fishermen. 
In the Gulf of Mexico and the vicinity of Mobile and New Orleans 
the Gnathodon cuneatus, a so-called clam, is also employed largely in 
the minor fisheries, but has no prominence at all as a bait for the more 
important enterprises. 
According to Mr. N.B.Nutt, collector of customs at Tasnpiae clams 
are not collected to any ereat extent in that vicinity as bait, but they 
are gathered along the shore from Machias to Mount Desert and sold 
by dealers at Deer Isle, Booth Bay, and Portland. Forty barrels rep- 
