THE COAST FISHERIES OF TEXAS. 403 



small cord. A uniuber of times daily it is visited, raised, and the catch 

 removed. The crabs are fished for by the negroes and the poor people 

 about the wharves, who for the time find nothing else to do. The 

 catch is usually peddled around the city, the price received averaging 

 about 15 cents per dozen. 



Fish and oyster marJxets. — The only wholesale fish and oyster markets 

 on the shores of Galveston Bay are located at the city of Galveston, 

 where tbere were in 1890 five wholesale dealers who handled these 

 l^roducts. Besides these there were at Galveston also many others who 

 handled oysters to a limited extent, while nearly all of the groceries in 

 the city, as well as many restaurants, received from one to ten barrels 

 daily from the fishermen. The property occupied by the five whole- 

 sale houses in that year was valued at $63,500, and 85 men were given 

 employment. 



When taking their catch to market tbe greater number of the Gal- 

 veston fisliermen run their boats into " vegetable slip," where the catch 

 is sold in'open market either to the wholesale dealers or to the many 

 retail grocers or restaurant keepers. 



It is an interesting sight to see the fishermen together with the truck- 

 farmers who take their produce to market in small sailboats, as they 

 congregate at their respective places in the '' slip" every morning M'hile 

 awaiting buyers for their wares. In this place at times tliere may be 

 counted nearly a hundred sailboats, constituting a regular ''mosquito 

 fleet." The list of their produce for sale is almost endless. One may 

 find here a load of oysters, there potatoes, in another boat cauliliower 

 and pigs, chickens here and terrapins tliere, ducks and crabs, fish and 

 milk. 



For oysters the marketmen pay from 75 cents to $1.50 per barrel, the 

 average in 1890 being about $1. The greater part of the oysters were 

 handled by the Galveston Packing Company, which, in addition to those 

 secured from this bay, obtained large supplies from Matagorda Bay. 

 The oysters are sold by the marketmen iu various quantities and con- 

 ditions. The local demand usually requires oysters in the shell, while 

 the inland trade is mostly for the opened oysters. When sold in the 

 shell the unit of measure is the barrel, holding about 3 bushels; the 

 opened oysters are sold by the number, although there is a growing- 

 tendency to sell by the gallon. The openers are generally paid at the 

 rate of $1.25 per 1,000, but one house has begun, instead, to pay L'5 

 cents iier gallon of solid meats. As the oysters are opened they are 

 separated into two grades, selects and standards. They are then placed 

 with ice in tubs holding from 1 to 5 gallons, or in tin cans, the capacity 

 of which ranges from 25 to 200 oysters. The tin cans are hermetically 

 sealed and shipped in boxes containing ice. They are sent into the 

 interior by express, and the trade, which is growing rapidly, extends 

 throughout Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and other Western 

 states, and even so far distant as Chicago. 



