174 THE OYSTER, 



an amendment to one of the most important clauses 

 of the Constitution of the United States. The beds 

 in deep water would escape, but they would then be, 

 like many of the deep-water beds of Virginia, of no 

 use to any one except pirates, and all the beds which 

 could be reached by tongs would be as badly off as 

 ever. 



In order to show that this is the case, and that 

 where no dredges are used the excessive working of 

 beds with tongs soon causes their destruction, we will 

 here note a number of cases where beds have been 

 exterminated with tongs alone. ^ 



In 1874 the officers of the United States Coast Sur- 

 vey found a number of fine beds of valuable oysters 

 near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Many fine beds 

 were found in this region by the earlier settlers, but 

 they were destroyed so long ago that none of the 

 natives had any knowledge of oyster-fishing or any 

 instruments for taking the oysters ; but it happened 

 that an old oysterman from the Chesapeake Bay was 

 living near-by, and he sent to Providence for oyster- 

 tongs and began tonging upon the newly discovered 

 beds. His example was imitated so effectively that 

 in five years the beds were exhausted and ceased to 

 be productive. 



IngersoU tells us that from the earliest times the 

 borders of the Quinepiac River, near New Haven, 

 Connecticut, have been the scene of oyster operations. 

 The earliest settlers found on its shores great mounds 

 of oyster shells, which showed that the Indians had 

 resorted to its beds, season after season, for an un- 

 known period. The first white fisherman found nat- 



