THE OYSTER. 1/5 



ural beds scattered over the bottom of the whole 

 river, as well as in favorable areas along the eastern 

 shore of the harbor. All of the beds were easy of 

 access, and the result was that the raking of oysters 

 was soon adopted as a business by many persons who 

 lived near the water, and a considerable retail ped- 

 dling trade was thus kept up throughout the neigh- 

 borhood, in addition to the home supply. Wagon loads 

 of opened oysters traveled in winter to the interior 

 towns, even as far as Albany, and thence westward by 

 canal. 



These beds continued to supply fine oysters for all 

 the inhabitants of the surrounding country for many 

 years, but they have long been worthless as a supply 

 of food, although they still yield small oysters, which 

 are used as " seed " for planting. The beds were ex- 

 hausted by tongs, and it is interesting to note that 

 nearly all of the oysters were removed in a single day 

 in each year. After the beds were closed by law 

 until November I, great crowds assembled on the 

 banks of the river, on the last night of October, and 

 at the striking of midnight by the town-clock, began 

 an attack which cleaned the beds of most of their mar- 

 ketable oysters before the end of the day, and a few 

 hours of this fishing resulted in the capture of all mar- 

 ketable oysters. 



Native oysters were abundant at Wellfleet, on Cape 

 Cod, at the time of the first white settlements, and for 

 more than a hundred years the town was famous for 

 its oysters, but they became extinct in 1775, through 

 excessive tonging, although the inhabitants attributed 

 their destruction not to their own rapacity, but to a 



