184 Our Food Mollusks 



work. No eye could see the face of the great church 

 clock on the hill, but lanterns glimmered on a hundred 

 watch-dials and then were set down, as only a coveted 

 minute remained. There was a hush in the merriment 

 along the shore, an instant's calm, and then the great bell 

 struck a deep-toned peal. It was like an electric shock. 

 Backs bent to oars and paddles churned the water. From 

 opposite banks, waves of boats leaped out and advanced 

 toward one another in the darkness, as though bent on 

 mutual annihilation. ' The race was to the swift and 

 every stroke was the mightiest.' Before the twelve blows 

 upon the loud bell had ceased their reverberations, the 

 oyster beds had been reached, tongs were scraping the 

 long-rested bottom, and the season's campaign upon the 

 Quinepiac had begun. In a few hours, the crowd upon 

 some beds would be such that the boats were pressing 

 close together. They were all compelled to move along 

 as one, for none could resist the pressure of the multi- 

 tude. The more thickly covered beds were quickly 

 cleaned of their bivalves. The boats were full, the wag- 

 ons were full, and many had secured what they called 

 their ' winter's stock ' before the day was done, and 

 thousands of bushels of oysters were packed away under 

 blankets of sea-weed, in scores of cellars. The first day 

 was the great day. By the next day the rustic crowd had 

 departed, but the oysters continued to be sought. A 

 week of this sort of attack, however, usually sufficed to 

 clean the bottom so thoroughly that subsequent raking 

 was of small account." 



To-day natural sources of supply in the northern field 

 amount to little except for seed that they produce. The 

 same has long been true in Europe. There are still enor- 

 mous natural oyster reefs in the south Atlantic and Gulf 



