220 Our Food Mollusks 



tions on the tonging grounds. Incensed at this act, the 

 tongers made an attempt to drive them off, but the 

 dredgers were well armed and able rapidly to concentrate 

 forces when necessary. The scattered small boats of the 

 tongers were driven to cover, and for weeks obliged to 

 keep at a respectful distance. The Virginia legislature 

 being in session, voted to supply the shore men with a 

 cannon and small arms, but before these arrived, dredg- 

 ing operations had been completed, and the pirate fleet 

 had sailed away. 



Tongers have always been practically helpless against 

 these raiders, but the greatest sufferers have been the few 

 bold men who have attempted to plant oysters on leased 

 bottoms in Maryland, or in Virginia, near the Maryland 

 line. Professor Brooks records the experience of a Vir- 

 ginia culturist who had incautiously leased about seventy 

 acres a short distance from Maryland waters. At the 

 expense of more than four thousand dollars, he had 

 shelled the bottom, obtained a large set of young oysters, 

 and had employed watchmen during their growth. Two 

 years after the bottom was shelled, the crop was 

 estimated at three hundred and fifty thousand bushels, 

 and valued at more than one hundred and twenty thou- 

 sand dollars. The dredgers were perfectly willing to 

 witness this wonderful demonstration of the fertility of 

 the bay under oyster culture. It proved to be a fine har- 

 vest for them. There were no inter-state complications, 

 like the threatened warfare between Louisiana and Mis- 

 sissippi some years ago over a trespass on oyster ground, 

 and there was no redress. The culturist lost a fortune, 

 and that was the end of the matter. 



It is interesting to notice who these buccaneers and 

 their crews were, and what were their relations to civ- 



