76 Details and Dollars 



the native resources, but of that I have no per- 

 sonal knowledge. 



As to the resources of the water, every one 

 cannot live at the sea-shore, and even at the 

 sea-shore there is not always an oyster bed 

 near, or clams, or even great lots of crabs. 

 Friends of mine who have attempted for a few 

 months something of the same life that I lead 

 nine months in the year and have pitched their 

 tents on the Massachusetts coast, really seem 

 to get more out of the water than out of the 

 land. They get an extraordinary number of 

 fish, lobsters, and clams, they get sea-weed 

 which they use as manure, and scarcely a day 

 passes without some kind of sea food making 

 its appearance upon their table. I have never 

 been so fortunate as to be placed where the 

 fishing was of such a nature that I could de- 

 pend upon it from day to day to furnish the 

 table. Nevertheless, I have no doubt that 

 during the summer and autumn I have pro- 

 vided more than fifty dollars' worth of good 

 fish of various kinds, and I leave out of account 

 entirely the oysters, because they can be had 

 for almost the picking up where we are. With 



