134 Our Food Mollusks 



hold five bushels or more. The average capacity of 

 dredges used on steam vessels by Connecticut oystermen 

 on private grounds, is ten or twelve bushels, but some 

 are of immense size, and capable of gathering thirty 

 bushels at a haul. 



Almost everywhere at present, except in Long Island 

 Sound, sailboats are used for towing the dredge. There, 

 the more powerful and more reliable steam power has 

 come into general use, and it probably will not be long 

 before the example of the northern planter will be fol- 

 lowed elsewhere, though the cheaper, if more primitive, 

 sail power may never be entirely abandoned. 



Two masted, schooner-rigged vessels, such as is shown 

 in the illustration, have long been employed in Chesa- 

 peake Bay, in Pamlico Sound, and elsewhere. These 

 carry two dredges that are hauled by hand winches or 

 windlasses bolted to the deck back of the foremast. Op- 

 posite each windlass, three or four feet of the rail are 

 removed, and level with the deck there is placed a bar 

 or, more commonly, a roller, over which the dredge rope 

 plays. When the oyster beds are reached, dredges are 

 thrown over and dragged until it is supposed that they 

 have been filled. 



Each windlass has two long handles and is operated 

 by four men. The dredge, with its load, is hauled upon 

 the deck and emptied. From natural beds a great 

 amount of waste material is brought up with the oysters. 

 When dredging is done in the daytime, the dredge load 

 is at once culled, the oysters being stowed below the deck, 

 and the waste thrown overboard. At night, culling is 

 dispensed with until daylight. 



When the bed has been crossed, the boat tacks, haul- 

 ing the dredges across once more. In this way the work 



