204 Our Food Mollusks 



tensive expanses of floors or decks upon which large 

 quantities of stock may be stored, assorted, opened, and 

 shipped. The ends of these houses fronting the street 

 may properly, perhaps, be called bows, and are con- 

 structed with more or less attention to architectural ef- 

 fect, so that the fagades are not unattractive. Upon the 

 top, or cornice, of each boat, usually extending across 

 the entire front of the structure, is the sign of the firm 

 doing business within. These boats are fixed with more 

 or less permanency in their berths, and have every ap- 

 pearance of busy establishments of trade. They rise 

 and fall with the tides, which keep them on a level cor- 

 responding with that of the decks of the boats of the 

 oyster-carrying fleet, thus facilitating the loading and 

 unloading of stock. These houses may be moved from 

 place to place, when necessary, by tow boats." 



Philadelphia, being situated on the Delaware River, 

 is the chief market for the product of Delaware Bay. 

 Many of the oysters from the New Jersey bays are sent 

 to New York. 



In New Jersey there are three separate oyster regions 

 The most northern, Raritan Bay, is really a part of New 

 York Bay, and the industry there is much like that of 

 other parts of that body of water. On the ocean side of 

 the state, Barnegat Bay lies parallel with the shore like a 

 river separated from the open water only by a low ridge 

 of sand. Its waters are brackish, and support a large 

 number of oyster beds. The third oyster district is the 

 eastern shore of Delaware Bay. This body of water, 

 some thirty miles wide at its lower end, has always pro- 

 duced many oysters, and planted beds may be found cov- 

 ering large areas both on the New Jersey and Delaware 

 shores. 



