MASSACHUSETTS: BOSTON DISTRICT. 



though the diggers sometimes bring them to the city and sell them to the dealers from their boats 

 at the wharves. Quabaugs are not generally taken, and but few sea-clams, razor-fish, or mussels. 

 The supply of these bivalves and of scallops comes in small quantities from Cape Cod, no great 

 amount being required to meet the demand. 



THE TRADE IN OYSTERS. The following extracts are from Mr. lugersoll's census report on 

 the oyster industry: 



" 1. HISTORY OF THE BUSINESS. When the natural beds in the Charles and Mystic Eivers gave 

 out, Boston derived its oysters from the natural beds at Wcllfket and in Buzzard's Bay, but mainly 

 from the first named. When, in turn, these became exterminated, toward the close of the last 

 century, Boston dealers began to bring ship-loads of oysters from the shores of Buzzard's and 

 Narragansett Bays, directly to the city in winter, and in the spring bedded at Wellfleet supplies 

 for the ensuing summer and autumn. This has been explained in the account of Cape Cod, 

 preceding this. These cargoes were taken up in the early fall, and sent in sloops and schooners 

 to Boston. There the schooners were dismantled and tied up, or else the cargoes were transferred 

 to hulks (old mastless vessels) and covered with so thick a layer of seaweed that no frost could 

 get at them. These hulks were towed up into the docks close to Faneuil Hall, the recollection of 

 which is preserved in the name of Dock Square, and there the oysters were sold to retail dealers, 

 peddlers, and other customers, either in the shell or opened. Another favorite place for the oyster- 

 vessels to lie was about where the Boston and Maine railway station now stands, in Haymarket 

 square. At that time a caual, well remembered by old citizens, ran through from the Charles 

 Eiver to the City Wharf, following what is now Blackstoue street. Another wharf for oyster- 

 boats occupied the present site of the New England Hotel. Prices then ranged higher than now 

 in some respects and lower in others. A bushel in the shell (at wholesale), or a gallon opened, 

 cost $2; this was 'in liquor,' the 'solid' gallon being a recent invention. In the restaurants they 

 charged ninepence (12i cents) for a 'stew,' and fourpence (6J cents) for a 'dozen' of fourteen; or 

 you could buy a better quality for 7 cents. 



"There was a queer custom in vogue in those days, half a century ago. Besides the hawking 

 about the streets, which has survived, a few men used to 'bag' them. Taking a bag of the 

 bivalves on their backs, they would go in the evening to a house where there was a lively family, 

 or, perhaps, where a company of friends had assembled. A carpet would be spread in the middle 

 of the parlor on which the damp bag would be set, when the peddler would open the top, shuck an 

 oyster, and pass it upon the half-shell to his nearest customer ; then another for the next, and so 

 on. Some lively scenes must have been enacted around that busy bagman, as his knife crunched 

 rapidly through the brittle shells, and the succulent morsels disappeared down fair throats. 



"Meanwhile more and more oysters were being brought every winter from Long Island 

 Sound, Newark Bay, New Jersey, and "southern waters, mainly in Capo Cod vessels, as I have 

 shown, but somewhat, also, in Boston's own craft, for in those days there were more mackerel- 

 fishermen hailing from the city than there now are. 



"When oysters first began to be brought to Boston from Virginia, I could not ascertain with 

 precision. The patriarch of the business, Mr. Atwood, of the firm of Atwood & Bacon, says that 

 when he began dealing in Water street in 1826, oysters were being brought regularly from Chesa- 

 peake Bay in small quantities. He thinks the first cargo arrived about 1824. Mr. J. Y. Baker 

 assures me that in 1830, 20,000 bushels from all quarters sufficed for Boston. About 1840 Gould 

 estimated that 100,000 bushels would cover the consumption of all Massachusetts. Business 

 rapidly increased, however, as the subjoined figures of the importations of oysters in cargoes from 



