200 



GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



Virginia, by Atwocd & Bacon alone, will show. Besides tbese there were eight or teu other 

 dealers in the city. Atwood & Bacon received 



"These were by their own nine vessels alone; they had occasional cargoes otherwise. The 

 largest lot (1853) cost them $41,853, which gives an idea of values. Freight in those days was 17 

 cents. 



"At present very few oysters, indeed, are bedded in the vicinity of Boston, while of propaga- 

 tion there is none whatever. The grounds in the harbor were never very excellent, and became 

 less so as the city increased in size. The encroachments of the building and filling in along the 

 water-front overran the old limits of the bedding-grounds, and even the ancient natural beds. 

 Where the Boston and Maine railway's car-house stands, a leading dealer not many years ago laid 

 down 42,000 bushels in a single season. It was known as White Island at that time. The South 

 Boston flats are being graded up into streets, and the Charles, Mystic, and Maiden rivers, Bird 

 Island, and other places were long ago abandoned, because the wharves or the sewerage of the 

 city has destroyed their usefulness to the oysterman. Instead of bedding in his own harbor, 

 therefore, the Boston dealer, as a rule, now rents ground iu Buzzard's or Narragansett Bay, and 

 lays down there (the principal grounds being about the mouth of Providence River) the Virginia 

 oysters he proposes to use for his summer and autumn trade, or else he has abandoned the practice 

 altogether. The process of bedding will be dwelt upon in the chapter upon the Rhode Island 

 fisheries. 



"The coming on of the war of secession found the Boston oyster trade in its most flourishing 

 condition. More cargo-oysters were brought then than evr since; prices were high and profits 

 large. The shipping interests fostered by it were large, too, for the competition of railways and 

 steamers had hardly made itself felt. Most of the large dealers ran Hues of vessels of their own, as 

 well as chartering additional assistance in the spring. In the demand for fast sailers which the oyster 

 business created, is found the origin of that celebrated model of sailing vessel that made America 

 famous on the seas the clipper ship. The first of these were made by Samuel Hall, a noted ship- 

 builder, at his yard in East Boston, and were named Despatch, Montezuma, Telegraph, and 

 Express. They were from 90 to 126 tons, old measurement, and carried an average cargo of 2,500 

 bushels of oysters. Six months in the year these clippers were devoted to bringing oysters from 

 Virginia. There were 35 or 40 of these "sail" running, and in the summer they would go fishing. 

 The freight tariff on oysters was then 20 cents, and during the war it went as high as 25 cents a 

 bushel. 



" The war interfered sadly with the business of oystering. Often the military operations did 

 not admit of the cultivating and raking of the beds in Virginia and Maryland, or of the schooners 

 from northern ports going where they wished to buy. A period of higher costs and shortened 

 sales was in store for the dealers, and they have not yet quite recovered the prosperity of 18GO. 

 The greatest period of depression was 1874-'75, when the business was almost a failure. I think 

 none of the dealers ' suspended,' however. 



" In the course of this business, as long ago as the traditions of the trade go back, a few bushels 

 were now and then laid down in various parts of the harbor to keep them from spoiling. But this 



