EHODE ISLAND: GENERAL REVIEW OF ITS FISHERIES. 



Detailed statement of the quantities and values of the products Coutiuucd. 



285 



b Includes $131,425 eu bane emeu t ou 274,300 bushels of southern oysters. 



B. THE OYSTER INTERESTS OF RHODE ISLAND. 



EXTRACTS FROM REPORT BY ERNEST INGERSOLL. 

 92. ORIGIN AND IMPORTANCE OF THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 



LAWS; STATISTICS FOR 18GO AND 1865. Wheii the people of "The Colony of Rhode Island 

 and the Providence Plantations" felt themselves sure of future stability, they applied to the king, 

 Charles II, to grant them a charter, which he graciously did in the year 1683. This charter was a 

 wonderful document for those days, because of the well nigh perfect liberty it embraced, and its 

 hospitality to every conscientious belief, whatever the name of the religious banner it rallied 

 under. Among the privileges and liberties it insisted upon was the right of free-fishing in every 

 shape. The relations of the fishermen to the owners of the shores were defined with great 

 minuteness, and were calculated to make all the fish of the sea and all the molluscous denizens 

 of the muddy tide-flats as available as possible to every citizen. Thereafter they were jealously 

 preserved for public benefit. In 1734-'35, for instance, the first session of the assembly at East 

 Greenwich was distinguished by an act for the preservation of oysters, which the thoughtless 

 inhabitants were burning in large quantities for lime; and in October, 17GG an "act for the 

 preservation of oysters" was passed, forbidding them to be taken by drags, or otherwise than by 

 tongs, under a penalty of 10. Parents and masters M'ere held liable for the violation of this law 

 by their children or servants, and the owners of boats engaged in evading it were subject to a 

 double fine. When (and it was not many years ago) the State constitution was adopted, no clause 

 was so scrupulously worded against possible evasion as that which declared that in respect to the 

 rights of fishing and of taking clams, &c., everything should remain precisely as decreed in the 

 old charter. 



The oyster-law, therefore, is based upon the principle that between high-water mark and the 

 public highway of the ship-channel the laud and water are controlled by the State as public 



