318 GEOGRAPHICAL KEVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



gating 811.7C tons and valued at over $75,000. The statistics of this business are included in the 

 summation for the State. 



Mr. Ingersoll reports as follows on the oyster interests of this region : 



"The extreme eastern point on the Connecticut shore, where any oysters occur, is in the 

 neighborhood of New London. A few miles east of the mouth of the Thames, in the township of 

 Grotoii, is an inlet and river known as Peqnonock. In 1877 several gentlemen leased about 35 

 acres of ponds on the east side of this river. In one of these ponds, containing about 15 acres, 

 native oysters grew upon the rocks and around the edges. A portion of the bottom of this pond 

 they prepared for oyster-raising, by spreading scallop-shells over C acres, and gravel and beach- 

 sand over 2 acres. Here they planted some 2,500 bushels of seed from Stony Creek, Clinton, and 

 Fair Haven, Conn., at a total expense of between $4,000 and $5,000. These oysters have grown 

 finely, but as yet few have been taken to market. This year (1879-'SO) has been a comparatively 

 poor one for them. 



"The oysters in Pequonock River are deep and cup shaped, not of large size, and with a thin, 

 white, flinty shell. Locally they are very highly esteemed. Another locality where this firm has 

 undertaken oyster-cultivation is in the Niantic River, an inlet just west of the Thames, where they 

 have had 20 acres set off for the purpose, and have already planted some seed. In Alewife Cove, 

 between Niautic Bay and the Thames, they have also several acres of ground which they purpose 

 preparing in the near future. A few oysters are now being put upon the market from these ponds, 

 and have met with a good reception, at high prices. These planters believe that a grand success 

 awaits them ; others assert that the waters are unsuitable, and that little of importance will result. 

 Three persons are employed. 



"In the river Thames, years ago, were great numbers of indigenous oysters. Thousands of 

 bushels were annually obtained for the markets of the neighboring towns. These oysters were of 

 good quality, and generally of immense size. Planting, however, was never a success, owing to 

 the great freshets which often sweep down the river, and also owing to the impurities that are cast 

 so plentifully into the stream from the drainage of the towns and from multitudinous factories 

 along the tributary streams. Nevertheless, a few native 'Norwich River' oysters are annually 

 caught, except in the close season, between March 1 and November 1, and there are half a dozen 

 persons in Norwich who deal in them and in other oysters, but the whole city's trade, probably, 

 does not amount to 10,000 bushels a year of 'natives' and ' Chesapcakes' combined, and is 

 decreasing. 



"At New London the oystermen own ground at Bullock's Point and Drownville, in Providence 

 River, Rhode Island. Upon those tracts, in 1879, they bedded about 15,000 bushels of Virginia 

 oysters, in addition to receiving a winter's supply of 35,000 bushels. New London and its neigh- 

 borhood also consumes about 700 bushels of fancy oysters annually, mainly brought from Provi- 

 dence, R. I. The prices at this point, in 1879, were, for southern oysters, 80 cents to $1 a gallon ; 

 for native stock, 50 cents a quart, or $1.GO a gallon, wholesale. Twenty cents a solid quart is paid 

 for opening. 



"There are employed here in the winter mouths twelve men on oyster- vessels and twenty five 

 men on shore, besides the principals. These are mostly heads of families, who engage in men- 

 haden fishing in summer." 



NIANTIO. Between New London and the Connecticut River there is no fishery of importance, 

 except the menhaden industry carried on at Niantic, at the factory of Luce Brothers, where one 

 hundred and twenty-five men are employed, and some $50,000 capital invested in vessels, buildings, 

 and apparatus for the capture of menhaden and the manufacture of oil and guano. 



