CONNECTICUT: COAST TOWNS WEST OP NEW HAVEN. 339 



known as Saddle Rock. A high northwest wind, continued for several successive days, always 

 causes very low tides in Long Island Sound and its bays. On the farm of David Allen, situated 

 near the head of Great Neck, on the eastern shore of Little Neck Bay, is a rock about 20 feet high, 

 and from 15 to 20 feet in diameter. The shape of the top of this rock resembles somewhat the 

 form of a saddle, and from that circumstance is called Saddle Rock. At low water the upper or 

 laud side of this rock is left bare, while the opposite or lower side is in the water. In the autumn 

 of 1827, after a strong northwest wind had been blowing for three days, a very low tide occurred, 

 and the water retreated far below the rock, leaving a space wide enough for a team of oxen to pass 

 quite around it. This extraordinary lov tide revealed a bed of oysters just below the rock. The 

 oysters were very large, and possessed the most delicate flavor; we collected cart-loads of them, 

 and placed them in our mill-pond (tide-mill). The news of the discovery spread among the 

 oystermen, and boat-loads soon found their way to the city, where, on account of their excellent 

 flavor, they commanded fancy prices, even reaching $10 a hundred an enormous price for those 

 days. In a very short time the locality was exhausted, and for more than forty years there has 

 not been a real Saddle-rock oyster in the market.' 



"ROWAYTON, DARIEN, STAMFORD, AND GREENWICH. The next point is the very important 

 station known as Five-Mile River or Rowayton, where the cultivation of oysters has been system- 

 atically pursued for many years. In all, at present, there are about thirty-five planters or firms, 

 and nearly or quite as many families are supported. The little creek-mouth is perfectly filled with 

 oyster boats, and the other conveniencies of this pursuit. I find upon my list of the oyster-fleet 

 twenty eight sloops and sail-boats, which belong here, some of them very large and well built. I 

 estimate the value of these 'sail' and the other floating and shore property at Rowaytou, directly 

 concerned in the oyster trade of the port, at not far from $30,000. Rowayton produced, in 1879, 

 which was considered a very poor year, something near 50,000 bushels. How far this is beneath 

 occasional crops, if not beneath the recent average, is shown by the statement made to me that 

 about five years ago a single dealer in New York City bought 32,000 bushels of Rowayton oysters. 

 Little of the stock raised at this point fails to reach New York, and within the last three years 

 Rowayton has supplied a large proportion of the oysters sent to Europe, partly by direct ship- 

 ment. Like all other parts of the East River, the oysters are sold here wholly in the shell, and 

 almost always by the barrel or bushel the selling 'by count' belonging to the region farther 

 west and to the Long Island shore. 



"At Darien about 3,000 bushels a year are sold from about 250 acres. They have ten or a 

 dozen sail-boats, and a value in oyster interests, generally, of perhaps $5,000. 



"The next oyster- producing point is Stamford, where, also, I found the planters bewailing the 

 decline of their fortunes. The number of men raising oysters is about a dozen, and perhaps as 

 many more are employed. From about 150 acres of improved harbor bottom Stamford yielded for 

 market, in 1879, about 5,500 bushels of oysters, the majority of which was shipped to New York. 

 Their fleet counts up nine sloops, which, with boats, floats, and so forth, are stated to be worth 

 about $15,000. The principal men at Stamford are A. M. Prior and Capt. John Decker. 



"The next point westward, and the last in Connecticut, is Greenwich, where, at Miauus, Cos 

 Cob, Greenwich Cove, Old Greenwich, and Greenwich, a large business is done and a large number 

 of persons is engaged, though oysters are not now raised here to as great an extent nor of so fine 

 quality as formerly. 



"The mouths of all the rivers and each of the many coves that indent this rocky coast are 

 filled with planted oysters, though a general feeling of discouragement, arising from various 



