512 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES 



Fla. Every stake or bit of sunken log in the marshes, or fallen tree whose branches trail in 

 the water, become at once loaded with "coons." Frequently large specimens are obtainable, and 

 such are very good, but they are rarely eaten. 



On the point of land terminating Old Fernandina are remains of an extensive Indian shell heap ; 

 and in the bottom of the harbor opposite the marshy shore, between the old and new towns, was 

 formerly an exceedingly large bar of raccoon oysters. Latterly these have died, and now they are 

 being washed up and are forming a long, firm sbell beach. At the bar or mouth of Saint John's 

 River good oysters are obtained, though of a very salty taste. They are eaten locally, and sent now 

 and then to Jacksonville by the fishermen. Jacksonville, however, is supplied chiefly by Cedar 

 Keys and Apalachicola, the latter, in my opinion, sending the best oysters sold in that city. Saint 



* 



Augustine gets her supply from the immediate vicinity, and many parts of the great system of 

 estuaries which extends from the upper end of Indian River down to Bay Biscayne yield edible 

 mollusks of large size and flavor. 



The whok of the lower end of the peninsula on both sides is bordered by tangled, ever- increas- 

 ing, and commercially worthless reefs of small and densly clustered oysters. Among these certain 

 "rocks" have become known which yield a more edible kind, furnishing local markets from Key 

 West to Cedar Keys. At Cedar Keys the sources of supply are Cragin's bars, exposed at low tide, 

 5 miles south of the village, and a still better locality to the northward. The Cedar Keys oysters 

 are usually of large size, have a different taste from anything I have experienced elsewhere, and 

 one which will commend itself to those who like a saltish oyster. 



Apalachicola is favored by the proximity of beds of good oysters, scattered among the hun- 

 dreds of the "coon-reefs" that barricade the shore swamps and impede navigation at the mouths 

 of the rivers, and at Saint Andrew's Bay, where the water is unfresheued by any large influx, 

 oysters lie in beds distributed all over the upper parts of East, North, and West Bays, and 

 are most abundant in the deep and open water. Choctawhatchie Bay, next westward, contains 

 very few oysters, but the large shell heaps there show that formerly they were taken in vast 

 numbers. Now, the few that are got are found scattered over grassy shoals. At Pensacola 

 the banks lie in Escambia Bay, and are scattering and very poorly stocked not so well as 

 formerly. The absence of shell heaps on the adjacent shores show that the Indians did not resort 

 to this for a supply of molluscan food to any extent. The coast of Alabama, Mississippi, and 

 the adjacent part of Louisiana, is bordered by our mollusks, the gathering of which supports a 

 large number of men. The same is true of the western coast of Louisiana, where it may be said 

 that the barricades to the encroachments of the sea erected by the oysters are all that preserve 

 that amphibious region from submergence. 



3. HISTORY OF THE DECLINE OF NATURAL RESOURCES. 



Men went for food, at first, directly to nature, as the lower animals yet do. Afterward they 

 learned to store food materials against future scarcity, and at last attempted to control and 

 increase the supply. By so doing a great improvement was often effected in its quality, its nutri- 

 tive power was increased, and thus far more than a mere augmentation of quantity was gained. 



This is the history not only of agriculture, but of several edible products of the water. Man- 

 kind had eaten mollusks a very long time before anything like their cultivation was thought of in 

 the Old World, while the practice is many centuries more recent in the Now. 



The red men procured their shell-fish by wading out and picking them up at low tide, or by 

 diving. This was mainly the work of the women and children. The shells were opened, ordinarily, 

 by being thrown upon beds of coal, or by being cracked. At Wellfleet, Mass., I dug from a shell 



