518 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



ance against the cutting of sods in and about the town, found it necessary also to enact a law for- 

 bidding ' all persons from continuing to dig or dredge any oyster-sbells on the East River or on 

 the North River, between this city and the fresh water." This "fresh water" was the pond which 

 is now occupied by the leather district of the city, of which Spruce street is the center. 



The digging of shells was for the purpose of making into lime, and also for the purpose of 

 paving the streets (Pearl street received its name from such paving), and in the course of dredg- 

 ing for them great quantities of young living oysters were wasted. 



Up to the beginning of the eighteenth century everybody took advantage of this public 

 storehouse of food without " heed for the morrow." But the fame of Carteret's " great plenty 

 arid easy to take" had spread abroad, and so many aliens sailed into the placid bay to rake upon 

 the " vast banks," that at last the colonists became alarmed for the continuance of their precious 

 supply. Thus it arose that as early as 1715 was passed the first colonial law in relation to oys- 

 ters, calculated to protect the beds and save their speedy extermination. New Jersey co-operated, 

 and in 1730 and again in 1737 the two colonies made stronger and stronger enactments to the same 

 end, which had an immediate and favorable effect. 



Prof. S. S. Lockwood estimates that, including the waters inside of Staten Island, not less 

 than 350 square miles of rich oyster banks were open to the people dwelling about New York 

 Bay at the time of its first settlement. This resource was deemed inexhaustible, and perhaps 

 might have proved so, or at least have longer delayed its decadence, had not incessant removal 

 of oysters been supplemented by the covering up of the beds or the killing of their occupants by 

 impurities in the water, which more and more increased as population grew and civilization 

 advanced upon the neighboring shores. No doubt the clearing away of the forests and the 

 drainage of so many towns and factories have produced an increase of sediment and pollution in 

 the Hudson River, quite sufficient to put an end to most of its more exposed oyster beds, even 

 had they never been touched ; and certainly this is true of the harbor itself. 



NEW JERSEY COAST AND DELAWARE BAY. Moving down the coast of New Jersey a 

 similar decadence of the natural resources we are studying is to be seen. In Baruegat Bay the 

 oyster growing region is at the northern end, and is about 10 miles long by 2 wide, where the 

 bottom is gravelly. These are called the Cedar Creek grounds, and once yielded the famous Log 

 Creek brand. It is one of the great sources for seeding planting-grounds southward, but is 

 steadily declining through heedless treatment. For many years few salable oysters have gone 

 from this district direct to market, because none are permitted to reach adult size. 



All of the sedgy inlets at the mouth of the Mullica River, behind Brigantine, and behind the 

 other beaches southward, contain more or less native oysters, and are the scene of cultivation in 

 a small way by tbe farmers who live near the shore. Great Egg Harbor, River, and Bay, with their 

 tributaries, have long been proverbial for the plenty of their oysters and clams. The oysters for- 

 merly grew in great ridges of astounding fecundity. Incessant tonging by a great number of men 

 through many years has served to spread these reefs, and the oysters are now more thinly dis- 

 persed over a wide extent of bottom. This makes their getting slower and more laborious ; but 

 the conditions are so favorable that probably there is quite as great a supply of young oysters 

 now in these waters as formerly. A like story could be told of Dennis and Cape May, as far 

 around into Delaware Bay as Maurice Cove. 



The oysters of Delaware Bay were prized by the first settlers, and there are frequent allu 

 sions to this resource in the early narratives. The Jersey (eastern) shore is bordered by exten- 

 sive marshes, through which innumerable small creeks find their way from the interior, and which 

 contain many open places called " ponds." Throughout these creeks and ponds, in the tide-ways 



