548 HISTOEY AND METHODS OF THE FISHEBIES. 



market, is the other and greatest oyster landing-place, mustering about two hundred and five lateen- 

 rigged boats, with six hundred and fifteen men or more in the foreign-looking crews, making a most 

 picturesque scene. The estimate of annual receipts there in 1880 gave 50,000 barrels, or 125,000 

 bushels, sold at $2 to $3.50 per barrel. All of these come from westward of the delta, and being 

 large and fine are, as a rule, bought by the saloons and restaurants, and served to their cus- 

 tomers on the shell. A peculiar feature of the business on the levee consists of an organization of 

 wharfmen, who form a species of close corporation to do the work of carrying the oysters from the 

 boats to the wagon of the purchaser, who pays them 15 cents a barrel for the service. The boat- 

 man having sold his cargo, he then has no further concern, his boat being taken in charge by the 

 carrier, who might be called a 'longshoreman, and who delivers all the oysters, then sweeps the 

 vessel and puts her in proper condition for the crew. While there is no society of these carriers, 

 strictly speaking, they manage to make their business a close corporation, since no one is allowed 

 to discharge a cargo of any kind from the luggers oysters, oranges, or fruit except one of the 

 members of the body. There is a man who is called the foreman, who receives all the money for 

 the carriers and who divides the proceeds equally among the different carriers, but just how this 

 is regulated, as well as many other of the details of this quasi-organization, is kept as mysteriously 

 secret as possible. The body is an old one, and now consists of about fifty men in all, mostly 

 Sicilians and low-grade Italians, and the annual receipts for the carriers amount to about $35,000, 

 levied on the oysters, oranges, melons, and various fruits. The system is beginning to be felt as 

 an unwarranted incubus on the trade, and doubtless it will soon be broken up. 



GULF OF MEXICO TO NORTH CAROLINA. Though there is a planting interest at Mobile, 

 Ala., most of the oysters on sale are of native growth and touged in a part of the bay called the 

 "gully." These are termed " reefers," and are slightly inferior to those artificially grown ; some 

 however, growing separately, and distinguished as " sharpers," from the fact that the ends of their 

 shells are unusually sharp, are of very large size, averaging 8 or 10 inches long, and of superior 

 flavor. " Sharpers " are always in demand, though there is some objection to them on account of 

 their being so hard to open. " Eeefers" and " sharpers" are caught by men who follow no other 

 pursuit, and who are a quite distinct dass from the oyster-boatmen. They have small, fiat-bot- 

 tomed skiffs, of the roughest description, in which they go " a-tonging," two men occupying a boat 

 and taking turns at tonging and culling. As fast as the stock is culled it is placed in shallow 

 oblong boxes, holding one-fourth of a barrel each, and in these measures is sold to the boatmen or 

 carriers at the rate (during the winter of 1880-'81) of 10 cents a " box," or 40 cents a barrel. The 

 carriers having obtained a load for their sail-boats, proceed at once to the city and deliver them 

 to the dealer by whom they are employed to buy or with whom they have contracts. The meas- 

 ure in this transaction is the same box as before, but the price has nearly doubled. 



" If the tide is very low," writes Mr. Silas Stearns, of the neighborhood of Appalachicola, "as 

 is the case during 'northers,' the boat is run aground on an oyster-reef, a gangway plank is 

 placed over the side, and the oysters are picked up by hand and carried aboard in tubs. Oyster- 

 ing in this manner is said to be harder and slower than tonging them." I saw the same thing in 

 lower Florida. Great quantities of these oysters are often spoiled by delay in shipping to the inte- 

 rior, so that the wages of this labor are small. At present the year's trade will not amount to more 

 than $5,000 or $6,000, but it is growing. 



Nothing need be said in respect to marketing methods at other Southern ports, except that in 

 Florida and parts of Georgia wagoners make a business of carting loads of oysters back into the 

 country from the coast, following regular routes on certain days. This custom reappears in North 

 Carolina, but is going slowly out of vogue. 



