THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 549 



CHESAPEAKE BAT AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. In respect to Chesapeake Bay and its rivere 

 much has been said already pertaining to this subject, since a very large proportion of the oysters 

 annually gathered there is sold to Northern captains, or to the Eastern Shore and Lynnhaven 

 planters, who go to the tonging grounds in their schooners for the sake of buying seed as soon as 

 it is caught. Nevertheless there is an immense number of bushels of oysters taken in the shell 

 each season to Norfolk, Crisfield, Washington, and Baltimore for immediate consumption, either 

 in the markets, or in packing-houses and canneries as described further on. 



Very strict protective laws have been enacted by both Maryland and Virginia, but the igno- 

 rance and temper of the oystermeu is such that the enforcement of these laws is almost impossible. 

 In 1868 Maryland commissioned an oyster police force, and furnished a steamer and several fast 

 sailing sloops and schooners, each of which carried cannon and small arms. The police-boats 

 were required to be constantly cruising in search of violators of the oyster laws, who, when 

 caught, were taken before a magistrate for trial. Battles with illegal dredgers, who also go well 

 armed, used to be very common, but are becoming less so, as the effect of the police-boats is good, 

 notwithstanding the fact that the laws have never been in satisfactory shape for the operations 

 of the force, and uncertainty, confusion, and positive hinderance in the carrying out of their 

 obvious intentions have often arisen. The dredging licenses, fines, &c., collected exceed the cost 

 of the force by about $25,000 a year ; but the State would find it necessary to maintain this insti- 

 tution should it fail to pay for itself. " Disband the force, and in a few weeks the bay would be 

 a battle ground for tongers and dredgers." 



The chapter in my census monograph upon this region was written by Mr. R. H. Edmonds, a 

 most competent observer, and I present herewith an abridgment of his remarks. After lament- 

 ing that the beds of all Chesapeake Bay are fast being destroyed, he adds : " Dredging in Mary- 

 land is simply a general scramble, carried on in seven hundred boats, manned by fifty-six hun- 

 dred daring and unscrupulous men, who regard neither the laws of God nor man. Some of the 

 captains and a few of the men may be honest and upright, but it is an unfortunate fact that such 

 form a very small minority. * * * It is now rarely the case that a dredger can be found who 

 will admit that he believes there is any wrong in disregarding the oyster laws, and such a thing 

 as being disgraced among his fellow-workmen by imprisonment for violating the laws is totally 

 unknown. In the above facts will be found sufficient reasons why it has been impossible for the 

 oyster police, since its first organization, to enforce the laws. Seven hundred well-manned, fast- 

 sailing boats, scattered over such a large space as the Chesapeake Bay, are rather difficult to watch, 

 and especially at night." 



Mr. Edmonds continues in his hard, but, I believe, entirely just, judgment upon his fellow- 

 citizens, as follows : 



" All blame for violating laws does not, however, attach to the boat-owners, as some of them 

 are prominent gentlemen of the most upright character. It is the misfortune of such men that 

 their captains have often been trained by less honest employers, and having once acquired a love 

 of ill-gotten gain it is difficult to keep them from continuing in the same course. As he usually 

 has a share in the profits, it is of course to his interest to make his trips as quickly as possible; 

 and while the boat-owner may be opposed to breaking any laws his captain may think and act 

 otherwise. 



" The unscrupulousness of the captain is well assisted by the character of his men. These 

 men, taken as a class, form perhaps one of the most depraved bodies of workmen to be found in the 

 country. They are gathered from jails, penitentiaries, work-houses, and the lowest and vilest 

 dens of the city. They are principally whites, many of whom are foreigners (almost every Euro- 



