598 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



the barrel; and if about 1 inches in diameter go by the name of < tea-clams.' It must be remem- 

 bered that thrift and its contrary are as often found among these watermen as in other depart- 

 ments of industry. The man who owns his boat and sells his stock by the ten or twenty thousand 

 at wholesale is a sort of aristocrat compared to those who go down to the shore daily, with a 

 basket, get their somewhat precarious catch, take it home on their backs, open the bivalves, and 

 then peddle the result in a can with a quart measure in the other hand, usually winding up their 

 work by 3 p. m." 



The methods and instruments of clam gathering are simple and easily described. The qua- 

 haugs, left bare at low tide, may sometimes be taken by hand. The Indians, who had no machinery 

 for aiding them, caught them by wading in and feeling for them with their toes, something the 

 early colonists quickly learned to do. Another way was by diving; this was the work of the 

 squaws and the older children, and was, of course, exceedingly laborious. 



The tools at present used are oyster tongs, straight rakes, curved drag-rakes, and dredges. 



The oyster tongs are rarely used for this purpose since the quahaugs do not ordinarily lie 

 thickly enough; but many are caught along with oysters. 



The rake employed at Wellfleet is described by Mr. True as similar in form to an oyster 

 rake, but made of steel instead of iron. " In former days this instrument was of iron, the tips of 

 the teeth only being of steel. An average rake has seventeen teeth and weighs about 12 pounds. 

 The handle or tail is of wood and is about 23 feet long." 



The clam rake in use on the south shore of Long Island is much like a garden rake in shape ; 

 but the teeth or tines are from 6 to 12 inches in length, and only an inch or so apart, while the 

 head of the rake is from 2 to 3 feet across. 



Another form seen in Long Island Sound, New York Bay, &c., has its tines set very closely 

 together and very much curved inward, so that the operator can alternately push and pull with 

 the rake in his swaying boat, and yet cause it to dig down into the sand underneath the clams 

 On the top of the strong pole-handle, therefore, is a cross-piece to give a firm two-handed hold. 

 The man who uses this rake generally goes alone in his small boat. The drag-rake is an exag 

 geratiou of this form, both in the extraordinary curvature of the teeth and in the breadth of the 

 head, which is often 4 feet across. It is generally operated like a dredge, and is rarely used out 

 side of Rhode Island, or even there at present. I fancy it must have been such an instrument as 

 this, which, under the name of " scraper" was in service twenty-five years ago, or more, about 

 New York. I find it described as " furnished with a large number of semi-circular teeth, each of 

 which is as thick as a man's little finger and about 6 inches long. It is thrown over the side of 

 the boat." This account adds, " and when it has sunk into the sand to the required depth, it is 

 drawn along the bottom, and taken up about once every minute, when the clams are extracted 

 from the sand, washed, and thrown into the boat. This is exceedingly laborious work and four 

 or five hours of it in one day is sufficient to use up the stoutest scraper. Tonging clams is even 

 more laborious and straining, but is not so generally pursued." The clam tongs of that day 

 differed from the oyster tongs, we are told,, in having a wider head, 3 feet being the average 

 measurement. Quite opposed to this, we find that the tongs now in use in the Chesapeake Bay 

 differ from oyster tongs chiefly in having a narrower head, which measures only 1 or 1 feet. 



13. IMPORTANCE OF QUAHAUGS FOR FOOD. 



The value of the quahaug among the food-mollusks was recognized long before scientific men 

 gave it a Latin name and census-takers studied its commercial relations. 



The Indians along our whole sea-coast have always been accustomed to eat some sort or 



